by Steve Arvis, Sr. Solution Consultant at GAINS
At GAINSystems , we love seeing our supply chain planning solution amaze and inspire supply chain leaders, including students just entering the field. That’s why we recently co-sponsored a case study competition with SAP, GAINS customer Sysmex, and the CSCMP Chicago Roundtable .
GAINS partners with CSCMP to inspire supply chain management professionals and leading practitioners to build and exchange ideas through opportunities like this recent event.
The competition was fierce, involving graduate students from DePaul University, Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and Michigan State. This September, the teams had their sights set on the all-expenses-paid trip to the CSCMP Edge Conference in Nashville and more than $5,000 in prizes.
Real-life simulations, powered by GAINS
Each team had to mitigate the impact of supply variability and disruptions on Sysmex ’s business, simulating the global supply chain fluctuations caused by the COVID pandemic. The students were given a fictional budget for Sysmex , a leading diagnostics solutions company, and tasked to recommend a plan to purchase a mix of products to balance customer service levels, varying vendor lead times, and stocking costs.
With only 48 hours to complete the competition, future supply chain leaders used the GAINS supply chain planning platform to simulate numerous scenarios. They had to quickly review the tradeoffs of various options and decide what SKUs should be sourced from which location while determining target stocking levels and product mix.
Congratulations to the future supply chain leaders at Michigan State!
The competing teams submitted presentations virtually, and the top two finalists from Purdue and Michigan State presented at the CSCMP Chicago Annual Seminar earlier this month. All the teams did an excellent job presenting their findings and recommendations — especially the winning team from Michigan State!
Want to learn why supply chain leaders trust GAINS for their supply chain planning? Talk with one of our experts today.
