Moore School holds Global Supply Chain summit
Story and Photos by John Temple Ligon com

Dr. Hildy Teegen, USC; Dr. Manoj Malhotra, USC; Dr. Sanjay Ahiro, USC; and Dr. Vinod Singhai, Georgia Tech; enjoy the Global Supply Chain summit.

Dr. Manoj Malhotra, chairman of the Moore School's Management Science Department, was host Thursday evening, April 24, and all day Friday for the first annual industry summit at the school's Center for Global Supply Chain and Process Management.

According to Jan Collins of the Moore School, the Center for Global Supply Chain and Process Management began in 2005. Moore School professors and students do consulting projects with Center members (who pay $30,000 to join), helping companies improve their top and bottom line performance through better deployment of existing resources.

As an undergraduate major, Global Supply Chain and Process Management is particularly popular in the world's business schools. Companies may need to deploy their resources more efficiently in order to be more globally competitive.

To quote from the Moore School's mission statement: "The mission of the Moore School's Global Supply Chain & Operations Management (GSCOM) undergraduate program is to produce students with state- of- the- art knowledge and practical applied experiences in twin competencies of (1) operations and business process improvement and (2) global supply chain design, analysis, and improvement."

Merlin Lee, Michelin; Susan Mirdamadi, Denny's Corp.; Dr. Anand Nair, USC; and Jan Collins, USC were at the summit.

The seven companies who are members of the Center are Johnson & Johnson, Palmetto Health Richland, Sonoco, Westinghouse- Toshiba, Pfizer, MeadWestvaco, and Colonial Insurance. The Center's goal is to have a total of 12 to 15 member firms from the manufacturing and service sectors. About 45 representatives of the member companies attended the summit, as did 35 undergraduates and 40 members of the faculty and staff of the Moore School.

Thursday night's dinner at the Summit Club was mostly social, an opportunity to meet and greet and to sit at tables strategically assigned by Dr. Malhotra for the optimum introductions and conversations.

Ronda Chapman of Eaton Corporation

Friday's program at the Marriott included welcome speeches by Dr. Hildy Teegen, dean at the Moore School, and by her deputy dean, Dr. Scott Koerwer.

The plenary speech at the close of lunch was "Supply Chain Risk" by Dr. Vinod Singhai of Georgia Tech.

Dr. Malhotra concluded the summit with some discussion of the plans for next year. A reception followed.

Sarena Burch of Scana