Journal of Transportation Management

Volume 27 | Issue 1 Article 4

7-1-2016

The automotive industry supply chain casecompetition: A university and industry partnershipTimothy W. ButlerWayne State University, timothy.butler@wayne.edu

John C. TaylorWayne State University, taylorjohn@wayne.edu

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Recommended CitationButler, Timothy W., & Taylor, John C.. (2016). The automotive industry supply chain case competition: A university and industrypartnership. Journal of Transportation Management, 27(1), 21-30. doi: 10.22237/jotm/1467331380

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THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY SUPPLY CHAIN CASE COMPETITION:A UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP

Timothy W. ButlerJohn C. Taylor

Wayne State University

ABSTRACT

The importance of business schools collaborating with industry, and especially local companies, is self-evident. One way that the Global Supply Chain Management Program in the Mike Ilitch School of Businessat Wayne State University has collaborated with General Motors and several major suppliers, and potentialemployers of students, is through an automotive industry supply chain management (SCM) casecompetition. In 2016, the Global Supply Chain Management Program, along with General Motors, willhost the 6th annual General Motors/Wayne State University Supply Chain Case Competition. Supply ChainManagement students from universities around the world travel to Detroit, MI to participate in thecompetition and learn about the global automotive industry. In addition to the competition, students tour anautomotive assembly plant and network with industry executives and young managers. General Motors andother sponsoring companies utilize the competition to recruit top talent for entry level supply chainmanagement positions, and to help with the education of students. Wayne State and its students benefitfrom increased exposure to companies with benefits relating to research, faculty recruiting, placement ofstudents, and general development of the Wayne State SCM brand name. This article discusses the natureof the competition and the competitors, issues involved in producing such an event, the costs, and otherbenefits and challenges related to hosting such a competition.

INTRODUCTION

In early 2011, faculty from the Global Supply ChainProgram at the Mike Ilitch School of Businesspresented General Motors with a proposal for acase competition that would bring students frombetween 10 and 20 universities to Detroit to learnabout the automotive industry and about careeropportunities in the field. General Motorsexecutives realized the benefit of the competition,and worked with Wayne State to help the universitysecure additional sponsors. Each of these suppliers;Delphi, Lear, and Ryder; has significant operationalinterests in Detroit. Since 2011, the GeneralMotors/Wayne State Supply Chain CaseCompetition has expanded to as many as 23universities spanning the globe. In 2015,international universities participating in thecompetition were Wuhan University (China),Monterrey Technological University (Mexico), andthe International University of Logistics andTransport in Wroclaw (Poland). United Statesuniversities participating in the competition ranged

from Rutgers University in the east to Weber StateUniversity in the west. See Table 1 for the completelist of universities participating in 2015.

In this article we the discuss the nature of thecompetition and the competitors, othercompetitions, issues involved in producing such anevent, the costs, and other benefits and challengesrelated to hosting such a competition.

OTHER CASE COMPETITIONSThere are many business competitions offeredaround the world, and a good number focusing onsupply chain management.

One of the oldest supply chain managementcompetitions currently existing is “OperationStimulus”, held by the Denver Transportation Clubof Denver, CO (Operation Stimulus, 2016). TheOperation Stimulus Case Competition began in1992, and approximately sixteen schools compete.The students receive the case about a month priorto the event. Universities are divided into four

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groups of schools – which are called “regionals”.The four schools in each regional compete againsteach other by analyzing and solving a “real world”supply chain case and presenting their case analysisto industry executives. Students receive the caseapproximately one month prior to the competition toanalyze and prepare the presentation. One winneris selected from each regional and the finals are heldthe next day with a slight modification to the case,which they call a “twist”. The twist is a disruptionsuch as a storm or strike or government regulationthat disrupts the current system. The twist testswhich team of students can respond to uncertaintyand how robust the initial proposal is to uncertainty.Judges evaluate the student’s presentations andmake a determination of the winner.

An alternative approach to a competition, hosted bythe Broad Business School of Michigan State

University, is a simulation game where teams ofstudents make operational decisions for businesseswhich are in competition with other businesses in thesimulation game (Bowersox, 2016). Thiscompetition is held for MBA and undergraduatestudents, though they attend the competition duringdifferent weeks in October. Unlike casecompetitions, the teams accrue points in thesimulation game and the winner is determined by thefinal accumulated game points.

The Big Ten Supply Chain Case Competition heldat Rutgers University hosts undergraduates andMBAs together during March (Big Ten, 2016). Theundergraduates and MBAs compete separately, asthey do at the Michigan State Simulation challenge,although they attend at the same time. Teamsreceive the case about one week prior to the eventto prepare their presentations.

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Other notable case competitions (National, 2016)are at Arizona State, at Ohio State University, theUniversity of Minnesota, Weber State University(Weber State, 2016), and at Pennsylvania StateUniversity.

OBJECTIVES, IMPACT ANDDIFFERENTIATION

In order to secure support from businesses for thecase competition, the purpose and expectedbenefits needed to be spelled out to them. Goalsfor Wayne State – the host university, supportingbusinesses and the city of Detroit were identified asfollows:

For WSU - The goal of the Global SupplyChain Management Program at the Schoolof Business Administration is to becomerecognized as one of the top Supply ChainPrograms in the United States. TheProgram is focusing on complexmanufacturing and the automotive industry inparticular as a major target market, and istrying to differentiate its program withofferings that uniquely cater to this type ofindustry. The competition is one of theinitiatives that we are undertaking to give usthe exposure and prominence to help usachieve that goal. The Global Supply ChainProgram has made unique and strongconnections and relationships with GeneralMotors and the other supplier sponsors.This aids in placing students in jobs and ininitiating other joint programs, such as visitsto facilities in foreign countries for our studyabroad students. The competition has beenone major factor in helping the Wayne StateGlobal SCM Program grow to a size of 450undergrad majors, and 215 MBA SCMConcentrators, with 8 full time SCM faculty,many of whom have automotive experienceand/or undergrad engineering degrees.

For WSU and Supporting Businesses - Agoal of this competition is to build strongerrelations between the School of Businessand Southeast Michigan businesses.

Executives from regional businesses willparticipate in the competition as judges andnetwork contacts.

For WSU Students - The Goal for studentsis to showcase WSU Supply ChainManagement students with majorbusinesses, and to help develop internshipand full time position placements.

For General Motors and Supplier SponsorsThe goal for Detroit regional businesses is tonetwork with top students from across theUnited States. They will have a captiveaudience of top SCM business talent.General Motors and sponsoring suppliersinterview students for internships and fulltime jobs.

For Detroit — Students from all over NorthAmerica and the world have heard aboutDetroit’s problems and circumstances. Thiscompetition allows students and faculty tovisit Detroit and see for themselves thepositive opportunities and lifestyle offeredby Detroit and Southeast Michigan.

o Students will stay at the MarriottRenaissance Center in downtownDetroit. The Hotel has a beautifulvista of the City, the Detroit River,Canada across the river, and LakeSt. Clair. They can ride the PeopleMover to Comerica Park for aTiger game or go to the Greektownarea of restaurants and nightclubs.This area is in the heart of the onlydowntown in the country with asoon to be four professional sportsfacilities (Detroit Tigers, Pistons,Lions and Red Wings) within a fewblocks of each other with prospectsfor a fifth stadium for major leaguesoccer.

o Students will be taken to The HenryFord (or another top venue) to seeone of America’s most unique andspectacular museums focused onthe Industrial Revolution, the brad

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vehicle industry, and of course theautomotive industry.

o A grand finale dinner will be hostedon one of the cruise boats on theDetroit River.

For Visiting University Students - Studentswill have the opportunity to network withpeers from universities around the UnitedStates and to network with top executivesfrom sponsoring businesses. Both studentsand businesses will be benefitted in severalways, such as:

o Improving their understanding of theglobal auto motive industry, andlearning more about SCM as itrelated to this industry.

o Students will be able to benchmarktheir abilities and academic progresswith top students from otheruniversities. In the Finals of thecompetition, all students will beattending and see the presentationand analysis of the finalist schools.

o Students will have the opportunityto meet with executives in aninformal environment and discussbusiness issues and what life is likeas a supply chain professional.

o Business executives will have accessto interview the top supply chainstudents from around the country —an outstanding opportunity to recruitthe best talent.

o Students will learn a great dealabout supply chains in complexmanufacturing environments andabout the tradeoffs and issuesinvolved in running these supplychains. The case will also help themimprove their teamwork and abilityto work together on a complexproblem.

While there are many SCM competitions,this one is differentiated from the others inseveral ways. First, this competition hasintense industry backing, both in terms ofinvolvement in writing the case and in terms

of the industry focus of the case, and thevery major financial support across fivecompanies in the tens and tens of thousandsof dollars. It is also important to note thatthe case is one of the only ones in thecountry that relates to complexmanufacturing, and more specifically theauto industry. Other competitions are not asfocused on a specific industry. Complexmanufacturing SCM issues are very differentthan those found in most industries, in thatcomplex manufacturing involves moreintense purchasing relationships leading toinnovation from suppliers, more supplierdevelopment, complex quality issues, moreglobal flows of components, and logisticsflows that are inbound to a few assemblyplants as opposed to flows that are fromone plant to hundreds of thousands ofretailers. This competition is also unique inthat it deals with multiple functional areasacross the broad reach of SCM, asopposed to focusing on just purchasing,operations, or logistics.

Secondly, this case competition is unique inits global nature. The actual case dealswith very critical global sourcing andlogistics issues every year. The case also isunique in drawing students from schoolsaround the world. For instance, in the lasttwo years this competition has drawnschools from China, Poland, Mexico, andBrazil. In fact, this competition led to GMBrazil organizing its own similar competitionfor a number of Brazilian SCM programs,with the winner coming to our competition inDetroit. The number of students fromaround the world is an outstandingexperience for both the foreign and U.S.students.

The sheer size of this competition alsomakes it unique. With 23 schools it is thelargest competition in the world to the bestof our knowledge. Given 4 students perschool, and one faculty member, we havesome 115 participants each year, and have

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served approximately 500 students sinceour first year. The size of the program alsomakes this competition the most stronglyfunded of any SCM competition in theworld. Unlike most competitions, theschools at this event need to pay just theirtransportation costs, with our sponsorspaying for hotel rooms, meals, buses,events, and the like.

Fourth, we believe this competition is uniquein providing students with unparalleledopportunities to interview with Fortune 500firms. For instance every student has anopportunity to interview with GeneralMotors, one of the largest firms in theworld, one of the most global, and one ofthe most high tech in the world.

THE CASE COMPETITION

Business students are presented a casedeveloped by experienced and high levelautomotive industry purchasing and supplychain executives. This “real world” case hasbreadth and depth that will challenge theparticipating students on many levels, suchas:

o Advanced technology - in thisdynamic world, today’s advancedtechnology can be obsoletetomorrow. Students grapple withthe economic risks associated withadvanced technology.

o Green supply chain - students areconfronted with consumer’sdemand for economically efficientbusiness processes and theeconomic benefits and challenges ofa green supply chain.

o Globalization - students will examinesourcing issues and choices relatedto domestic or global sourcing.Students may need to considerNAFTA or CAFTA or other U.S.trade agreements in their analysis.Students must understand rules,culture and trade-offs for

conducting business in Asia,Europe, or Latin America versussourcing domestically. Transportcosts, production costs, culture,laws, and currency risk togetherpose enormous threat andopportunity for supply chainmanagers. This dimension of thecase has become more importanttoday, and will potentially grow inimportance if trade restrictions areincreased and multinational tradeblocks are eliminated. Suchbarriers to trade will increase thecomplexity of the issues and needfor analysis. The case will need toreflect these types of issues goingforward.

o Production and Logistics - studentswill be required to evaluatealternatives, and make theappropriate decision based on shortterm and long term benefits. Theywill make decisions regarding shortterm vs. long term issues regardingquality, plant location, start ofproduction, and production ramp-up. They will be required to make apresentation to a judging panelcomposed of business executives ontheir recommendation.

While a variety of topics and issues areincorporated into the case and there are manypossible answers, there is no one “right answer.”The winning case presentation must provide asupportable numerical solution, but also address avariety of “soft” issues. Overall, the assumptionsmade must be defensible, and the proposed solutionmust make sense to the panel of industry judges. Inaddition, the winning team must be able to “sell theproposal,” just like in the real world. So the winningteam can be hard to select, and often there are justsmall differences between the teams at the regionallevel and in the overall finals competition.

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BUDGET

The General Motors / Wayne State Supply ChainCase Competition is a four day event with studentsarriving on Thursday afternoon and departing onSunday morning. The sponsors of the GM / WSUCase Competition cover the charges for the hotelrooms for all the teams. That would be three (3)rooms for each school for three evenings (See Table3 for budget layout for 16 team competition from2011) which totaled approximately $79,000. Twoadditional rooms per night are reserved for WSUuniversity staff that stay at the hotel during thecompetition. Competition rooms for holding thecase presentation must also be rented - on Fridayfour rooms host the competition with judges and asmall audience. On Saturday, one large room forthe “Finals” must be rented plus a holding room forthe competitors. The competition room rent totaled$800. Note that in more recent years thecompetition has been expanded to as many as 23teams.

As noted earlier, during 2015 and 2016 thecompetition became a global one with the additionof teams from China, Brazil, Mexico and Polandacross those two years. The foreign teams arebrought in 3 nights early to allow them to adjust totime differences. This of course results in additionalroom, meal and other costs for these teams but theglobal nature of the competition is thought to be wellworth the additional cost.

Bus “coaches” are rented to transport the studentsto business and cultural activities. 100 participantswere budgeted for every activity to account for allstudents (16 universities), advisors, judges,sponsors, and other guests of the competition. OnFriday of the 2011 competition, after the “regional”presentations and lunch, coaches transportedstudents and their advisors to the Detroit-Hamtrammck Assembly Plant. On Saturdaymorning of the first competition in 2011, Coachestransported students and advisors to the HenryFord Museum in Dearborn, MI. The cost of thesecoaches was $2800 and tickets to the Henry Fordmuseum totaled $2,000.

CHALLENGESThe hosting and organization of a collegiate casecompetition entails its share of complexities. Belowis a summary of many complexities that challengethe hosting of a case competition.The General Motors / Wayne State Competition isheld in late September / early October for a numberof reasons including:

Timingo Start of school / Exams - for a case

presented to students prior to thecompetition, there must be time forparticipating advisors to assemble ateam and for the team to preparetheir solution and presentation.Hosting a competition in early fallavoids major exams, but since manystudents are out of touch during thesummer, assembling a team ischallenging. Also, students havecampus extracurricular activities thatcompete with case competitions(e.g. football season). Later in thesemester, important classassignments are due (midterms),and later, final exams are a concern.The GM/WSU competition, in earlyOctober, allows students to getsettled in classes, but preceeds(hopefully) major assignments andexams.

o Weather - Fall weather in Michiganis arguably the best season of theyear for our region. Later inOctober gets cold, and March /April can be very unpredictable.

o Conflicts with AcademicConferences - academicconferences occur throughout theyear and faculty must attend thoseto remain current on research andteaching, and maintain networkingcontacts for research. Twoconferences that occur near the timeof the GM/WSU conference areCouncil of Supply ChainManagement Professionals(CSCMP) and American

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Production and Inventory ControlSociety (APICS).

o Conflicts with other CaseCompetitions - this is not presentlya serious challenge, as othercompetitions are not scheduled asearly in the academic year as ours.Our competition, being specializedin automotive supply chain, willlikely attract schools with interest inthat area. Also, our competition isinexpensive in that the sponsors payfor the hotel, meals, and activities asopposed to other competition,where schools must pay for roomsand activities.

o Conflicts with Detroit events -possible challenges are Lions

football games and Detroit Tigersgames, causing hotel rooms to be inhigh demand.

oOther challenges relate to tam size and casedevelopment as follows:

Team Sizeo Competitions range team sizes

between 3 and 4. The team size forthe GM / WSU competition is four.Ideally, two male students and twofemale students represent eachschool, and then the hotel roomscan be shared by two students.Occasionally teams come with threemales or three females and one ofthe other gender. Sometimes allfour team members are the samegender.

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Immigration Restrictionso Given the number of foreign teams

the recent trend towards nationalismand restrictions on the free flow ofpeople and goods presents achallenge. This challenge can beseen in the already complex issuesinvolved in getting foreign teamsvisas in time to attend thecompetition. These overseas teamsmay have students not just fromtheir home country but from severalother countries as well. In additionto the foreign teams, many of theU.S. based universities may haveforeign born students on a team andthey may be nervous abouttravelling through airports andsubjecting themselves to intrusivequestioning and searches.

Case Development and Publicationo For the General Motors / Wayne

State Competition, the case isfictional, yet based on an actual orpotential problem. The case mustbe composed, edited, solved, anddelivered to the studentsapproximately one month prior tothe competition. General Motorssupply chain managers write thecase with the assistance of WayneState faculty. The case must also bedistributed to judges who need toread and understand the case. As apart of judge training, notes andguidelines are provided to them(think Cliff Notes), in order to givethem a notion of what generalanswers are expected from thecompetitors.

oWhile these challenges have presented a numberproblems, so far the sponsors and Wayne Statehave been able to overcome the potential obstacles.One of the biggest issues has been when to hold thecompetition. Determining the date requires jugglingissues related to weather in Michigan in the Fall, the

short time between the return to classes (especiallyfor east coast schools) and the date when the casegoes out to students a month in advance of thecompetition date, other case competitions, andvarious professional association meetings in the Fallsuch as CSCMP. That is not to mention otherissues such as the availability of the hotel, plantoperations related to holding a tour, and availabilityof the various rooms and reception facilities.However, by planning carefully every year, andworking early with schools to make sure they are ontop of the competition dates, we have been able tocome up with a viable date for the vent. Sayingthat, the weather can be a bigger challenge!

One of the other critical issues Other issues involvescase development. This is a joint effort by WayneState, GM and the other sponsors. The casepreparation begins months in advance. A large teamof GM personnel lead the case development, from awide range of functions, so developing a case that isunderstandable, solvable, and not to hard or tooeasy is a difficult challenge. But again, by havingmultiple reviews and working together we believewe have achieved a good balance. Another issue isthat we must and do create a firewall between theWayne State case administration team, and theWayne State faculty/students that are participatingas one of the teams. This is of course necessary tomake sure the Wayne State does not have an unfairadvantage. We believe we have achieved this byreally keeping the Wayne State team facultymember picking and overseeing our team from anyinformation whatsoever about the case.

CONCLUSSIONS

Bill Hurles, former Executive Director of SupplyChain for General Motors and GM’s Champion forthe Case Competition has stated that “The WSU/GM Supply Chain Case Competition, now in its 6th

year, has been an incredible opportunity to helpchallenge Supply Chain Students with real businesssituations requiring teamwork, rapid research, andpresentation skills. It helps expose them to theAutomotive Industry and complexities of managing afast paced global supply chain enterprise. Theformat of the competition also broadens each

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participant’s network to industry leaders and fellowstudents, while also touring one of GM’s mostcomplex automotive assembly plants and time forfun/relaxation in Detroit’s growing downtown district[8].”

REFERENCES

Big 10 plus Supply Chain Case Competition – http://www.business.rutgers.edu/case-competitions/scm-ten-plus - 2016.

Bowersox Supply Chain Challenge,https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjsjKKQ2P3NAhUlxYMKHbMUAosQFgghMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbroad.msu.edu%2F2012%2F10%2F30%2Fmsu-holds-third-annual-bowersox-graduate-supply-chain-challenge%2F&usg=AFQjCNGUgAxrovDKSZTlZyQ8Qxu6L1N18w&sig2=SxNePYBrE8Knwzhm3PbHCA&bvm=bv.127178174,d.amc – 2016.

General Motors / Wayne State University SupplyChain Case Competition http://ilitchbusiness.wayne.edu/supply-chain-case-competition.php - 2016.

Hurles, William - 2016 Personal Communication –2016.

IANA Logistics and Supply Chain ManagementCase Competition http://www.intermodal.org/about/competition.php - 2016.

National Undergraduate Supply Chain CaseCompetition Fall Series.https://asuscma.org/nationalcasecomp/ - 2016.

National Undergraduate Supply Chain andOperations Case Competitionhttps://carlsonschool.umn.edu/degrees/supply-chain-operations-department/events/national-undergraduate-supply-chain-and - 2016.

Operations Stimulus: http://www.operationstimulus.org/ - 2016.Sam M. Walton College of Business InternationalGraduate Logistics Case Competition. https://https://www.google.com/webhp?nord=1#nord=1&q=sam+m+walton+college+of+business+international+graduate+logistics+case+competition – 2016.

Weber State University Supply Chain CaseCompetition http://www.weber.edu/WSUToday/021816_SupplyChainComp.html - 2016.

BIOGRAPHYTimothy W. Butler is an Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Department ofMarketing and Supply Chain Management, at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State Universityin Detroit, Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. in Operations from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Butlerteaches operations management, supply chain management, management science, decision tools, statistics,and lean management. His research focus is on automotive industry supply chain performance, health care,and in examining process operations, efficiency, and operations strategy. Dr. Butler’s research hasappeared in the Journal of Operations Management, European Journal of Operational Research,Journal of the Operational Research Society, Decision Sciences, and other notable journals. E-Mail:timothy.butler@wayne.edu

John C. Taylor is Chair of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the Mike IlitchSchool of Business at Wayne State University. He holds a Ph.D. in marketing and Logistics from MichiganState University. His research focus is on automotive industry supply chain management. He also hasconducted numerous research reports on a variety of transportation policy issues. E-Mail:taylorjohn@wayne.edu