Dr. Stryz
Professional Writing
19 October 2016
The Evolution of Supply Chain Being undeclared places a lot of pressure on a freshman to select a major. Parents are not as understanding of one’s college experience if there is no “goal” in mind. There is even a stigma that students will be lost in their academic studies and may never find what they want to do in college. I however do not believe this to be true. Being undeclared, in my book, allows freshman to explore many different majors and chose a few fields that interest them. While exploring the many fields Michigan State offers, I chose to focus on business, or even more specifically, supply chain management. Even though Michigan State University has the number one program …show more content…
Robert is an Executive Director of SCRC and a professor at North Carolina State University while Dave has had a distinguished career in supply chain working as Chief Purchasing Officer at TRW and Chief Procurement Officer at Honda. Dave’s first claim about supply chain’s history is that, “When I first went into the world of purchasing there, it was not a career. There were no or very few heads of purchasing or procurement or supply management or supply chain management. It was looked at as basically a clerk’s job, and that’s what we did” (Handfield). In this quote Dave is talking about the first few jobs he had in supply chain. There was no real field of study and the jobs it offered were not very professional. The interview session that I attended at the Business College Complex with Judy helps support the previous quote. Judy’s husband who is also a professor at Michigan State states that supply chain was even “invented in 1982” (Judy Interview). He also went on to say that, “Back then there was no supply chain management, just engineers in the field with no experience” (Judy Interview). Having learned these interesting facts about supply chain’s history, I became interested to learn the future of this field of study, especially when it had such a disoriented …show more content…
All companies want faster, more efficient, and consumer friendly ways to transport goods and FedEx is doing just that. As technologies advance, supply chain goes with it. Even though most of the transportation methods will remain the same in the next twenty years, the precision and efficiency of companies will improve immensely through data analysis. Craig Simon, President/CEO of FedEx Supply Chain says that, “The moving pieces necessary to move goods will still primarily be planes, ships, trains and trucks. Not as exotic, perhaps. But it will be with a new level of near-molecular precision. The supply chain of the future won’t look all that different, but in 2033 its visibility will be extraordinary. It will radiate data” (Simon,2013). When Craig refers to “near-molecular precision” and “visibility”, he is talking about the new methods of tracking shipments. Even though FedEx already has implemented personalized control towers, they will also begin to use tiny sensors that allow for real time tracking. With this customization comes new algorithms with much faster speeds for re-routes or the slowing/speeding up of shipments. This however, is only a small piece of what the future of supply chain looks like. With so many emerging companies focused on supply chain, the future seems to be