On June 5, 2003, ISyE's Executive Master's in International Logistics (EMIL) program marked the end of its most recent 18-month degree program with the EMIL Capstone Event and "real-time" business case competition. This competition required EMIL participants to envision the leading edge of supply chain management in the year 2015 and how companies could use this knowledge to gain a competitive advantage. EMIL is a master's degree program that helps the world's leading companies develop creative, global logistics solutions by grooming their supply chain executives.

The "Future State of Supply Chain Challenge" gave five teams of EMIL participants two hours to predict the changes that will shape the supply chain more than a decade from now. The case competition served as a "final exam" for the EMIL program, requiring EMIL participants to apply key program learning to real-world business problems. Participants drew on their understanding of significant business drivers, world conditions, cultural concerns, economic conditions, and trends to identify likely future supply chain "pain points" and discern possible solutions. Each team had ten minutes to present their projections to a panel of judges made up of EMIL Advisory Board members including: Daryl Mickley, Bax Global; Jim Kellso, Intel; John Vande Vate, Georgia Tech; Maria Rey, Latin America Logistics Center; Rodger Mullens, Schneider Logistics; Scott Gardner, FEDEX; and Terri Herod, Georgia Tech.

After all the presentations, the judges awarded the EMIL Supply Chain Leadership Award to the team of Jim McCabe, Milliken & Co.; Jonathan Hartman, Ford Motor Co.; John Kehoe, Baxter Healthcare; and Cheryl Martin, U.S. Postal Service.

All the teams addressed the extended supply chain, including procurement, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, consumer management, and reverse logistics, within an international context. The scenarios they developed ranged from extrapolations of current trends to an almost "sci-fi" image of the tomorrow's business world.

The Winning Response

The winning team postulated a future driven by market-savvy consumers, an increased environmental awareness and a focus on quality of life and global wealth. To compete, companies will respond with "real-time" integration marked by instant information transfer throughout the supply chain. This will facilitate increased speed-to-market and product adaptability, resulting in "global transparency on a scale we can only imagine today." Key predictions included:

• Macro-collaboration among corporations and governments, ensuring more efficient and cost-effective supply chains.
  
  
• Emergence of four geographic trading blocks: the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Africas.
  
  
• Global data exchange based on globally established data definitions, creating the data transparency needed for macro-collaboration and increased supply chain speed.
  
  
• A global security plan implemented by the geographic trading blocks to secure the safety of supply chain channels.
  
  
• Automated transportation networks featuring vehicles driven by GPS3, the next generation of GPS.
  
  
• Universal currency to facilitate the ease of information exchange and reduce supply chain complexity.

The other teams presented a range of equally intriguing forecasts about virtually every area of the supply chain. Among the highlights were:

Regionalization & Speed

• Inventory-in-motion as a means to reduce "idle" warehouse inventory.
  
  
• Equalized global labor costs, reducing companies' need to chase lower labor costs.
  
  
• Regionalized logistics providers fed by a small number of intercontinental mega-providers.

IT & Security

• Commoditized IT.
  
  
• Intelligent data mining capabilities to combat data overload.
  
  
• A move to more off-the-shelf software products, achieving balance between customized supply chain software applications and affordable, off-the-shelf applications.
  
  
• Contingency planning & security.

Adaptive/Flexible Supply Chains

• Refocusing of supply chain on "demand" as the key driver.
  
  
• Product individualization expanded to capture customer preferences through customized, personalized solutions.
  
  
• Micro-manufacturing & mass customization.
  
  
• Collaborative planning & execution.
  
  
• Reliance on reverse supply chains with an emphasis on recycling and reuse as resources continue to become scarce.
  
  
• Global-friendly trade policies.

"The team competition was a great opportunity to develop an idea in a short time and present it," said Mark Michaels, an EMIL participant from Kuehne & Nagel. "It gave us the chance to move from knowledge gathering to creative strategic thinking — working quickly and cooperatively."

"This was an excellent program," commented Tracy Flaggs of Ford Motor Company, "causing us to get outside of the month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter environment we live and work in every day."

While some of the forecasts for the supply chain in 2015 may appear extreme, the teams urged us to "look at the speed of events in the last 20 or 30 years." In light of that perspective and the acceleration of change, these ideas may not seem so radical.



• Fall 2003 Engineering Enterprise Table of Contents
• Engineering Enterprise Home Page



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