W. P. Carey MBA Supply Chain Management Corporate Projects
Corporate projects addressing a broad range of topics within supply chain management,
including sourcing, operations, logistics, and integrated supply chain management.
Overview
As part of the ASU W. P. Carey MBA supply chain management specialization, from
November through April of their second year, project teams of approximately four
students work with a specific company's managers and staff to analyze a supply chain
management problem or opportunity. An ideal project allows the team to take ownership
of the project and provide the company with:
- A thorough analysis of the problem or opportunity
- Potential alternatives for addressing this problem or opportunity
- A recommendation for a preferred alternative
- An implementation plan for the selected alternative
Each project team has a management sponsor at the company for regular communication.
Overall project progress is monitored by faculty members through a series of reports
and presentations.
Value
The projects start up in November and run through April, and project teams consist
of approximately four second-year SCM MBA students. As you may know, we have a top-rated
SCM MBA program at ASU, and these projects are an important part of our requirements
for this program. As you will see from the information posted below, we have conducted
projects with many leading companies, and many of them keep coming back year after
year. The companies find value in the projects, and these projects are an important
way that we prepare our graduates to be able to "hit the ground running" and immediately
contribute to the companies that hire them when they graduate. We have had many
successful projects with companies outside of Arizona, and with good advance planning
the distance is not a hindrance to conducting a successful project. In addition,
these students will have taken nearly all of their MBA and SCM specialization requirements
and all have prior work experience.
Project Proposals
There is no charge for the projects, but you would need to cover any special expenses
(such as travel). A "critical success factor" for projects is to have someone at
your end who is excited about the project and can be a primary contact and project
champion for the student team. That person does not necessarily have to spend a
lot of time on the project, but he or she does need to be readily available to help
the project team if they are having trouble gaining access to necessary information
or people.
The actual project proposal is not due until October 1, but we try to identify potential
sponsors during the summer and then work with them on preparing proposals.
If I can provide further help on this right now, please let me know.
I know that ASU MBA is very interested in having a project with you for this coming
academic year.
Proposals for projects are made using a standard form (links below) and include
basic information needed to evaluate the proposal.
Downloadable Company Project Proposal Form (Word)
MBA Supply Chain Management Corporate Projects PowerPoint Presentation
For further information, please contact by email:
Dr. Mohan Gopalakrishnan
Associate Professor
Department of Supply Chain Management
W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4706
Email:
mohan@asu.edu
Recent Projects
2010-2011 has nine corporate projects underway:
| Sponsoring Company | Project Title |
| Avnet Logistics | International Inbound Freight Cost Reduction |
| Arizona Public Service | New Item Add Process |
| Chevron | Corporate Procurement Interface Strategy |
| Disney Theme Parks and Resorts | TCO of MRO/Indirect Materials Procurement Process |
| J&J | Internal Diversity Best Practices |
| MasterCard | Centralization & Consolidation of Tactical Sourcing & Operational Purchasing: Outsource, In-Source and/or Right Size |
| Shell Oil Products | Improved Materials Management and Control |
| Sun Orchard | Total Landed Cost Analysis of West Coast v. East Coast Operations |
| USAirways | Freight Supplier Scorecard Development |
| US Department of VA | Supply Chain SCOR Project |
Project Archive
Lists of past corporate project sponsors and project titles can be viewed on the
archive page.