Wright State University offers supply chain degrees

Filed in archive News on January 7, 2006

Wright State's Raj Soin College of Business on Friday handed out its first master's of science degrees in logistics and supply chain management. Vikram Sethi, chairman of the college's information systems and operations management department, said the new program meets a specific need identified by corporate advisers.

"We are the logistics center (of the Dayton region, OH), yet we had no advanced degree" in the subject, he said Friday.

Sethi said the college assembled a board of 34 corporate advisers more than a year ago to identify regional business needs for advanced education programs.

"This program rose to the top of the list," he said.



The result was a one-year program that's distinct from other master's programs in several ways.

One difference is that its students are executives from companies that sponsor their participation. Another is that it replaces the traditional master's thesis with a corporate project geared to meet a specific company need.

Wright State claims the 24 members of its 2005 cohort group � the first round of graduates from this program � will save their employers $12 million through their projects.

In fact, the university claims the program is guaranteed to save the sponsoring company at least $4 for every $1 it spends on tuition.

Peter Hager, city of Dayton purchasing agent, said he will save the city more than $93,000 as a result of a project that found ways to trim the size of Dayton's vehicle fleet.

He said his project found many city pool cars were underused.

"We're able to put off acquisitions (of some replacement vehicles) by redeploying some (pool) vehicles," he said.

Hager said no city employee will lose the use of a vehicle because of his master's program.

Mike Werneke and Jay Barber, transportation specialists in the Air Force Materiel Command's logistics group, said their project to streamline the use of shipping address codes is already saving taxpayers money.

Setting up new address codes in the military system � one used throughout the Defense Department � was "a real manual system and we turned it into a streamlined process," Barber said.

Werneke said Brig. Gen. Gary McCoy, AFMC's director of logistics and sustainment and a member of the college department's executive council, supported the program and made it available within the command.

Eleven graduates are Air Force civilians, and more work for local military contractors.

The Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson has the postgraduate School of Systems and Logistics. Sethi said his department coordinates its programs with AFIT, but he said the new logistics program is more tightly focused on applied education.

Source: Dayton Daily News