PepsiCo Sponsors Haslam Supply Chain Case Competition

November 10, 2016

PepsiCo Supply Chain CompetitionSix representatives from PepsiCo helped judge an annual supply chain competition at the Haslam College of Business on Friday, November 4. This marked the competition’s fourth year but the first in which PepsiCo sponsored.

The competition is used as a feeder for selecting and preparing students for the national Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA) logistics and supply chain case competition in which Haslam has placed for the last five years. Haslam’s student chapter of the Counsel of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) organized the college-level event.

“This is a fast-paced, real-world problem, with a high level of detail in a team-oriented competition that gives our students a chance to step into the shoes of a consultant and engage with a top company like PepsiCo,” said Grant Taylor, executive officer of Haslam’s CSCMP student chapter and the competition’s main organizer.

Ten teams of three to four Haslam undergraduate students each competed against one another under the tutelage of the college’s MBA students. The chapter’s goal was to give Haslam students an opportunity to examine supply chain problems from a unique perspective and address them creatively.

“They get a chance to apply the concepts, theories and tools they have been learning in class and can better understand the ambiguity of problems experienced in real life as opposed to neatly packaged textbook problems,” said Stephanie Eckerd, assistant professor of supply chain and faculty advisor to the CSCMP chapter.

The case for this year’s competition focused on structuring movement of goods across multiple modes of transportation . Haslam professors helped judge the preliminary rounds but the final assessment was left to PepsiCo’s representatives.

This year’s winning team, the Corporate Gladiators, included John Suddeth, Cameron Dejean, Chris Freimuth and Stroud McMahan, all juniors majoring in supply chain and economics.

PepsiCo Supply Chain Team

Haslam CSCMP officers Tayler Tate, Grant Taylor, Michael Stovall, Sullivan McInturff, Wade Bessell and Emanuel Stupariu organized the event.

PepsiCo Supply Chain Officers

For more information on Haslam’s student chapter of CSCMP visit: http://mscm.bus.utk.edu/CSCMP/CSCMP.asp