Pictured above: Students and faculty in the Supply Chain and Logistics Management program visit the CLAAS facility in Omaha.
The College of Business emphasizes real-world application and experience in all programs. There’s no better example of this than faculty and students visiting businesses as part of the bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain and Logistics Management.
These in-person visits were disrupted during the pandemic but resumed in fall 2022. The visits are critical to the students’ overall learning experience, said Rick Pennington, associate professor and program director for the bachelor’s degrees in Supply Chain and Logistics Management and Supply Chain, Transportation and Logistics Management.
“The faculty work hard to bring these experiences to our students through our professional networks,” Pennington said. “These experiences are then used in the classroom to reinforce topics. What better way to reinforce than through real-world experiences?”
Since 2017, students and faculty have visited more than a dozen different regional businesses, including Oriental Trading Company in Omaha, Werner Enterprises in Omaha, CLAAS of Omaha, Kawasaki Motor Manufacturing in Lincoln, and Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont. It’s primarily international students who participate in the off-campus visits.
One student who has benefitted from multiple visits is Xiaoxuan Wang, whose homeland is China. She said by visiting businesses she learns real-world applications to theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom.
“For example, I saw how companies used advanced software tools to manage inventory, track shipments, and optimize routes,” she said. “The tools helped them to operate more efficiently and enabled them to quickly identify and address potential issues before they had a chance to become major problems.”
Another student from China, Hongbo Zhang, said experiencing and learning the supply chain process in-person has been vital to his experience in the program. He singled out a recent visit to NFM.
“I learned about their allocation of furniture from parts, assembly, and sales processes, reducing costs, and giving price options back to customers, which can gain more customers and a wider market,” Zhang said.
The College of Business partnered with NFM to offer an innovative learning experience when in-person visits weren’t possible during the pandemic. They created an interactive video tour of the NFM warehouse so students could still learn in-depth about the retail giant’s supply chain processes. Also during the pandemic, faculty conducted webinars with representatives from professional networking organizations such as the Association for Supply Chain Management and the American Society for Quality.
But there’s still nothing like an in-person visit, Pennington said. He remembers taking similar trips when he was an undergraduate engineering student. The experience was invaluable.
“Even though I had many years of experience in the manufacturing industry, my experience was with a single company. Seeing other companies opened my eyes to new processes that I could apply to my coursework,” he said. “When I was interviewed for a faculty position, one of the key topics I focused on was bringing real-world experiences to students.”