Month: September 2023

Students:  I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to discuss something that I believe can significantly enhance our communication and your overall learning experience: syncing your school email accounts to your mobile devices.  Android: Android Outlook App Setup (preferred) (wmich.edu)IOS: iOS Outlook App Setup (preferred) (wmich.edu)IOS Native: iOS Built-in Mail App Setup (wmich.edu) On avg, professionals spend 28% of their workday just reading & writing emails, which amounts to...

Students (see the AI CIS 5550 class below):  https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ai-adoption-by-industry/?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Visualizing+AI+Adoption+by+Industry Red Alert…Notice which majors are the front runners in AI adoption & also have the highest demand for AI talent (Finance and Accounting!).  Also, notice how Production and Supply Chain Management are NOT the front runners in AI adoption & also have the lowest demand for AI talent.  All other majors appear to be in-between (HR is right up there and...

Subject: Negotiating a job offer (i.e., internships & your starting salary)...Note, Negotiation is a problem-solving skill set that every manager needs (and most are very bad at at).  WMU HCOB has a class on this (and it is exceptionally well taught): MKTG 2750 - Global Negotiation (this is now a required class for SCM majors) This course is designed to be a "learning laboratory" for developing negotiation skills. The course will...

Subject: 4 themes - Feedback from Alumni, Delaying graduation, Drugs & if you have a criminal record...  Students: Recent feedback from managers (WMU grads) about WMU students…    Overall WMU students perform significantly better than other schools in Michigan.  Customer service skills – I don’t think that this is touched on much in the program (at least when I was a student), but it is a large part of supply chain...

Students (some of my lecture notes from class):  Typically, buying organizations will use several rounds of the competitive bidding process to pick a low cost supplier. Buying organizations will send out RFQs to get bids from suppliers. RFQ stands for a Request for Quotation. In other words, please give us a quote for this business. Unfortunately, several iterations of the competitive bidding process can be very resource intensive, especially for...

My notes from class (lots of people gone, ugggh)... Students (I lecture fast, but here is a recap of it, I will finish this up next week also): These are basically my notes and transcripts from class lecture.  I would recommend reading forthcoming material slowly and/or multiple times.  It needs to resonate and register with you. My video/podcast explanations are pasted at the end of this email.  However, I think you...

Students: See the one-page financial statement on ROI (same one from class).   See: https://wmich.edu/supplychain/handout Let’s say you just started working for this company and you are a problem-solver that is obsessed with finding ways to do every part of your job better, faster, and cheaper.  Over a six-month period, you work very aggressively to reduce your organization’s direct material purchases/costs by 5%.  For example, you figured out a way to...

Students:  See attached.  It is a little older, but not in the least bit dated.  It is still very spot on.    I actually had a student very recently ask me:  …“if you could please go more in depth about what a Supply Chain Manager actually does on a day-to-day basis. I'm struggling to get an answer on what supply chain management really is inside of the workforce.”  My thoughts: ...