Upended
As a pandemic disrupts the nation’s supply chains, Marquette University’s ranked Supply Chain program and its prepared alumni professionals stand resilient in the storm
By Lauren Sieben
At the start of 2020, Kristina Stemper, Bus Ad ’14, had a busy travel schedule as a consulting manager for Accenture, where she works on planning and procurement projects for aerospace and defense clients.
“I was in the middle of a large procurement assessment, which required a lot of hands-on, face-to-face conversations,” Stemper recalls. Every week, she traveled from Connecticut to North Carolina to work with her client — and then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in full force.
“We went from being on-site Monday through Thursday every single week to moving completely virtual,” she says. She and the supply chain team at Accenture needed to adapt quickly.
Her client became “a lot more cost-conscious,” Stemper says, and furloughs at the company threw a wrench in time-sensitive projects.
“Trying to work around their furlough schedules and still meet our client’s needs, we had to be a little more creative,” she says. “Microsoft Teams has been our best friend.”
Tackling design and planning work virtually has its challenges, Stemper says, but it’s doable. “The procurement transformation would drive significant value for our client, their customers and their supply base. With the pandemic’s impact on the industry, we had to prioritize which areas would drive the most value at the quickest pace in the most cost-effective way, all virtually,” Stemper says. “Processes can be more cost-effective to change [than technology]. It’s trying to figure out what sorts of processes could we move forward in enhancing — like streamlining our client’s sourcing strategies, supplier contracts and supplier performance rating system.”
Stemper’s experience reveals how crucial supply chain issues have become to the survival of companies in a world where global challenges such as pandemics and climate change have become part of the business landscape. Marquette’s Supply Chain Management program has not only served its alumni well but has grown and emerged as the perfect place to prepare the next generation of supply chain professionals to handle this demanding future.
Program’s ascent coalesces with peaking need
In March 2020, another Marquette supply chain graduate John Mau, Bus Ad ’14, Grad ’16, had just moved to Boston to start a new role as a plant manager with Rockwell Automation, the company for which he interned as an undergrad. Rockwell’s plant was deemed a critical business, so Mau and his team continued going in during the earliest days of the pandemic.
“You have the technical aspect of running a manufacturing plant, getting product built, and also keeping people safe,” Mau says. His focus shifted from the product to the people — not an unexpected move from this Jesuit-educated leader. “I spent more time asking the questions ‘How are you? How can I help?’ versus ‘Did we get that shipment out? Did we build this product on time?’ ”
In the years since Mau and Stemper were preparing for their demanding supply chain management roles, enrollment in the supply chain major at Marquette has nearly doubled, says Dr. Mark Barratt, chair of the Department of Management and associate professor of supply chain management. Today, about 200 undergraduates are enrolled, plus an additional 26 students in the Online Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program, which launched in 2018. Graduates from both programs have gone on to work for top companies such as Kohler, Amazon, Pfizer and Harley-Davidson.
As enrollment has grown, so too has the program’s national acclaim. The major has jumped in rankings compiled by Gartner Inc., a leading global research and advisory company: In 2020, Gartner ranked Marquette’s undergraduate supply chain program No. 12 in North America (up from No. 16 in 2018), and the online master’s ranked for the first time at No.15.
Supply chain, a household term
Todd Filter, group vice president of supply chain and logistics at Direct Supply, was one of Marquette’s first supply chain graduates in the Class of 2000.
Filter and his team at Direct Supply were acutely affected by the pandemic — Direct Supply provides equipment for nursing homes around the nation.
In March, when the entire country started scrambling for toilet paper, flour and basic supplies, “ ‘Supply chain’ all of a sudden became a household term,” Filter says.
Supply chain professionals worked tirelessly to adjust to the demands. “Everybody got caught a little flat-footed by not having good mitigation plans and not having good redundant sources,” Filter says. “When demand goes up 5,000 percent, what do you do?”
For Direct Supply, the spike in demand meant rethinking its business model. Before the pandemic, it mostly focused on durable equipment, furnishings and technology platforms. “We never got into the gloves and the PPE,” Filter says.
But that changed when the company shifted to focus on crucial safety equipment for nursing home clients that serve a vulnerable population of elderly residents.
By the end of 2020, Direct Supply had shipped 100 million face masks — a massive jump from less than $10,000 in face masks sold in 2019, Filter says.
“We were able to quite literally save lives by being able to get this critical product — not just PPE, but all the infection control and new products — to market,” Filter says.
Those new products included cleaning supplies and temperature-check kiosks. Ultimately, Filter believes the pandemic leaves supply chain professionals better prepared for a future crisis.
“In a way, I think it was a healthy exercise for everybody to go through to be sure you have those plans in place, and you’re prepared for the next time,” he says.
Best-kept secret
At Marquette, the pandemic also required faculty in the Supply Chain Management program to quickly adapt — to deliver course work virtually and to keep material relevant amid an increasingly virtual business world.
But even before COVID-19, the Supply Chain program was uniquely industry-driven, Barratt says. Supply chain students spend less time on textbook theory and more time working on the types of projects they’ll encounter in the workplace, and that includes preparing students to work in increasingly digital environments.
“The transition [to focusing on digital supply chains] had begun before COVID and was really starting to take off,” Barratt says. “COVID has exacerbated the need for a digital supply chain capability.”
In the master’s program, students learn about the relationship between advanced manufacturing techniques and online technology and communication. Courses in blockchain and 3D printing also arm students with the skills to work in a digital setting.
The undergraduate program’s real-world experience also translates into savings for local companies. Through the applied procurement courses held on-site at local businesses, student projects have saved companies like Kohler, GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation more than $21.4 million.
Each undergraduate is also required to complete an internship and course work in Lean Six Sigma, an industry standard approach to continuous improvement and waste reduction.
By the time they graduate, students have already solved business problems and gained experience in multiple facets of the industry, and employers are eager for that experience. The job placement rate for supply chain management graduates is nearly 95 percent.
“The program has been really good about soliciting feedback from the business community in terms of what we want to see in the curriculum,” Filter says. “I used to tell people that Marquette is one of the best-kept secrets in upper Midwest supply chain programs, and well, the secret’s out. Top programs don’t get to fly under the radar like they used to.”
The next generation of supply chain professionals
Mau, who gives back to the university by serving on the Center for Supply Chain Management advisory board, recently launched Coaches Corner, a program in the supply chain major that connects current students to alumni for casual networking and mentoring opportunities.
Mau says the students he’s talked with understand that a supply chain career in a post-pandemic world comes with high expectations, but also with unparalleled opportunities.
“They’re going to walk into a pressure-filled environment, but it’s really satisfying at the end of it, because you are making a difference,” Mau says. “Going through the pandemic right now, it’s reaffirmed that the work I do matters. There’s someone on the other end, whether they need a machine or a piece of equipment. That matters for the consumer.”
