Smith School Works to Solve Supply Chain Challenges with New Book and Practitioner Roundtable

College Park, Md. – Oct. 6, 2010 – The Supply Chain Management Center at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is bringing together top industry and government leaders to address inefficiencies in today’s supply chain and come up with innovative ways to manage risk. The center spearheaded a recently released book, “X-Treme Supply Chain Management: A Guide to Mastering Business Volatility,” and yesterday hosted an executive roundtable discussion among senior government and business leaders on the implications of the global economic crisis for supply chain management.

“With constant change, economic challenges and the havoc that events such as Gulf oil spills, natural disasters and terrorist threats can create, old models of balancing supply and demand are no longer effective,” said Sandor Boyson, research professor and co-director of the Supply Chain Management Center at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. “It is critical that industry and government leaders work together to address extreme business volatility issues in the global supply chain and we are happy we can provide the thought leadership to help guide some of those conversations.”

Leaders from the U.S. Department of Transportation, NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, National Institutes of Health and other organizations met to discuss supply chain management at the Smith School’s classroom space in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The event was co-sponsored by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and government consulting firm LMI. The discussion centered around some of the book’s key findings and how executives can re-think the management of supply chains in the current volatile business climate with risk from global economic pressures.

Edited by Boyson, center co-director Professor Thomas Corsi and senior fellow Lisa Harrington, the book is a collaboration with CSCMP and co-contributors from some of the industry’s leading corporations and organizations. The book also includes a companion tool kit, developed by Smith’s Supply Chain Management Center and Interactive Learning Solutions Inc., that provides practitioners with simulations and spreadsheets to manage volatility in their supply chains. Sterling Commerce, an IBM company, is the project’s technology sponsor and a co-contributor. Published by Routledge, the book was introduced on the West Coast last week at CSCMP’s annual global conference in San Diego.

“CSCMP’s goal is to provide a forum to help supply chain professionals from around the world stay current on trends, best practices and thought leadership in their fields,” said Rick Blasgen, president and CEO of CSCMP. “By tackling the challenges of volatility, this book not only supports this goal, but addresses issues that will be top-of-mind for corporate leadership for years to come.”

The Smith School’s Supply Chain Management Center provides research, consulting services and education highlighting the latest advances in e-supply chain management. The school also offers a range of supply chain management academic courses. The Smith School’s logistics, transportation and supply chain management program is consistently recognized among the best business school programs in the country. U.S. News & World Report ranked the undergraduate program No. 8 and the MBA program No. 15 in the United States in 2010. The Smith School is launching a master’s of business in supply chain program in fall 2011. Smith’s supply chain management curriculum incorporates all aspects of the industry, including expanding global networks and cutting-edge technology.