CONESTOGA COLLEGE
Students win top prize in supply chain management competition

A team of Conestoga students won second place in a case-study competition hosted by the Toronto chapter of the Association of Supply Chain Management (ASCM), competing with MBA students from two universities and six other colleges.

The annual event held October 26 at the George Brown College campus in downtown Toronto challenged students to apply their knowledge to a real-world situation and then present their solution to a panel of judges.

Conestoga's winning team included David Brohm, Mehul Nagaram Choudhary and Samuel Harding, all students in the Supply Chain and Operations Management program, and Kamesh Goutham Balasubramanian, in the Supply Chain Management - Global program.

This competition was far more intense anything the four had tackled before.

"Every member on our team has taken part in case study analysis, reports and presentations during our course work, but I can easily say that the competition case study was a magnitude more intense than what we have encountered previously," Harding said.

The students' performance during the daunting challenge impressed Professor Nouman Siddiqui, program co-ordinator for Supply Chain and Operations Management and Purchasing programs.

"The students worked in a very time-constrained, high-stress environment, dealing with lots of data and variables to decide on a solution," Siddiqui said. "They worked very well as a team to divide the tasks such that they could present solutions to the judges."

Teams were given the case-study information about 36 hours before, followed by the specific competition questions on the morning of the competition. Then they had 3.5 hours to come up with a solution based on the company's financial data, information about company culture and management style, attrition rates and inventory performance data. That fast-paced work culminated in an eight-minute presentation on their recommendations, on which they answered questions from the judges.

"The judges came from the industry and asked very technical questions. Students in our group showed a lot of confidence and honesty in answering the questions," Siddiqui said.

Tackling the case study with such limited time, the students focused on areas where they could employ the tools and techniques they've learned in their programs. And the time went by quickly, Harding said.

"Even with as much preparation as we did, the 3.5 hour time limit didn't allow us to explore every solvable issue we had identified and so we did our best to play to our strengths and come up with case solutions that we could justify using the data analysis techniques we've learned here at the college."

Presenting their solution was where the students really got to shine.

"Our actual presentation to the judges was easily where we were at our most confident and comfortable and that was the situation where we stood out. The presentation feedback from the judges couldn't have been any more positive," Harding said.

The Conestoga team was pleased to make it through the competition, but then came the day's biggest thrill came when the winners were announced and they were awarded second prize. "The team was absolutely floored."

The supply chain sector is critically important to Canada's economy. The sector employs about 870,000 Canadians, accounts for an estimated $500 billion in total export goods from Canada, and is responsible for planning, co-ordinating and moving more than $1 trillion worth of goods each year. Forecasts project more than 27,000 supply chain positions in Canada sit unfilled, and another estimated 66,000 openings in the foreseeable future.

The Supply Chain and Operations Management program will help students prepare for successful careers in the growing, dynamic and underserved field of supply chain management. This program takes a hands-on, project-oriented approach and provides students with opportunities to work with current business and industry partners.

The Supply Chain Management - Global program prepares students for careers in the fields of logistics, procurement, supply chain and operations. Through extensive practical learning activities, students enhance their knowledge of supply chain concepts applicable to a variety of sectors.

Both programs are delivered by the School of Business.