Grainger VIP Impact Report

GRAINGER PROFESSOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

I joined the Wisconsin School of Business faculty in 2006, and in 2016, I became the academic director of the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management. Upon assuming that role, I was also named the Grainger Professor of Supply Chain Management. One significant benefit arising from the financial resources provided by the professorship is that it supports my administrative activities within the center. It allows me to work with the center’s director and assistant director on overall strategy, new program development, and enhancements to our curriculum. During 2023, some examples of those activities included introducing digital badges in supply chain management (available to undergraduate students across campus, providing an introduction to the field and potentially generating increased interest in our master’s degree program), introducing a new required course in our master’s program, developing a new framework for our executive advisory board that emphasizes company engagement, and continuing to support the growth of our bachelor of business administration program. The other benefit of the professorship is the support it provides for my research. This gives me the opportunity to pursue questions spanning a wide range of supply chain management topics, including: • methods for mitigating supply disruption risks • questions arising from new supply chain realities, such as the sharing economy • ways to improve coordination across multiple independent decision makers in a supply chain • the ways in which internal operations can affect customer demand Funds from the professorship are currently enabling me to move into a new general research area focusing on challenges faced by people living in developing parts of

Photo by: Paul L. Newby II

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