BYU Supply Chain Program Ranked in Top 20

PROVO, Utah – Nov 6, 2009 – In a recent article in Supply Chain Management Review, the global supply chain management program at Brigham Young University was ranked 14th by academics and 19th by practitioners — marking BYU's debut on the highly visible list.

"The rise of our supply chain program in rankings is reflective of a number of good things," says Bruce Money, business management department chair. "Our faculty members are delivering excellence in the classroom and in academic journals. Our students are truly top-rate and have won many case competitions. And overall, supply chain recruiters are happy with the end product, our graduates."

As Money points out, BYU supply chain students have made a strong showing at case competitions, such as the FedEx Freight International Graduate Logistics Case Competition. In BYU's first year competing at the FedEx competition, the team placed second, and most recently the BYU team took top honors.

Stephen Jones, second-year MBA student and president of the Graduate Supply Chain Management Association, says the relevancy of the program's course content has been essential for his success outside the classroom. This summer, Jones and four of his classmates were the first BYU supply chain interns at Frito-Lay, where they found ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

"The program's competitive but collaborative atmosphere helped me prepare for my internship experience," Jones says. "The faculty's depth of knowledge and the quality of the classes gave me the framework I needed to be able to go into the company and make a difference."

Practitioners ranked Penn State No. 1; followed by No. 2 Michigan State; No. 3 MIT; No. 4 Georgia Tech; and No. 5 Ohio State. Academics placed Michigan State No. 1; followed by No. 2 Penn State; No. 3 Ohio State; No. 4 University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and No. 5 Arizona State.

The Supply Chain Management Review article, "An Update on the State of Supply Chain Education," was authored by Stanley Fawcett, a BYU professor of supply chain management. He began assessing "the state of supply chain education" in 1995 with an article in the Journal of Business Logistics and followed up with a report in 2005 in Supply Chain Management Review.

To determine the rankings, Fawcett surveyed 102 supply chain academics and 200 supply chain professionals with questions about professional associations, university programs, continuing education and publications. For the university program section, respondents were asked to use various criteria, such as alumni visibility and faculty research contributions, to rate the nation's supply chain programs. Respondents were also asked to rate the importance of each criterion.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.