The’ Supply Chain Experts’ show their expertise
David Leach, Senior Lecturer in Logistics & Supply Chain Management Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:11:00 BST
A student team called ‘The Supply Chain Experts’ have lived up to their name, winning the 2014 University of Huddersfield ‘Fresh Connection’ competition. Fifteen final year student teams, all studying Strategic Supply Chain Management, battled over a four week period to become University champions.
Marketed in the UK by the Huddersfield-based consultancy firm SCALA, the Fresh Connection is a sophisticated supply chain based business simulation game. It revolves around a fictional fruit juice company that is running at a loss and is confronted by a wide range of business problems.
Teams playing the Fresh Connection assume the role of the board of directors and attempt to turn the company around and return it to profit – by making a series of tactical and strategic decisions. The team with the highest Return on Investment ultimately wins.
Each member of the winning team received a trophy and shared £500 prize money, sponsored by multi-national technology firm BorgWarner Turbo Systems, which has a plant in Bradford.
Adam Phillips, Human Resource Generalist at BorgWarner, and himself a veteran of the 2013 UK corporate Fresh Connection competition, presented prizes to winning teams.
Pictured: Adam Phillips (left), presents prize money to ‘The Supply Chain Experts’, Anas Benjelloun, Zee-Shan Sheikh Anwar Rita Zouhdy, Omar Khalid Youssef and Rizgar Qadirzadah
This year’s competition had a nail biting finish. In early rounds, the Supply Chain Experts were out manoeuvred by other teams, but fought on determinedly to establish a strong lead going in to the sixth and final round. Rivals ‘Team Logic’ put in an outstanding performance in the final round, and came within a whisker of winning the competition.
Runners up, ‘Team Logic’ were also treated to a cash prize, with their team winning £250.
Pictured: Adam Phillips (left) with Ben Middleton, Mark Urry, Mushud Haq and Sara Abdelfattah.
‘There was a great competitive spirit to the competition this year – with some really strong performances from the teams’, said David Leach, Senior Lecturer in Logistics & Supply Chain Management. ‘The Fresh Connection is a fantastic way of learning about the importance of cross functional decision making, really helping students understand how a supply chain works and that a decision taken for the benefit of one area can result in negative results elsewhere in the chain’.
The Fresh Connection game is widely seen in the business world as a powerful training tool and the University of Huddersfield was the first in the UK to embed the Fresh Connection into its courses.
The consultancy firm SCALA is delighted that the University of Huddersfield is a UK leader in utilising Fresh Connection as an educational aid.
The firm’s founder and managing director John Perry said: ‘The game provides an interactive and hands-on experience giving the students a real insight into and understanding of aligning business and supply chain strategies, the trade-offs in the supply chain and ultimately the financial impact supply chain decisions have on overall business profitability. It is a real plus to their supply chain and logistics degree modules that helps ensure students are even better prepared for their moves on into the commercial world’.
