“What
are you trying to sell?”
That was the question the business teacher at my local high school asked me on the phone, midway through my explanation of why I had emailed her earlier in the day.
I’m not trying to sell anything, I told her, I’m just a parent who’s interested in knowing what, if anything, is being taught at the school about supply chain management, and I’d like to start a conversation about how the curriculum could be enhanced.
She had never heard of supply chain management. She asked me for proof and data that this was indeed an important business topic. And besides, what could she do anyway when the city is eliminating ten high school faculty positions and a dozen programs next year to close a $4.4 million budget gap?
Yes, reality bites.
*****
I received many emails last month in response to my posting about bringing supply chain and logistics down to the high school level (see “A Farm System for Supply Chain and Logistics: Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders”). Most people agreed that making high school students aware of this profession is a good idea. For example, here is an excerpt from one of the emails:
There is a real need to make and present “Supply Chain and Logistics” as a very hot, interesting topic and make it relevant to students in school. I would not have thought that all the summer camps we spent growing produce [were] elements of the SCOR model. We definitely planned when to grow, we sourced it at harvest time, and we took it home and delivered it to our mom to manufacture a JIT meal. The Skinny Jeans kids favor today have a process on how they arrive on the shelf at the local mall. The latest Nike shoe everyone is wearing or craving for has a supply chain story about how it shows up at Foot Locker. Even McDonald’s, Burger King, or the movie theater has a supply chain story, [and so does] the phone [students] are using to text a thousand messages.
In line with the “baseball farm system” concept, other readers felt that focusing on vocational schools or junior/community colleges was equally, if not more, important. Here is an excerpt from a posted comment:
To me, the time to win [students] over is as sophomores or at the junior/community colleges. Students who have a good educational foundation are better prepared to think about careers that will let them excel at areas where they have both strength and interest. Some of the best high school students attend community colleges because they can’t afford the price of the major universities and want to knock out their core curriculum at a more reasonable total cost. If the strong supply chain universities target getting the best community college students to complete their degrees in our field, I think everyone wins.
And another comment sent via email:
When I think about when I started with the Kellogg Company, there are several jobs that come to mind as “entry level”—warehouse loader, unloader, material handler [etc.]. Junior colleges or vocational schools could easily build a curriculum around that by partnering with employment agencies.
It turns out that there are already examples of innovative high school and vocational teaching programs out there.
The folks at RedPrairie, for example, reminded me of the Don Frazier Supply Chain Training Center at the Applied Technology Center (ATC), a career and technical high school in Rock Hill, SC. The Frazier Center was dedicated in April 2009, a partnership between the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) and the Material Handling Education Foundation (MHEFI). “This new program,” the press release from 2009 states, “consists of an entry-level educational program for high school, technical and community college students who gain work-related skills and experiences in state of the art, fully-equipped working warehouse and distribution training centers that serves as a laboratory setting for the program across the nation.” Last October, RedPrairie donated an implementation and one-year contract of its On-Demand Warehouse Management solution (WMS) to the center.
Another example: Professor Robert Novack at Penn State is mentoring Sarah Griffith, a teacher at State College Area High School (SCAHS), who is developing a set of supply chain courses for her students. I spoke with Dr. Novack and Ms. Griffith a few weeks ago to learn more about the program.
My immediate takeaway was that the stars were perfectly aligned for this program to get off the ground at SCAHS. First, the school administrator, who knows Professor Novack, already recognized the importance of supply chain management, so he didn’t need to be “sold” on the matter, and he specifically hired Ms. Griffith to develop a supply chain curriculum. Second, a member of the school board has an adult son who works in the supply chain field, so there was already some appreciation for supply chain management and support at the board level too. Third, funding for the position was approved prior to budget cuts. And last, but certainly not least, Ms. Griffith is a young and dedicated educator who has invested a lot of personal time to learn about the topic and get things done with limited resources.
After working on the curriculum last summer, using Dr. Novack’s textbook as a framework, Ms. Griffith introduced “Supply Chain Management 1” this fall to 11th and 12th graders. Forty-five students took the course, with fifteen students on the waiting list. The 18-week course (taught five days a week, 47 minutes per day) covers a broad range of supply chain topics at a high level (no math involved) and it includes guest speakers and facility tours. The course was over-subscribed in the spring too, so it’s definitely a hit with students. Ms. Griffith is now working with Dr. Novack to develop “Supply Chain Management 2,” which will take a more focused look at fulfillment management.
*****
What am I trying to sell?
Now that I think about it, I guess I am trying to sell something, and I need to be more prepared and savvy about it, because the stars are anything but aligned in my piece of the sky.
Ms. Griffith and Dr. Novack offered some good words of advice, which I’ll summarize this way: I need advocates with influence.
Advocates from the business community, especially large, tax-paying employers in the state that through their voices, actions, and financial investments can provide the best proof to school administrators and boards that supply chain management is indeed important to business.
And advocates from local universities and colleges, particularly those with supply chain and logistics programs, that have a vested interest in getting students interested in this profession in order to attract them to their schools. University professors can serve as mentors to high school teachers, as Dr. Novack and Ms. Griffith illustrate, and they can also influence, as partners in the education system, school administrators and boards to take steps (however small) toward introducing supply chain management into the high school curriculum.
But is the sales effort even worth it? Not bothering is so tempting and easy, and budget cuts and teacher layoffs, while they present daunting challenges, also provide a wonderful excuse to do nothing.
Yes, reality bites. But do we cower and walk away? Bite back? Or change reality?
