Workshop looks at transportation's role in business success
Many people think of transportation as a discrete operation that simply carries out orders handed down from other departments. But, as CSCMP's new workshop, "Transportation's Role in Supply Chain," makes clear, transportation is important not only to effective supply chain management but also to overall business success. In this one-day program, supply chain professionals will gain a firm understanding of the value of transportation in the supply chain. Those in transportation, meanwhile, will learn how they and their operations contribute to overall business success.
The course is designed for new supply chain professionals; intermodal operations and shift workers; supply chain coordinators, managers, and supervisors; and truck drivers. It will be offered for the first time at CSCMP's headquarters in Lombard, Illinois, USA (near Chicago) on November 15. The cost is US $395 for members and US $495 for nonmembers. For more information, visit cscmp.org/events/transportation-role/index.asp.
The passing of a giant: Dr. Donald J. Bowersox
It was with great sadness that CSCMP learned of the passing of Donald J. Bowersox on July 4, 2011, after a recurrence of cancer. Dr. Bowersox not only helped to establish this organization but also developed the very concept of supply chain management.
Dr. Bowersox was an eminent academic and the last living founder of the National Council of Physical Distribution Management (NCPDM), the forerunner of what would become the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. He was elected NCPDM's second president in 1964 and received the organization's second Distinguished Service Award in 1966. He remained deeply involved in CSCMP, frequently speaking at educational conferences and offering guidance on programming and research until his death at age 79.
After receiving his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Michigan State University (MSU), Dr. Bowersox spent four decades at the school as a teacher, researcher, writer, and administrator. It was there, beginning with a doctoral thesis that eventually became a seminal text in logistics, that he established himself as one of the leading thinkers in distribution and transportation management. Later, he expanded his ideas to encompass other business functions, eventually developing the concept of the supply chain and identifying the enormous potential impact of this new approach to business management.
He wrote the first college textbook on physical distribution management, the first of some 17 books he authored or co-authored. He also wrote more than 250 journal articles. We are proud that among that number were two pieces that appeared in CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly—including the cover story for our inaugural issue in 2007, titled "SCM: The Past is Prologue."
Dr. Bowersox will be remembered as an original thinker who paved the way for supply chain strategies into the future. He will be missed by many colleagues, friends, former students, and family as well as by our entire profession.
Haritha Metta receives Doctoral Dissertation Award
CSCMP has named Haritha Metta as the recipient of the 2011 Doctoral Dissertation Award for her dissertation "A Multi-Stage Decision Support Model for Coordinated Sustainable Product and SC Design." Metta, the revenue management science analyst for Carnival Cruise Lines, received her PhD from the department of mechanical engineering and the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing at the University of Kentucky. She earned her master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor's degree in the same field from Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in India.
Metta's research interests are in the areas of supply chain design and optimization, with a focus on sustainability and multi-criteria decision making in complex systems. A portion of her dissertation also won the Ann Taylor best paper award at the International Conference on Value Chain Sustainability.
The Doctoral Dissertation Award is given annually for a dissertation in supply chain management or a related field that demonstrates originality and technical competence while contributing to the supply chain knowledge base. The purpose of the award is to encourage research leading to the advancement of supply chain management.
CSCMP committees: Get involved today!
Not all of us can be a pioneer of the profession like Don Bowersox was, but we all can contribute something that will help our peers in some way. One way to give back is to volunteer for one of CSCMP's many committees. It's a great opportunity to share your ideas with like-minded professionals and have a positive impact on the profession.
Opportunities include:
- Program Committee: help develop and deliver CSCMP's supply chain management educational concepts.
- Education Strategies Committee: serve as a liaison with students, educators, and educational institutions and programs.
- Research Strategies Committee: investigate, evaluate, and advise CSCMP on potential research projects that could benefit the supply chain management profession.
- Young Professionals Committee: assess the needs of young professionals and students entering the workforce and determine how CSCMP could meet those needs.
- Roundtable Advisory Cabinet Members: monitor and assist the activities of individual CSCMP roundtables and the organization as a whole.
Sound interesting? To find out more about these committees and how to get involved, call +1 630.574.0985. If you're a CSCMP member, you can indicate your volunteering preferences in your Member Profile by logging into your account at cscmp.org, clicking on the "Membership" tab on the menu bar to the left, and then clicking on the "My Account" link. Click on the "Other Info" gray tab to access a page that allows you to select your preferences.
JBL changes to benefit both readers and authors
After 33 years of publishing twice a year, CSCMP's Journal of Business Logistics (JBL) is now increasing its frequency to four issues, giving readers more opportunities to discover groundbreaking research in logistics and supply chain management.
To support that increase in publication dates, JBL's new editors—Matthew Waller of the University of Arkansas and Stanley Fawcett of Brigham and Young University— have implemented a faster turnaround process for reviewing submissions and moving them through the editorial review process. Authors are now able to submit their articles and revisions electronically. Additionally Waller and Fawcettt have expanded the Editorial Review Board to incorporate more assistant and associate editors with a broader variety of specialty areas. Finally, there will be a number of special topic calls for papers each year to help increase the body of knowledge for particular disciplines within supply chain and logistics.
The new publisher of the JBL, Wiley and Sons, is now providing a searchable database of articles by keyword. This search function should help readers' research efforts considerably. To access past issues of JBL, see the Wiley Online Library.
