A local university is meeting global supply chain challenges head-on with a new education program designed to create a rounded understanding of global markets.
Calvin University’s new School of Business this fall will debut an operations and supply chain management program, an unusual combination of the two topics that will prepare students for a career in international business.
As part of the program, students will take upper-level courses in multiple business disciplines including marketing, accounting and negotiation.
The combination of operations and supply chain management in the same program is a unique one, and a response to the new perspective COVID-19 supply chain disruptions have given the business community.
Calvin professor Philip Johnson, one of the architects of the program, spent nearly two decades in finance, supply chain management and operations roles and said having a deep understanding of both areas is crucial to immediate and future success in the industry.
“As we have seen in great detail in the past few years — with empty shelves, price increases and inflation, you really struggle to run a good operation without solid supply chain knowledge,” Johnson said, “and you also cannot effectively build and manage a supply chain without engagement and understanding of your operations.”
Calvin’s new program also requires students to take an international course between junior and senior years. The goal is to engage students in practical ways as they explore the global aspects of supply chains through direct involvement.
“In this course, we examine the differences and importance of technical skills like quality management and manufacturing, cost differences between global regions and logistics impact, but we also truly think through the impact that global business has on communities,” Johnson said. “We think through the impact that making a sourcing decision has on economic opportunities in the locations where we buy from, but with our focus on operations, also the impact that setting up an operation in global locations has on the well-being of those communities.”
