Supply Chain Matters extends an enthusiastic Tip-of-the-Hat to supply chain and operations 
professional association APICS Supply Chain Council for its efforts in sponsoring, what we believe to be as the first international student case study competition in supply chain management. This competition has involved 166 university teams from around the world, consisting of 4-5 students per team, competing on their knowledge and enthusiasm in the broad topics related to supply chain management.
Six international team finalists will join a United States contingent of 6 finalists to compete before a panel of judges in the final competition being held at the upcoming annual APICS conference on October 19-21 in New Orleans. The final awards ceremony is scheduled for October 21 with the top ranked teams awarded scholarships.
This is a great activity and deserves praise. It not only helps to foster the development of our next generation leaders for our broad supply chain community but it will encourage added interest and enthusiasm for students to consider a career in our field. Once more, the listings of teams representing their schools and universities that are participating in this competition are names that perhaps many of our global readers and supply chain organizational leaders may not be all that familiar with. Universities from China, Egypt, Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam, to name but a few, elected to participate in this team competition. Some of the academic names certainly surprised this author. A representative listing can be viewed within an APICS Supply Chain Council news release.
Supply Chain Matters extends our added shout-out best wishes to all of the teams that have competed thus far and to those teams who have made the final list of team competition in New Orleans. Good luck and best wishes to each of you.
We plan to publish the final results for this team competition, to be categorized under our Distinguished Supply Chain Management Professionals search category, after they are announced.
Bob Ferrari
Founder and Executive Editor
