supply chain
SOURCE
Incredible India!
By Elke Miot
J anuary 5, 2007 saw the return of
the inaugural group of participants in
the Global Supply Chain Management
Internship in Bangalore, India. The pro-
gram ran for three weeks, beginning on
December 16th. It included 16 Krannert
MBA student participants all of whom
were escorted by DCMME/GSCMI man-
aging director Mary Pilotte and finance
Professor Raghu Rau.
The group was a mix of first and second
year students, with specializations rang-
ing from manufacturing operations and
human resources to accounting and IT.
During the three-week period, student
teams of two worked jointly with a men-
tor from the sponsoring company while
being exposed to processes in manufac-
turing, logistics, supplier management,
and market segmentation.
The objective of this program was to ex-
pose students to best practices within In-
dia manufacturing firms, including those
of Deming award-winning TVS Motor
Company, and was hosted by the Dauch
Center for Management of Manufacturing
Enterprise and the Global Supply Chain
Management Initiative with TVS Motors
as the corporate sponsor.
This exciting addition to Krannert’s roster
of international programs provided stu-
dents with a unique opportunity to expe-
rience manufacturing from a truly global
perspective in all senses of the term,
both as a bird’s eye view of the manu-
facturing process in its various stages
and aspects, and as a way of seeing how
business is done in another culture.
“Students learned how to perform in a
cross-functional, cross-cultural team, taking
a specific question and seeking to answer
it with few guidelines or boundaries” says
Pilotte. “It was a unique and hands-on way
of taking the concepts they learned in the
classroom at Purdue and applying them to
real-life situations.”
The experience is key to fostering criti-
cal thinking and leadership skills. For the
corporate sponsor, it was a chance to obtain
insight into how potential customers see
the operation, as well as a learning forum
to find out what could be improved.
For Dr. Ananth Iyer, Susan Bulkeley Butler
Chair in Operations and director of DCMME/
GSCMI, this was an educational experience
not only for the students, but for the school
as well. The students’ evaluations, feedback
and impressions of their time in India were
particularly important as this was the first
group to be involved in the program.
All in all, it was a tremendous learning
opportunity, not only for the students, but
for the corporate sponsor and the Kran-
nert School of Management as well. We are
looking forward to seeing the program grow
and evolve, adding a new dimension to the
MBA program here at Purdue.
FEBRUARY 2007
 Global Supply Chain Management Initiative

2007 Spring
Conference Highlights
The second annual Global Supply Chain Management Conference was held on February 1-2, 2007 at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Indiana. This year’s theme was the Sustainable Global Supply Chain. Sponsors for this year’s events were local employer
Chromcraft Revington, as well as E.&J. Gallo Winery, Ford Motor Company, Philip Morris USA, Purdue CIBER and Starbucks Coffee.

Keynote Speaker Over four thousand dabbawallas provide a service by deliver-

By Nate Knestri, BSIM 2008
Dr. Paul Goodman, Professor of
Organizational Psychology at Carn-
egie Mellon’s Graduate School of
Industrial Administration introduced
his film, Dabbawallas (boxpersons),
explaining that he was interested in
visually advancing the issues in the
film. The Dabbawallas
The movie gave a brief synopsis of the environment in which
the dabbawallas work on a daily basis. The dabba, an Indian
style lunch box, is picked up from the home, sorted, and later
delivered by train and bicycle to the workplace with the pro-
cess repeated in reverse after lunch.
ing hundreds of thousands of dabbas each day in Bombay,
India. This service allows the person to go to work with-
out carrying a bulky dabba onto the over crowded trains of
Bombay. An interesting fact is that the dabbawalla group
performs above Six Sigma quality levels without the use of
modern day technology or management techniques.
Goodman asked the audience “Why does this system work?”
One suggestion was that the length of the training time of the
dabbawallas is responsible for the high quality of the services
provided by the system.
Goodman stated that the system works so well because an
interest is taken in the individual, the small group, and the
nature of the organization. He also stressed that motivation,
coordination, and problem-solving are key components in the
success of the organization.

Sue Mecklenburg, VP of Sustainable
Procurement Practices at Starbucks,
detailed how crucial Corporate Social
Responsibility is to their operations and
to the sustainability of their business.
About twenty five million people grow
coffee around the world in over 70
countries and over 50% of the world’s
coffee is grown on small farms, locally
owned and operated. Could Starbucks
function as a company if there were no
coffee growers? No. But what else is
integral to this discussion?
Farmers need access to credit to help
their long-term prospects. To this end
Starbucks has provided funding for
affordable credit. This eases the
burden on low-income farmers crucial
to Starbucks’ supply chain and em-
powers them to invest in their farms.
Along with financial assistance, access
to technical and market information
was also provided. This multi-pronged
effort has helped many farmers in
developing countries and has provided
some security and sustainability for
Starbucks.
What if your largest group of potential
and current customers were also the
most burdened and the least financially
independent? Israel Moreno, General
Manager: Matrimonio Hoy - CEMEX, is
working to alleviate the burden on the
low income sector and is helping create a
sustainable corporate setting as a result.
Patrimonio Hoy is a program to help
improve the housing conditions in the self
construction segment of Mexico. By im-
proving life conditions through housing,
CEMEX is helping to improve lives.
This program is successful because of the
involvement of the community. CEMEX
offers assistance at all levels. Awareness
is raised through small group interaction.
Groups of three register, attend sales
sessions and technical advisory sessions
followed by material delivery.
This program is about people, the most
important aspect of sustainability for any
company. Through their efforts CEMEX
has improved the lives of countless fami-
lies in Mexico and is continuing this effort
in more and more countries around the
world.
Presenter Grant Hellwarth explained
that the Ulysses project came about
as the result of three strategic chal-
lenges put forth at PWC: leadership,
diversity, and sustainability. The goal
is to take a group of corporate partners
on a journey to help form a multi-cul-
tural network of future leaders for the
company. His journey took his team to
Madagascar, off the South-East coast
of Africa.
Water conditions in Madagascar can be
frightful for westerners. The average
citizen of the U.S. would not be able to
drink such water. The PWC team saw
a need and delivered. A result of the
team project, Madagascar is continuing
efforts to improve water quality.
This is the essence of Corporate Social
Responsibility. No utility can be im-
mediately seen from these efforts yet
the group proceeds. With efforts such
as this, sustainability will become the
norm not the exception. In addition,
PWC will benefit from strong, globally
aware leaders in their company.

Corporate Social Responsibility By John Gant,

MBA 2007
 The Green Supply Chain
By Ghazi Saleem, MBA 2007

METHOD: HIP NOT HIPPEE
Method Products, Inc. is a fast-growing start-
up company that makes household cleaning
products. The company was co-founded by
Adam Lowry in 2000 with the belief that they
could “revitalize the drudgery of cleaning with
soaps and sprays, designed to be easy on the
eyes, nose, and the environment.”
Prior to founding Method, Lowry worked as a climate
scientist for Carnegie Institute of Washington. It was
here that he had an epiphany of sorts: “I felt that I was
preaching to the converted.”
Method doesn’t see concern for the environment and
good business as competing interests. “We don’t ask you
to trade off by using a green cleaner that doesn’t work.”
Lowry believes that they are the “same science” and
sustainable, long-term growth is only possible by aligning
business and environmental interests.
For some, it may be difficult to make the connection
between effective and green cleaning products. After
all, the best products most often have the worst
pollutants. So how does Method do it? Lowry says
that the simple answer lies in the design of Method
products: ”We won’t make anything that cannot
perform as well as the nastiest thing on the market.
Hiring talented managers who understand Method’s
philosophy also helps: Gretchen
Siffering joined the company in 2004,
and is a graduate of Purdue University
with a degree in engineering. As
“planufacturement” director, she is
responsible for coordinating the supply
chain for Method. She was prominent
in introducing a concentrated laundry detergent that
dramatically reduced Method’s cost of shipping by
using smaller and lighter bottles. Method estimates
that this single innovation allowed it to reduce
transportation costs and greatly reduce harmful
emissions, equal to 25,000 cars per year!

IRMCO: THE FISH OIL GUYS

By Ghazi Saleem, MBA 2007
IRMCO was originally named Inter-
national Lubricants Limited, founded
in 1914 by William O. Jeffery, Sr. in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the
early years, the company’s primary
products were petroleum based.
In the 1980s, Jeffery Sr. relin-
quished control to his sons William
C. Jeffery and Bradley J. Jeffery.
The two brothers sought to service
a very specialized niche market of
metal stamping. This strategy proved
so successful that the company dou-
bled in size between 1982 and 1984.
But the company had another agenda
that was unique for its day. It started
offering non-oil fluids that were not
only superior to natural oils, they were
environmentally friendly too. IRMCO
fluids were slightly more expensive
than conventional lubricants but there
were virtually no clean up costs. The
non-oil lubricant investments paid
dividends in more efficient downstream
cleaning and in reduced environmental
liability.
For Jeff Jeffery, the moment of inspira-
tion came as a child when he saw a
river ablaze near his home – the river
was used by manufacturing plants to
dump used oil which had caught fire.
Jeff was so shaken by this experience
that he knew that he to do something
about it. As president and CEO of
IRMCO, he is making that dream a
reality.
During trade shows, IRMCO has been
known to wash parts smeared with its
lubricants in fish tanks to demonstrate
the eco-friendliness of its products
(the fish obviously survived!). But
while IRMCO continues to pioneer eco-
friendly products, its marketing focus
has shifted from green to performance
and costs. Explaining the shift, Jeffery
said, “We wanted to show clients that
IRMCO products are not simply eco-
friendly – they are superior to other
products in every way.”

Case Competitions
By Daniel Brown, MBA 2008
Two of the highlights from the 2007
GSCMI spring conference on sustain-
ability were the graduate and under-
graduate case competitions which
began on Thursday evening.
Participating schools were the China
Europe International Business School,
Georgia Tech, Indiana University,
Michigan State University, Purdue Uni-
versity, the University of Illinois, the
University of Michigan, the University
of Southern California and Washington
University at Saint-Louis.
The three finalists were Indiana sponsored by Starbucks Coffee,
University, Purdue University and the consisted of nine Purdue teams and
University of Illinois. Congratulations also took place Thursday evening.
to this year’s winners Dave Ernst, Teams presented solutions to the
Bret Hanson, Justine Mikals and case entitled “Starbucks and the Milk
Camilo Zapata representing Purdue Decision - Doing the Right Thing.”
University, winning the first prize of Congratulations to the team of Kara
$5,000. Eschbach, Laura Kightlinger, and Annie
King for taking home the first prize of
The second place team was the Uni-
$1,200.
versity of Illinois taking home $3,000
and Indiana placing third with the
prize of $2,000. Chromcraft Revington
and E.&J. Gallo Winery were sponsors
of the MBA case competition.
The undergraduate competition,
 By Mark Vymyslicky, MBA 2008
The two speakers for this session,
Motorola’s Cathie Kozik and
Eaton Corporation’s Mario He-
gewald, each presented the major
“sustainable” supply chain initia-
tives taking place at their respective
companies.
Motorola’s major drive is in creating
an integrated supply
chain, one that
shares with Motorola
a common system
of values, beliefs,
and goals. Eaton on
the other hand, is
focused on supply chain continuity
planning, a topic that Hegewald was
certain the audience had never heard
before.
Motorola employees are continually
challenged to innovate and push
the envelope. Along those same
lines, Motorola has started a new
initiative to rethink the supply chain
w w w.mgmt.purdue.edu/centers/gscmi
403 W. State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Tel (765) 494-2860
Fax (765) 494-9658
and improve the way business is
conducted around the world.
Kozik highlighted six priorities
that Motorola is after: execution
excellence, deep supplier
relationships, manufacturing and
logistics optimization, quality
renewal, common leveraged IT
solutions, and organization efficiency.
By combining these priorities
Motorola will be well on its way to
achieving a best-in-class supply
chain.
Hegewald showed a lot of
enthusiasm about a new area of
supply chain methodology that
Eaton is working in. For a global
manufacturer of industrial products,
Eaton faces an ever-increasing risk
of supply chain disruptions.
Measures that are typically
associated with cost-cutting and
improved corporate performance,
can also put the company at greater
risk should something unexpected
arise. Examples of this include
single-sourcing, out-sourcing, leaner
inventories, reduced lead times, and
diversified product portfolios. With
these movements on the rise, how
will Eaton manage risk should there
be a pandemic, political unrest, or
factory shutdowns? This question
is the very essence of supply chain
continuity planning at Eaton.
Kozik and
Hegewald were
just the right
presenters for
wrapping up the
conference. The
entire event was
after all, devoted to supply chain
sustainability, and at its root, the
issue of what companies are doing to
preserve their futures.