Purdue Experts Lead Logistics Workshop

Logistics experts from Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College offered intensive logistics workshops at the 2014 Indiana Logistics Summit, which focused on helping businesses improve their workforce development and supply chain practices.

As part of the larger summit, the Purdue Logistics Workshop covered topics critical to the continued strength of the transportation and logistics sector in Indiana and the U.S. Participants received a Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership certificate at the end of the sessions.

The first session, "At the Crossroads – Preparing the Logistics Workforce of the Future," was facilitated by Edie Schmidt, professor of technology leadership and innovation and director of the Supply Chain Management Technology Lab at Purdue University, and Susan Ely, dean of the School of Technology at Ivy Tech Community College, Lafayette. Their presentation showcased games and activities used by professors to educate college students about the key components of logistics. They also showed how interactive games and new training techniques could be used by logistics executives to educate and train their own work forces on important logistics issues and skills.

Jim Stephens, advanced manufacturing specialist for Purdue's Indiana Manufacturing Extension Partnership, led the second session, titled, "Building a Lean Supply Chain" session. To be competitive, Stephens said, organizations have to optimize their supply chains. That includes understanding the waste within a system and how to eliminate it, decrease lead times and lower costs of fulfillment.

Writer: Steven Lincoln, 765-494-9201,