The Online Reflector

The University of Indianapolis chapter of Advancing Productivity, Innovation, and Competitive Success: the Association for Operations Management, will compete at the 16th annual APICS Great Lakes District Student Case Competition in Chicago on Feb. 25 and 26.

As one of UIndy’s top-ranked competitive teams, the members enter the competition after having placed first last year and fourth in 2009 and are fresh off a win at the Central Indiana APICS case competition.

Despite its great success, APICS is a relatively new organization on the UIndy campus.

The organization focuses on “production, inventory, supply chain, materials management, purchasing and logistics,” according to its website, apics.org.

APICS provides opportunities for students studying various aspects of business.

The organization boasts 44 thousand members nationwide and prepares them for various forms of local, national and global management.

The first supply chain management degrees were awarded last year with 100 percent placement rate for the eight graduates, according to Karl Knapp, assistant professor for the School of Business.

According to Knapp, the UIndy student chapter competes against universities with well established supply chain majors.

“It’s actually the biggest leap I’ve ever taken,” said Charlotte Grant, senior marketing major and UIndy APICS chapter president. “I jumped in, signed up for it, went to the case competition and I kind of fell in love with the whole idea of it all.”

According to Grant, the three-year-old student organization is not just for supply chain majors.

“We’ve got people in accounting majors, people who are business admin majors and different aspects play a huge role in how we think about the case,” Grant said.

The case competition begins when each team is given a case study for a problematic business. The teams are allowed to ask questions of the professionals in attendance until midnight.

“[The teams] stay up all night and solve this by 10 o’clock the next morning,” Knapp said.

He explained that the end result is a five-page paper and presentation. Judges give a combined score for the written and presentation portions of the contest.

“After finding the main problem, then we ask ‘why’ about 50 times, and each one leads to a new segment until we get down to the root problem,” Grant said.

Team members this year include seniors Charlotte Grant and Oksana Svyryd, juniors Ryan Courtney, Chauncey Mcleod and Gregory Wehmiller, sophomore Kenny Albee and freshman Amanda Carey. The UIndy chapter will compete against its rivals – Ball State, IUPUI and Western Michigan– in Chicago.

“I expect us to do well every year, especially against the state schools,” Knapp said. “At a private school you get direct instruction from professor throughout all four years. At a state school, you really might not see real professors until junior, senior year.”

Grant noted that this year, there is added pressure for APICS this year.

“[There are] expectations and pressures from the School of Business now because we’ve set standards in the past,” Grant said.

National rankings are only part of the experience for APICS members. A former student overcame her fear of public speaking and won an APICS presentation.

“I saw a different person. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Knapp said.

For students, APICS provides more opportunities following graduation.

Grant identified APICS as an asset for securing an internship and helping her select a professional direction.

“I’m even more interested in supply chain than marketing,” Grant said.

Knapp agreed that a combination of networking opportunities and practical experiences “open a lot of doors that as a student, you don’t have access to.”

If the UIndy team wins the Chicago competition they will be eligible to advance to the APICS International Conference and Expo.