Loyola University Chicago Gets Top Marks in SCM

By Randy Burgess

One of the greatest challenges for universities and colleges with supply chain management (SCM) programs is to provide students with training that enables them to step right into the working world and have an immediate, positive impact on the fortunes of their new place of employment.  Learning institutions can teach theory and they can certainly provide students with an understanding of the importance of SCM, but since the real world uses high-end technology applications that are too expensive for most university departmental budgets, students still have a lot of on-the-job learning to do after they graduate.  An exception to this truth will be future grads of Loyola University Chicago, thanks to a donation of $1.3 Million in Adexa software and services.

At a presentation ceremony held at the university’s downtown Chicago Watertower Campus, Loyola’s interim Dean of the school of business, Dr. A.G. Malliaris, stated that Adexa had given “the greatest software donation in the university’s history,” and one that will give its students a “competitive edge when they enter the job market.”   The statement was echoed and expanded upon by James Zydiak, the associate professor who will actually teach students how to use the software.  Zydiak said the donation will attract top-caliber students to the university’s supply chain management program for the opportunity to work with such advanced SC and demand planning applications. 

Adexa president Cyrus Hadavi was on hand for the event and he explained that Loyola University Chicago was chosen because of its commitment to advanced research in supply chain management and industrial productivity growth in North America.  Dr. Hadavi added that “Loyola’s undergraduate and graduate schools of business have the scale to make a sizeable, positive impact in a very short period of time, create and protect jobs in the manufacturing sector and help companies increase profitability and earnings per share (EPS).”  which is the financial return an investor can expect on his or her stock holdings in a particular company. 

Mike Plascow, Adexa’s director of technology solutions, provided attendees with a demonstration of eGPS and explained how each solution works with the others to synchronize enterprise planning and prioritize plans for profitability.  Loyola University Chicago President, Father Michael Garanzini, commented that he wished Adexa had an application tailored for his role…one where the return on investments in particular programs and infrastructure could be quantified, and where he could gain immediate visibility into the impact of specific plans on all university departments.  It's a perspective similar to those voiced many intuitive non-manufacturing industry executives when they first hear how Adexa solutions work.  They apply the aggregation of thousands of pieces of information and the ability to use that information to come up with solutions to complex problems to their own industries and understand how much better life would be if the best answers were available in the blink of an eye.

Chicago-area Adexa partner “The Revere Group” was also involved in the event and the process that led to Loyola University Chicago being awarded the software.  The VP of its supply chain practice, John Caltagirone, is a Loyola Alumnus who proposed that Adexa examine the Loyola SCM program and consider a donation.  Caltagirone is now working to expand the impact of the program by bringing industry leaders in the Chicago area to visit the school of business, meet the faculty and students and see Adexa solutions in actions. 

As an ongoing reminder of the donation, Adexa presented Loyola with a display of three framed CD’s (branded eGPS, SCP and CDP) with a plaque to commemorate the gift.   It’s based on the gold record concept, where a record company presents an artist that sells one-million or more albums with a framed gold record (CD). 

Already, plans for future Adexa marketing campaigns to the Loyola alumni base are being drawn-up.

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