Southeastern pursuing new bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management
Contact: Christina Chapple
10/26/07
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University has taken the first step toward establishing a new bachelor’s degree program in the increasingly important business field of Supply Chain Management (SCM).
If ultimately approved by both the University of Louisiana system and the Board of Regents, the four-year undergraduate program in the College of Business’ Department of Marketing and Finance would be a first in Louisiana. Southeastern began the approval process on Friday (Oct. 26) when the UL System accepted its letter of intent to establish the new degree.
The proposed degree program is a good fit for Southeastern, said College of Business Dean Randy Settoon, because of the university’s location at the hub of interstates, railways and ports and its commitment to motivating growth in the economically important I-12 Corridor.
Combining the fields of marketing, production and operations management and information systems, SCM has become an essential competitive tool for businesses in moving their products or services successfully from inception to customers.
“An important part of every business is being as efficient and cost effective as possible,” Settoon said. “The supply chain – all the parties linked in the flow of goods, information and funds -- is what it’s all about.”
“Today’s high performance organizations fully integrate procurement, production, logistics, information systems and marketing both within the firm and across firms,” said Robert Cope, interim head of the Department of Marketing and Finance. “An increasing number of companies rely on SCM as a key competitive weapon.”
As one of the biggest growth areas in the manufacturing sector, SCM carries a strong demand for specialists, Cope said. “Managers attracted to SCM are impressed by the variety and challenges in the field, its sophisticated technology, and its importance to the overall economy and the global marketplace,” he said.
Cope said that distribution centers in southeast Louisiana have indicated that while good salaried jobs are available in SCM, qualified employees are scarce. “Careers in SCM are common to almost all industries and focus on a wide variety of functional areas,” he said. “For instance a student graduating in the discipline might work in marketing, logistics, operations, quality assurance, purchasing or information system. It is possible to work anywhere from pharmaceuticals, to services, to automotive, and even the military.”
Southeastern currently offers a SCM concentration within its marketing major. The College of Business has courses and faculty within its Management and Marketing and Finance departments to create a successful program, as well as a management professor, David Wyld, who is a nationally-recognized expert on RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.
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