SCM Globe collaborated with Dr. Rachmawati Wangsaputra and her colleagues at Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Logistik (STIMLOG), a college of the Bandung Institute of Technology, to organize the first International Logistics and Supply Chain Competition in Indonesia. In addition to STIMLOG students, more than 150 students in teams from 42 other colleges and universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore signed up to participate in the competition. All students were enrolled in logistics, engineering, or business programs.
Students and instructors at STIMLOG produced the competition and broadcast it live over three days. STIMLOG students were the on-air hosts and announcers for the contest events. The opening speech on the first day was delivered by Paristiyanti Nurwardani, Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture.
In the months prior to the contest, individual members of all the teams were given accounts on SCM Globe, and trainers and instructors at STIMLOG conducted online training sessions for all contestants. Contestants had time to play with the simulations and build their skills by working through any of the case studies available in the SCM Globe online library. During this time instructors at STIMLOG assisted by SCM Globe staff, created a case study and simulation of a company set in Indonesia for use in the contest. This case study had three challenges that became progressively more advanced.
Two days before the first on-air event, the Indonesia case study and its starting supply chain model was sent to all contestants. Teams had 24 hours to submit their best solution to the first supply chain challenge. At the first on-air event the competing teams were introduced, along with the contest judges who were faculty members from several participating universities. The judges had already reviewed entries submitted the previous day and they selected the nine best entries. Those teams were announced, and judges commented on their solutions. Those teams then advanced to the semi-final round of the competition.
Semi-finalists had 24 hours to work on their second challenge. The second challenge built on work the teams did on the first supply chain challenge. Teams had to add more facilities to their supply chains, and also find ways to reduce the amount of inventory and operating costs incurred over a 30 day period. They presented their solutions live on the program the following day.
On day two, presenters had 10 minutes each to show their team’s solution and run simulations to show how well their solutions worked. Team presenters answered questions put to them by the judges. Hard questions were asked. Presenters had to think about their answers.
Teams used their supply chain models to illustrate what their supply chain designs looked like and how they were built. They explained their reasons for designing their supply chains as they did.
The panel of judges asked students to describe the problems they faced, and questioned them to explain why they made certain decisions.
By running simulations, team members explained their decisions and showed the results of their actions. Simulations illustrated how well the different supply chain designs worked.
At the end of the second day, three finalist teams were selected. Those team leaders were given the final supply chain challenge. The challenge was to expand the supply chains beyond the island of Java and deliver products to facilities on other islands in Indonesia. Teams had to design a multi-modal transportation network, and find ways to manage transportation scheduling and costs in order to produce a profit for the company.
The teams again had 24 hours to analyze the challenge and create supply chain models and simulations showing recommended solutions. Students on the three finalist teams had already been working hard. Now they had one more day to pull it all together and present their answers.
On the third and final day the pressure was on. Contestants were feeling tired. They faced the judges once again, and answered more tough questions.
Students used techniques and best practices learned in their different supply chain and logistics courses to analyze the final challenge. They created business scenarios and used supply chain simulations to explore different ideas and find what would work best.
Different scenarios were turned into supply chain models. And those models were run in simulations to see how well they worked. The level of competition was high. Finalist teams demonstrated skill and creativity in their work.
You can read about the winning team on the competition website here – https://lsc.stimlog.ac.id/lsc-competition-1st/
Congratulations to all the teams. Participants applied what they learned in their different school courses to solve challenging problems in this supply chain competition. Students demonstrated their skills to future employers, and showed they have what it takes to succeed and meet the challenges of building and operating real supply chains.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration with STIMLOG and Dr. Wangsaputra and her colleagues. We are excited about being part of the 2nd International Supply Chain Contest in Indonesia in 2022.