Stillman offers free trip to port terminals

Stillman School of Business undergraduate and graduate stu­dents toured and explored the workings of a major supply chain in February.

The students visited Maher Terminals in Elizabeth, N.J., as a requirement of the Logistics and Operations in Supply Chain Man­agement course taught by the as­sociate professor of computing and decision sciences Dr. Penina Orenstein.

"The trip to Maher Terminal gave each person who attended a front-row seat to a critical por­tion of a complex yet extremely efficient supply chain," Oren­stein stated on her blog. "Students (learned) about the operation of loading and unloading trucks, stor­ing and retrieving empty contain­ers, multi-modal transport (and) the highlight being the loading of a large ship via four automatically operated state of the art cranes."

"It was amazing to see all that action first hand," second year supply chain management pro­gram student Dragana Trivic said.

"I was particularly impressed with the use of optimization tools to route trucks to their receiving points."

"The trip was a lot of fun," Carter Elton, junior economics major, said. "The amount of data they have to compile and interpret is mind boggling."

There has been a huge explo­sion in supply chain management, mainly due to the advances in information technology, massive integration and global expansion, Orenstein explained.

Students were able to question managers regarding the finances involved and the scale of the op­erations.

"The sheer scale of Maher was incredible," Elton added. "Not to mention the size of the container ships and cranes."

"The port really shows why it's critical to the economy of New Jersey," Orenstein said. "It's cre­ated over 20,000 jobs a year."

Because of the size of ports like these and the growing in, the completion of the course looks great on a resume, according to Orenstein.

"There's always an excitement and a buzz in this class,"Orenstein said. "The students always find a way to apply it to their work. It's very applicable"

The management course is a core class in the new supply chain concentration.

Although this course is part of the new program, it is open to all student regardless of their field of study.

Orenstein said about 12 were actually her students from Still­man and that eightoutside students also attended who were merely in­terested.

"The trip really brings (the course) to life," Orenstein said. "Those on the trip usually end up taking the class."

Victoria Plate can be reached at victoria.plate@student.shu.edu.