Avadhoot Belose, MBA'17, Jithin Jacob, MS'17, and Karan Mohan, MS'17, recently placed first in the inaugural Northeast Supply Chain Online Competition. The online simulation, “Printing-House Operations Game,” was organized by the Institute of the Supply Management (ISM) – Greater Boston and the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The students represented Northeastern University against 10 teams from the New England area.

The competition challenged students to test their abilities in a virtual business simulation that mimics the real world by applying learning tools, theoretical knowledge and classical training. In this scenario, teams competed against one another in managing a printing-house. Some factors that were weighed during the simulation include procurement of raw materials, inventory process, and establishing an overtime policy.

“For this competition I formed a team with two of my colleagues from my sourcing and procurement class conducted by Robert Murray. Concepts we learned in that class helped us a lot during this competition as the procurement decisions proved to be the key differentiator for us,” said Belose. “The online game demanded us to have knowledge of Economic Order Quantity, impact of sourcing locations on lead times, asset depreciation, overtime calculations, etc.”

The team placed first, winning a cash prize from awards sponsor Parker-Chomerics. In addition to the cash prize, the team also took home a first place trophy.

“True to Northeastern's tradition of experiential learning, Professor Murray had already covered all these topics with excellent cases in the class, helping us to learn and remember them effectively. Based on the knowledge gained from this class, my team had prepared Excel models anticipating all possible inputs,” said Belose. “To our surprise, once the competition began, we realized that we had built far stronger model than the competition demanded. Our preparation backed by the knowledge gained in the class gave us a great head start and we ensured to make the most of it.”