The University of Michigan’s Tauber Institute for Global Operations — a venture between the Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering — has announced its 2017 Team Projects. The 31 projects sponsored by 21 global firms were launched at Tauber’s annual Team Project Kickoff Dinner at the Ross School of Business. Business and engineering student teams met with faculty co-advisors from Ross and from the College of Engineering to brainstorm innovative approaches to the challenges posed by their sponsoring companies.
Tauber’s 2017 team project sponsors are leaders in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, internet commerce, high tech, health care, automotive, energy, and retail. Tauber is pleased to strengthen relationships with 19 continuing sponsors — 3M, AIP, Amazon, Boeing, BorgWarner, Cardinal Health, Cummins, Dell, Dow, Ford, Fresenius, General Mills, GM, Microsoft, Pepsi, Pfizer, PG&E, Stanley Black & Decker, and Whirlpool – and to begin new partnerships this year with AM General and Target.
A signature initiative of the Tauber Institute, team projects pair students with top companies for a 14-week multidisciplinary collaborative project. Each 2-to-3 person project team is comprised of Master of Engineering, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Supply Chain Management students.
Along with executive direction from the sponsoring firm, each team receives support from both a College of Engineering and a Ross School of Business faculty advisor, and supervision by a Tauber Institute Co-Director. New this year is each team will be assigned to a Tauber alum from their sponsoring company to provide mentoring support.
Tauber student teams work on-site at their sponsoring company from May through August to find solutions for substantive operations challenges. Solutions may include lean process design and implementation, manufacturing site strategic assessment, sourcing plans, inventory management, logistics, and new product development. Tauber team projects provide a significant return on a sponsor’s investment – often uncovering millions of dollars of savings – as well as improvements in areas such as CO2 emissions, energy consumption, throughput time, and supply chain risk.
In addition to working throughout the United States, Tauber students will travel to Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia, and South Korea for their 2017 team projects. Keep up-to-date on this year’s team projects by following @umtauber on Twitter or Facebook.
The Tauber Institute for Global Operations is a joint venture between the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering, working together with industry partners to facilitate cross-disciplinary education in global operations management. The Tauber Institute is an inaugural recipient of the UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research, management science, or analytics. For more information visit tauber.umich.edu.
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