Global Technology and Management Consortium Supply Chain Initiative
               Technion, Israel Institute of Technlogy      Sunday, May 05, 2002

Background

The Faculty of Industrial Engineer and Management ( IE&M ) at the technion has joined the consortium on October 2001. Recently , the IE&M Dean has appointed Professor Miriam Erez to be the coordinator of the consortium activities at the Technion. Professor Boaz Golany ws appointed as the coordinator for the Supply Chain Initiative and Professor Dov Dori and Dr. yale Herer were asked to be part of the SC team. The team met on May 2, 2002 to discuss possible channels of collaboration with the other members of the consortium. Several possible activities were discussed and the outcome of this meeting is summarized below.

Suggestion for possible collaboration channels
        1. Meeting of the SC teams : To facilitate close links and enhance the mutual understanding of our future collaboration it was suggested that the SC teams from the various schools that participate in the consortium will meet this coming summer. It will be convenient for us to hold the meeting in Europe (as a natural "maddle gtiund") but we are ready to meet anywhere else if it's more convenient to the majority of the other participants.

         2. Active participation in the development of teaching aids : The Technion SC team was impressed by the April 2002 report of Professors Verbraeck and Corsi on the models and demos that were already developed by their in various simulation packages and languages and can generate more demos or adjust existing demos under the team's supervision. We feel that these demos can be quite useful in courses dealing with SC matters. We will be happy to include in this development some educational games (e.g., the Beer Game ) in ways that will enable students from the various schools participating in the consortium to "play" with or against eaxh other under joint supervision of faculty from their respective departments. The participation of students from different schools will strengthen the modeling of real life supply chains, and will enrich the learning experience with additional factors, including culrural differences, and differences in managerial practices.

        3. A joint web site : We believe that a joint SC web site should be created and maintained by the members of the consortium. The site can give information and links describing the routine activities of the members in the consortium as well as contain the products of the joint effort (such as the demo tools discussed above). Access to the site can be handled in two levels. Free access to general information and limited access to the consortium products allowing only consortium members to enjoy these products.

         4. Joint Research : Introducing the three activities mentioned above, will create a joint platform for future research cooperation.