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ISM Fast Facts
Western Michigan University (WMU) is regularly included on U.S. News & World Report's list of the nation's top-100 public universities. Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Princeton Review named WMU one of the Best Midwestern Colleges. WMU is also a Carnegie-designated Doctoral/High-Research university. Our Haworth College of Business is AACSB accredited and is one of the 20 largest undergraduate business programs in the United States.
The Integrated Supply Management (ISM) curriculum is WMU Center of Excellence. Several publications have also praised the undergraduate program for its leadership in preparing students for careers in supply chain management. Purchasing magazine cites WMU’s program as the “curriculum for the 21st century because of its bold & innovative approach that provides students with backgrounds in both business & technical areas.”
Other distinctive program elements and accomplishments include
- The ISM Executive Council of business executives assists the program and includes representatives from John Deere, Marathon, Whirlpool, DANA, Kellogg, Stryker, GM, Chrysler LLC, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Kohler, etc. See Partner Companies.
- The ISM students belong to the largest active student APICS (The Association of Operations Management) Chapter and several students are in the process of completing their APICS certifications.
- A capstone intensive 5 day course based on a training program – dubbed Try-Z – was developed by Nissan Motor for shop floor management training. 14 students must manufacture model cars; their task is to design a manufacturing process.
- ERP systems such as SAP are taught in four classes and a dedicated class is taught by Dr. Bret Wagner (the first recipient of the Majdi Najm Outstanding Service Award from SAP University Alliances).
- Near perfect job placement with the highest average starting salary in the business college ($46,250).
- Several corporations provide students with hands-on lean manufacturing projects for coursework and training. For example, John Deere is pursuing a division-wide Build-To-Demand order fulfillment initiative and will use a group of students to measure the Manufacturing Critical-path Time. Whirlpool teaches a negotiation training seminar.
- ISM students earned $10,000 scholarships in both 2006 and 2007 from SAP Americas University Alliances program. Read the news.
- The R. Gene Richter Scholarship Program has grown to be the largest nationally recognized scholarship program in the field of supply chain management. ISM students won the award in 2005 and 2006. Read the news.
- The ISM Student Chapter of APICS regularly participates in case competitions and won first place (out of 17 schools) in the 2006 Region 14 APICS Case Competition.
- Faculty involved with the ISM program have published research in top-quality journals including Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management and Transportation Journal.