Spotlight! 2023 Team Project Showcase and Scholarship Competition concludes, and the winner is...

Ann Arbor, MI - The SPOTLIGHT! event is an annual competitive presentation of operations solutions developed by Tauber Institute business + engineering student teams during their 14-week team projects at top global companies. The 2023 Tauber team projects returned a projected savings of $820.3 million, in addition to valuable workflow and sustainability improvements. The 2023 project sponsors were Amazon, American Industrial Partners, Becton, Dickinson, and Company, The Boeing Company, BrandSafway, Conagra Foods, Ford Motor Company, MillerKnoll, Mayo Clinic, Modine Manufacturing, Nestle Purina, Stanley Black & Decker, Starbucks, Target, and Washington Gas.

A panel of distinguished judges from diverse industries selected first-place, second place, and third-place winners, announced by Tauber Institute benefactor Joel Tauber at the SPOTLIGHT! 2023 Team Project Showcase and Scholarship Competition on September 15. Students on winning teams each received $ 5,000 scholarships for first place, $ 4,000 for second, and $ 3,000 for third.

First Place: Target Corporation

Optimizing the Presentation and Sequencing Criteria of CONS Freight for ART Inbound Receipt

Congratulations to the Tauber team of Alexios Avrassoglou (EGL (BSE/MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering), Santiago Currea (EGL BSE/MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering), and Austin Tauber (no relation) (EGL (BSE Chemical/MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering) who worked on the Target project. In 2023, Target expects that 17.7M cartons weekly within RDCs must be processed through automated print and apply technologies to maximize throughput and productivity efficiency. Inbound logistics struggles to meet these throughput goals during peak weeks due to the lack of defined loading criteria and load sequencing in trailers destined for Target from 3PL Consolidator and De-consolidator facilities. This project focuses on developing standardized loading and unloading sequencing criteria for 3PL partners from these facilities to meet peak weekly throughput demands at RDCs.

Second Place: Modine Manufacturing

Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP) Model for Modine's Air-Cooled Applications Business

Congratulations to the Tauber student team of Abrajeedhan Srilatha (Master of Business Administration) and Griffin Riley (BTS, BBA/Master of Supply Chain Management) who helped to create a connected view of global capacity for the Air-Cooled Applications business by developing a standard Rough Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP) model that will eventually be integrated into Modine's Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) process.

Third Place: American Industrial Partners

Design of Steel Joist Production Scheduling System

The Tauber team of Christian George (EGL - BSE /MSE Computer Science) and Ziyu Han (EGL - BSE /MSE Computer Science) partnered with American Industrial Partners and Canam Steel Corporation to enhance the accuracy and standardization of the current work order scheduling system for steel joists. The project scope encompassed a comprehensive analysis of the routing and sequencing of the current manufacturing process. The goal was to develop a roadmap to a more accurate scheduling system that enables standardization in sequencing, thereby improving visibility and efficiency in the production of steel joist products with varying complexities.

The Tauber Institute for Global Operations is a joint venture between the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and Michigan 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.