CSCMP announces second year of its global supply chain simulation competition

This summer in Rio, world-class athletes had a chance to showcase their talent, training, and resiliency at the Summer Olympic Games. Similarly supply chain professionals from around the world will once again have the chance to test their talent, training, and resiliency through the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) virtual supply chain competition, known as the Roundtable Global Challenge.

Now entering its second year, the Roundtable Global Challenge is organized by CSCMP's Young Professionals Committee and sponsored by third-party logistics provider APL Logistics. This interactive educational event has teams of four supply chain professionals competing against one another in a supply chain simulation game called The Fresh Connection. The game was created by the Netherlands-based company Inchainge.

Part of the goal of the Challenge is to bridge the generational gap by making sure that teams consist of a mix of young professionals, middle management, and senior executives. This year's winning team, for example, hails from EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia, and includes the head of the department of product engineering, members of the school's continuing education program, and a master's student.

In this way, the competition creates a platform where millennials and seasoned professionals discuss and critique potential supply chain strategies for the same fictional company.

It was the success of the cross-generational interaction that made CSCMP want to run the challenge again. "The Roundtable Global Challenge created a unique opportunity for supply chain professionals of different ages and career stages to bond and work together on a variety of simulations for a fictional company," said Pam Scheibenreif, CSCMP's director of member services and roundtables. "It was a fun way to put supply chain skills and knowledge to test!"

The challenge begins with each roundtable holding local competitions among multiple teams to ensure that the best team is selected to represent the group in the Roundtable Global Challenge. Local competitions will be held between January 1, 2017 and March 31, 2017, with registration opening on October 1, 2016.

Each team will encounter challenging scenarios, requiring the collective knowledge and experience of team members to make the best tactical and strategic decisions.

Roundtables will then choose a team from the local challenge to represent them in a global challenge, which will consist of three rounds of gameplay. The seven top-scoring teams will be invited to participate in the Roundtable Global Final, a virtual competition held June 24, 2017. Each member of the winning team will receive an all-expense paid trip to CSCMP's Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, September 24-27, 2017, where team members will be invited on stage and recognized for their accomplishments.

For more information about the 2017 Roundtable Global Challenge, visit roundtableglobalchallenge.org or contact Pam Scheibenreif, director member services and roundtables, at +1 630.645.3470 or pscheibenreif@cscmp.org.