John Taylor interviewed on soft skills in Automotive Logistics magazine
General Motors’ executive director for global supply chain, Todd Scott, meets frequently with the faculties of several universities. At Cranfield University School of Management – ranked number one outside the United States in Supply Chain World’s annual Top 100 Universities survey – senior supply chain executives from industry, including the automotive sector, sit on an advisory board tasked with helping to ensure the school’s supply chain expertise remains firmly focused on industry’s needs. At logistics provider Ryder System, meanwhile, group director for automotive operations Jeff Kosloski describes a formal university relationship programme, complete with recently appointed ambassadors for key universities with which the company has established internship programmes.
John Taylor, chair of the department of supply chain management within the Mike Ilitch School of Business, points to how such interactions have shaped his own school’s offering. As opposed to many other university logistics and supply chain management programmes that are heavily focused on industries such as consumer packaged goods, he observes, Wayne State’s focus is much more on complex manufacturing – and specifically the automotive industry.
