The school, which has summer co-ops, business internship opportunities and longstanding relationships with industry, fulfills its mission of instilling confidence, competence and professionalism, thus preparing students for jobs immediately upon graduation.<\/p>\n
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Assistant Professor Kirk Langford guides Sergio Irrizarry in working with MercuryGate, a widely used multimodal TMS (Transportation Management System).<\/p><\/div>\n
What is logistics?<\/h3>\n
\u201cNothing moves without logistics,\u201d says Donald Maier, the school\u2019s dean since 2011. \u201cOther MMA programs teach how to manage and move a ship. We look at the last mile, as we refer to it. Once freight comes off the ship, logistics makes sure the customers receive their goods on time. We look at the process from beginning to end, from raw materials to finished goods, to the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maier offers an example: \u201cWhere does a pencil come from? Everyone says, \u2018China.\u2019 But it [typically] comes from different companies around the world. The eraser might come from South Korea, the tin from China, the lead from the U.S., and the wood from somewhere else, and it\u2019s all assembled in Mexico and then distributed from the U.S. That\u2019s just a simple pencil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, look at a product like a Boeing aircraft. Boeing is able to produce 52 aircraft (of its 737 produced annually) in one month. Imagine supplying that kind of operation. That\u2019s what logistics is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of the school\u2019s founding, global trade was on an upswing along with associated technologies. \u201cSo from our perspective, it was a normal transition to get into logistics,\u201d says Maier. \u201cGoods were moving across borders and different trade agreements were coming online.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school was founded in 1987 as a graduate program. It was first directed by Wallace Reed, a former Naval officer who taught for 21 years at MMA. Dr. Shashi Kumar \u201987, now Deputy Associate Administrator and National Coordinator for Maritime Education and Training at the U.S. Maritime Administration had earned his M.S. in Maritime Management at MMA and was chosen to teach in the LSS graduate program, with a joint appointment in the Department of Nautical Science (now Marine Transportation Operations).<\/p>\n
Other MMA programs teach how to manage and move a ship. We look at the last mile, as we refer to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Early on, LSS was a modular program offering a master\u2019s degree in maritime management and designed as an introduction into business for seagoing officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were seven modules and graduate students could take two courses a module,\u201d says Professor George Schatz, appointed in 1989 to LSS, also with a joint appointment in Nautical Science.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very demanding program. Each module was just under four weeks in length,\u201d says Schatz.<\/p>\n
Modules allowed merchant mariners to meld studies with their work schedules. Into the early 1990s, about half the students were from countries other than the U.S., attracted by MMA\u2019s reputation, the modular schedule and the idea of folding business courses into ship management. \u201cWe had a market niche,\u201d says Schatz. But in time other programs eclipsed that advantage.<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, Kumar, with assistance from Schatz, began pushing for an undergraduate program, which was instituted in 1997. The launch of undergraduate studies was timely.
\n\u201cLogistics became important to a lot of companies,\u201d says Schatz. \u201cWe were right there, alone in New England and almost alone in the nation with an undergraduate program.\u201d<\/p>\nIn 2003, the department moved its graduate program from modules to semesters. Year-round online graduate classes added in 2013 for working professionals have been a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many people with good, full-time positions who aren\u2019t willing or able to give that up to go back to school,\u201d says Maier. \u201cWe wanted to offer a program that goes where the market is\u2014across the U.S. and around the world. Some of our students are MMA alumni who ship out and do classwork on their ships or oil platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Operations Center lab is one of only a few of its kind in the world<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The faculty has grown from three full-time professors to six. Undergraduate enrollment nearly doubled in recent years, from about 20 to nearly 40 incoming freshmen annually. Graduate enrollment averages 15 on campus and 24 online. The curriculum evolved significantly over the years, remaining aligned with a generalized business core but with increasing emphasis on supply chain and logistics. Co-ops and internships have proven invaluable and a cornerstone for LSS students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe require all our students between their junior and senior years to complete a co-op,\u201d Maier says. \u201cThat provides our students the opportunity to work 12 weeks with a company to gain experience. We\u2019ve had very good success with the number of companies that take students on a co-op then hire them for full-time positions. We also strongly encourage our freshmen and sophomores to do internships. That makes them even more marketable when they go for their junior co-op.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department has developed strong relationships with companies across the nation. Recent employers of LSS graduates include Amazon, Bechtel, Boeing, Carnival Cruise Lines, Caterpillar, Cianbro, Crowley, Exxon-Mobil, General Dynamics, Delhaize, International Paper, L.L. Bean, Pepsi, Poland Spring, Sappi Fine Papers, Strategic Maintenance Solutions and Wallenius-Wilhemsen.<\/p>\n
LSS is a popular choice for students attracted to MMA by its reputation and high job placement rate, but who don\u2019t want to ship out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey realize they want something to do with business, and more than just a generalized business program,\u201d says Maier. \u201cMost students come to MMA for the hands-on experience. In logistics, they\u2019re knee-deep in operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what Kirk Langford, an assistant professor in LSS\u2019s undergraduate and graduate programs, loves about LSS and MMA in general. Now in his second year with LSS, he arrived after a 35-year career, retiring as director of global operations with Baker Hughes, a $20 billion global technical service company.<\/p>\n
Graduate students participate in a Lean-Sixigma Yellow Belt Quality training seminar in the Logistics Lab.<\/p><\/div>\n
Langford recalled when he was in industry, \u201cWe had a very high attrition rate because we were recruiting for a tough business. People had to work hard and be outside. MMA is great for that. Everything about this school is about working hands-on and the idea you have to go outside in the rain and pick up a wrench if necessary. If I go elsewhere, nobody wants to get dirt on their fingers, which is not the case here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langford\u2019s courses include freight transportation and international business. For example, his sophomore logistics freight course this year includes a fleet management lab and an introduction to a commercially popular transportation management system, MercuryGate, which is \u201chow the big kids do freight in the real world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current thrust in many businesses is to create efficient and robust supply chains. And logistics is the glue that holds supply chains together. So it\u2019s a good time to be in logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaina Scheuchzer \u201905 can attest to the can-do attitude fostered by the school\u2019s programming. She\u2019s an alumna with a bachelor\u2019s degree from MMA\u2019s marine engineering program and a master\u2019s degree from LSS. She then went on to work with global shipping companies and International Paper, and now she\u2019s an assistant professor with LSS and also coordinator of its summer co-op program.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my students went directly into a procurement role,\u201d says Scheuchzer. \u201cShe was nervous about it, but e-mailed me over the summer and said, \u2018I\u2019m really glad you made us call suppliers and contractors to get pricing and quotes, because I was able to pick up the phone confidently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have students email us saying because of the way we prepared them, they are much more professional than their peers educated elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Logistics Operation Center<\/h3>\n
Recently launched, a new Dismukes Hall LSS laboratory allows students to simulate a production line, warehouse operation, inventory system, marketing plans and activity-based costing. The vision<\/p>\n
In class<\/p><\/div>\n
of the lab is to be integrated across all business classes so that, theoretically, sophomore accounting students are able to develop balance sheets and income statements based on lab data, and juniors would develop production plans in the production\/operations management course followed by procuring materials for the lab in the procurement course. This will also continue while freshmen work on the production line and seniors supervise freshmen as part of their organization behavior course. Graduate students would constitute the executive leadership team that oversees operation and delivering strategies.<\/p>\n
The faculty plans to involve students across IBL curricula, including marketing, production, assembly, warehousing, transportation, group dynamics, continuous improvement, and accounting. The vision is to also integrate with other program courses such as engineering graphics and 3-D printing. The lab, which is one of only a few of its kind in the world, is being equipped to handle inventory that comprises supplies for MMA\u2019s waterfront operations.\u2588<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2014, graduate students completing their strategic capstone project with Professors Mark Shaughnessy, George Schatz, and Dr. Donald Maier in the Loeb-Sullivan School (LSS) of International Business and Logistics, drafted an extensive strategic plan for Bangor International Airport (BGR) to build out as a hub for freight transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBangor International is primarily a passenger airport, but BGR management and our faculty felt it had a possibility of becoming a freight airport as well,\u201d says Shaughnessy.<\/p>\n
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