May 2017 News from Tauber Institute for Global Operations

It's not just game-changing. It's globe-changing.

News for alumni & friends

May 2017

Damian Beil joins Tauber Leadership in July

The Tauber Institute welcomes Ross Professor of Technology and Operations Damian Beil as our next Business School Co-Director! Our current Business School Co-Director Amitabh Sinha will be taking a leave of absence from Michigan to pursue an exciting research opportunity with Amazon. Dr. Beil has been an integral part of the Tauber community for several years as a faculty advisor for award-winning Tauber teams, and considers Tauber to be "one of the best things U-M has to offer students and faculty."

Learn more about Professor Beil >

Connect with Tauber this June

Join your Tauber network in locations across the country to connect with fellow alumni, students, and staff. Take an exclusive facility tour, hear the latest Institute updates, meet up with students completing their Team Projects, and gain an insider view on industry trends. We look forward to seeing you!

June 9	Tauber Field Trek: Menlo Innovations
June 15	Tauber Turnout: Washington D.C.
June 16	Tauber Field Trek: Boeing Everett
June 19	Tauber Turnout: Austin (Round Rock)
June 20	Tauber Turnout: Minneapolis

Space for some events is limited. Register now >

ISE Magazine Final Five:
Tauber Fellow Chhavi Chaudhry

Chhavi Chaudhry (BSE/MSE-IOE '17) loves to share her enthusiasm for engineering, and was recently selected by ISE for a "Final Five" profile. Chaudhry's 2016 Tauber team developed a green transportation strategy for Dow's global supply chain, providing a pathway for Dow to influence fuel economy improvements in the trucking industry to reduce CO2 emissions by 180,000 tons over the next 10 years. Her work with elementary students through BLUElab Woven Wind is empowering the next generation to achieve sustainability through smart engineering.

Read what inspired Chhavi to become an engineer in her ISE Final Five Interview >


	The 2014 Cummins Team of Ankur Agarwal (MSCM '14), Joshua Ma (BSE/MSE-IOE '15), & Nikhil Vajandar (MSCM '14) won first place at Spotlight! Now Argawal is an alumni mentor for Amazon teams in Seattle.

Alumni Connections: mentorship launch

This summer, every Tauber Project Team has an alumni mentor, thanks to the efforts of Mentorship Chair Joshua Ma (BSE/MSE-IOE '15) and the Student Mentoring Committee. In the short term, students may seek advice to get the big check Ma won with his 2014 Cummins Team, but as Joshua writes in his blog, "When you take the time to find a great mentor, you gain access to a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, but also end up with a lifelong friend."

Joshua Ma's Alumni Connections blog >

Committed to continuous improvement

The Tauber Institute applies continuous improvement to our academic operations, regularly measuring the effectiveness of instruction, gathering input from stakeholders, and piloting innovative programs. Just this academic year, Tauber faculty and staff tested new LeadershipAdvantage modules, revised recruiting and networking formats, and produced a digital library to help students acquire new skills on-location and on-demand. In the months ahead we'll share more news about our ongoing projects.

More photos from 2016-17 leadership modules >

Tauber Team 3M in the Twin Cities

"The average person is within 10 feet of a 3M product at all times and comes in contact with over 17 different 3M products every day!... Having come to Tauber with a background in financial services and large-scale implementation of service based operations, I was eager to see the manufacturing side, where tangible items are being produced, especially across multiple industries. Mapping an international value stream will give me the opportunity to explore and understand a manufacturing process and supply chain from end to end."

Read MBA student Kim Moore's blog about her 2017 Team Project >

Positive Business Conference video

Couldn't attend this year's Positive Business Conference? You can access video feeds from all mainstage conference sessions. Watch a diverse array of industry and business thought leaders present the latest information on positive business approaches that yield extraordinary results.

Watch Positive Business Conference videos >
More about conference topics and speakers >

Take your place in Michigan history

To celebrate our bicentennial, U-M is taking a snapshot of our entire Maize and Blue family with an official Alumni Census. You can make your mark on the history books by taking a moment to complete the Census now.

Count yourself in as a proud Wolverine! >

U-M has a new, official Chinese name: 密西根大学

The University of Michigan's new, official Chinese name is 密西根大学. U-M Vice President of Research S. Jack Hu unveiled the name during the Pan Asia alumni reunion in Shanghai. Hu says the characters reflect U-M's Midwest roots and resonate with the "Champions of the West" lyric in "The Victors."

Learn more about Michigan's new Chinese name >


Known for their innovative ideas, Tauber students can also think inside the box.

Tauber solutions:
Making smart factories smarter

The Challenge: Stanley Black & Decker CribMaster developed a smart factory solution that enables real-time tracking of assets, and installed it in one facility as a proof of concept. Their 2016 Tauber team had two distinct goals: 1) utilize the smart factory deployment for lean transformation on site, and 2) help define the value proposition and commercialization approach to bring the smart factory solution to market.

The Solution: For the first goal, the Tauber team conducted a Rapid Plant Assessment, then held three events to address opportunities to improve operations: a kaizen for the scheduling process, a development focus group for manufacturing execution, and a full site value stream mapping activity. Based on these events, the Tauber team recommended a mixed model line, which will result in a 3% reduction in direct labor spend, a gain of $400K in working capital, and a lead time reduction of 50%. For the second goal, the Tauber team worked with Development and Marketing teams to analyze the technical capabilities of the smart factory solution, customer needs, market potential, and competitive threats. Ultimately, the Tauber team recommended a focused approach for commercialization, initially geared towards maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) assets tracking within aviation and naval industries. This solution could deliver over $100M in annual revenue.