Both supply chain management degree programs at the Naveen Jindal School of Management are ranked among the top 10 North American programs according to a report by Gartner, a technological research and consulting firm.

The Master of Science in Supply Chain Management STEM program is ranked No. 4 and the Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management is ranked No. 8.

Dr. David Widdifield, assistant dean of academic operations at the Jindal School, said his team put a lot of effort into making sure that the graduate program is competitive.

“For its ranking, Gartner looks at three factors — academic curriculum with supply chain end-to-end focus, industry awareness and value, and program size,” he said. “Over the last few years, we’ve worked hard on making the industry aware of our program, its curriculum, and the value that our students bring to our business partners’ firms. Additionally, we have built a large body of program ambassadors through our great alumni.”

Widdifield said that the relatively young program has become much more well-rounded since it began in 2008 and continues to evolve tomeet industry challenges.

“We’ve sought to create a program that has an end-to-end view of the supply chain, one that offers value for our customers — those companies that end up hiring our graduates,” he said. “Students are required to complete either an internship or a capstone project, both of which shorten the learning curve and make them job ready.”

Dr. Monica Brussolo, an associate professor of instruction in the Jindal School’s Operations Management Area and director of the undergraduate program, said one thing that sets the Jindal School’s undergraduate supply chain management program apart from other top programs is the educational emphasis or program scope. The Jindal School supply chain program emphasizes all three pillars of the supply-chain network: sourcing, operations and logistics.

“Industry professionals consistently express to me that we are doing a great job of instilling this mindset in our students,” he said. “When they come out of our program, they often find themselves entering the firm responsible for the development of solutions which span not only operational and tactical levels of the supply chain but also the strategic level.”

“If we were to spend time looking at all the programs, there seems to be a tendency of primarily concentrating on logistics and transportation,” she said. “Nowadays, what we experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the pieces of the supply chain puzzle that became so critical was sourcing, which is different than logistics. We have a curriculum that satisfies all three pillars. In conversations with the industry, we hear that they feel we are preparing more rounded students because they have a better understanding of other critical pieces or different parts of the supply chain.”

Widdifield said that the students who graduate from the Jindal School’s MS in supply-chain management program go into industry not only as problem solvers but also have the ability to quickly begin contributing value to the companies that hire them, positively impacting both revenue and profit lines.