Two teams from UP successfully completed the qualifying rounds of the Fresh Connection APICS Supply Chain Challenge and managed to secure a place in the global challenge taking place between 27 April and 5 June 2015.
Teams from universities and business schools across the globe annually compete against each other in the Fresh Connection APICS Global Student Challenge. During 2014, 345 teams with over 1 350 students from 57 countries competed in the first ever Fresh Connection APICS Global Student Challenge.
The teams have to save a fictional fruit juice company, the Fresh Connection, from financial ruin. As the company is suffering severe losses, a new management team has to be appointed and each student takes a role in this team. The assignment is to make the company profitable again by realising the highest possible return on investment. The participants do this by making strategic and tactical decisions and optimisations to the complete value chain.
Both teams from the University of Pretoria, consisting of two honours and six master’s degree students under the guidance of Wesley Niemann, programme manager of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Business Management, have realised a positive return on investment in the qualifying rounds to secure a place in the global challenge.
Prior to the APICS Conference taking place in October 2015, there will be a spectacular final in Las Vegas, USA, where the continent winners of the challenge will compete alongside nine APICS District Case Competition winners to become the Fresh Connection World Champion.
“The Department of Business Management is extremely proud of our students in Supply Chain Management and wishes them the very best with the global challenge,” says Mr Niemann.
Virtual Campus
Get Social With Us
Download the UP Mobile App