In a strong competition against eight of the most renowned US universities, the team from Darmstadt, Germany, finished an excellent second at the 6th International Graduate Logistics Case Competition in Chicago.
The case was based on Deere & Company in 2001. Within 24 hours, the students had to examine the company’s relationship with the logistics service provider FedEx. The aim was to recommend the optimal strategy concerning in- and outsourcing of logistics activities in order to achieve cost reductions and competitive advantage.
The solution had to be presented to a ‘board’ (which in this case was made up of high-level executives from sponsor companies).
The students from Darmstadt, who are going for a joint Masters Degree in business administration and engineering sciences, were able to impress the jury with an excellent presentation of their creative approach. In a challenging question and answer section, the team convincingly showed a united position and was able to emphasise the sound analysis and the practical orientation of their solution.
And so it was that Stephan Bingemer, Jan Buchmann, Michael Konopka, Robert Möller-Holtkamp and Christian Thiel qualified for the final where two teams were able to present their solution again to a bigger jury. The German team achieved a very creditable second place behind Pennsylvania State University.
Thus the team demonstrated that last year’s victory wasn’t a flash in the pan – and showed again the high quality of logistics education in Darmstadt. It was coached by Professor Hans-Christian Pfohl and Michael Trumpfheller, Chair of Management and Logistics at the Darmstadt University of Technology, and by Aqil Khan, Bearingpoint, Frankfurt.
Generous sponsorship by BearingPoint made the participation of this, the only non- US team, possible.
