Latest / The Intermodal Logistics Podcast / Arkansas students up to the challenge (Live from IANA EXPO)

Transcript

Arkansas students up to the challenge (Live from IANA EXPO) · The Intermodal Logistics Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to this edition of the Intermodal Logistics Podcast, live from IANA's Intermodal Expo in Long Beach, California.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Kevin Baxter, joined by my co-host, InTech Logistics President, Shelly Austin.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Shelly.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_06: Hey Kevin.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: And uh today we are uh joined by the winners of this year's case competition or academic challenge, I guess is the official name of it, right?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that is the uh team from the University of Arkansas, SEC.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so our uh guests are uh Drew Pierce, Abby Hatteau, Natalie Ollinger, and Stone Sawyer.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you all for coming.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: And uh Drew, we'll start with you.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us uh tell us your major and and kind of what got you into the logistics area.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm a business admin major.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting a minor in supply chain.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I really got introduced to this in a supply chain class last year.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: We had a similar academic challenge in one of our classes where it was a group project.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we teamed up and then uh ended up going all the way to the final, and we were able to win that case competition as well.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so when they asked us if we wanted to go to Long Beach this year, I was like, sure, that sounds like a blast.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'd never been to California, uh, but I think supply chain and logistics is always moving, it's always changing, there's always a problem to solve.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and just like seeing the the way that you can think through a problem, solve the problem, uh, and just that it's always changing.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're not coming in and doing the same thing every single day.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think that's one thing that that really draws me into supply chain.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I sat down with my advisor and he just said, you know, your major's looking a little bland.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: You're getting a supply chain minor.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I didn't know what that meant at the time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but here we are now.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so it's just been a lot of fun.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Race, not bland anymore.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_05: So I headed into freshman year knowing I wanted to do business, but not really sure what to do.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_05: Took my intro to supply chain class and just kind of fell in love with it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_05: I love numbers, I love solving problems.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_05: Everything combined, it just I don't know, drew a passion within me.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: So stuck with it, been there ever since.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think on like the logistics transportation side, kind of like what I was saying, um, you always have problems they have to face, you have to think on your feet, and getting to use numbers for that side of it has been really interesting for me.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a supply sorry, yeah.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a supply chain management major and a marketing minor.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually came in as a marketing major.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and after doing a lot of research and a lot of mulling over, I realized it's good to understand how to sell something, but that doesn't need to be my primary focus in school.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of fell in love with the method to the madness that comes with supply chain.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've always kind of found myself in very high-intensity, fast-paced environments just growing up, and that's exactly what this is every day.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I thrive in the chaos, and even with my little bit of real world experience in it, it's just kind of affirmed that love for trying to find a new challenge, new problem to solve.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you fix one problem, there's always gonna be another one that pops up, and it's just a new thing every day.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a double major in finance and supply chain.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_04: I originally came in with the goal of going finance, but took the intro class similar to Abby and just absolutely fell in love with it.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_04: I think what really drew me to it is just the complexity again, the fact that it involves so many different moving parts.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: There's so many different aspects of business that you get to look at and kind of deal with on a daily basis.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not just one simple fix, there's always multiple variables to consider, and that just really piqued an interest with me.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Excellent.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I was fortunate enough to be able to judge this one crowd here, and I will tell you that it is the one of my favorite, probably my you know, Kevin, probably my favorite paint.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: She talks about this a lot.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_06: I do talk, I do talk about it a lot.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: Very, very passionate about it.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_06: I'm glad we converted you.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_06: You know, marketing took the sidestep and you moved right in.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_06: There was supply.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, marketing's not so bad.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_06: We we did your supply chain, Kevin.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_06: You you may think you're marketing, but you're you're there.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, that that that's sort of the illustration right here is that all the different things that you can do.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_06: I agree.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_06: All right, sorry.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Don't wanna don't want to cut you off.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but anyway, I just was fascinated.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_06: Your your information was amazing, spot on.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_06: But what I really love was your confidence, right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_06: That's what we need in this industry, is we need that confidence.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_06: We need that ability to just step out there.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_06: You all have picked up on it that it's ever-changing.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_06: There's there's just nothing the same.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_06: That's what I've always said in our industry.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_06: It's not like we're, you know, clock watching, oh, eight to five, time to go home.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_06: No.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so that's what I loved.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_06: Is it was your confidence in just getting in there.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_06: So we did ask a similar question.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_06: It, you know, the judges did, but I take it a little bit.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_06: Tell me about this competition.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_06: You said you were in another competition.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_06: Just what did you really enjoy about this competition and what was probably one of the most challenging things about it?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think the five-hour time limit was definitely the most challenging.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we coming into it, you're not told anything about the case, you're not told anything about what you need to solve for.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone gets told the case at the same time.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: You get it handed out, then you guys go to your room and you've got five hours.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I mentioned this yesterday as well, but really learning to block out the noise of okay, what do we really need to focus on?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: What are the numbers we need to focus on, the the actual core problem that we're trying to solve for?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so many little things in there that if you focus on it, you can really confuse yourself and kind of get overwhelmed.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, I think the most fun thing, and I think all of us agree, is like our team and being able to work together and just learn one another.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I think we all worked very well together.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we had some analytical people, we had some people that were able to find innovative solutions and different things like that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think the hardest part was that time limit.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it was challenging because you know, when you submit the presentation, you can't edit it.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so we went back and we noticed, oh, some of our page numbers are wrong because we had moved the slide and so just little things like that that we never would have noticed.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it now though.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a lot of fun for us.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_06: Excellent.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_05: So to kind of give you a layout of the five hours in the room together.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_06: That now I'm ready.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: It's kind of like what Drew mentioned.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_05: We all like were thinking different ways.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: So we had some people, Drew was doing jumping jacks, um, Stone was facing.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_05: The room was crazy.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I probably walked a mile.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: The room was so cold.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_05: The room was cold, and I was just sitting in my chair the whole time.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_05: And so we had everyone like on different wavelengths, reacting different ways.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that was one of my favorite parts, but also one of the hardest parts is everyone spitting out different like ideas, or they're at different parts in the case.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_05: And how do you come together and say, no, this is what we're gonna do, this is what we're gonna achieve.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think like, like he was saying, like, block out the noise, but also take all this noise and put it together and focus on what's important.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: I agree, couldn't have said it better.
• 6:58
  unknown: Yeah.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: What was the case, first of all?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, let uh oh, that's great.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Let let's uh let's back up a little bit.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: You've talked about kind of how you how you solved it, but take us through kind of what the the actual case was that you're knocking out.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the case was kind of a very classic intermodal problem.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we had two cities that had very different volumes of demand going in and out of their cities, so there's a very imbalanced headhall versus backhaul.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we were trying to introduce an intermodal option for transportation into those two cities in this lane.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and our goals while doing that was one to maximize profit, two, to find like an optimal market share to take.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to, we didn't want to be a competitor, we wanted to be an addition or a supplement, another option.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so we tried to do that.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we had to try to find an optimized rate per container was one thing they were looking for.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also had to take into consideration how the truckers would feel that we were taking away some of their business or and how to deal with our um retail part, our intermotor retail partners.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was all about how we can take some of this market share and provide savings to the customer without creating a volatile reaction because all this freight was being run by the trucking community at that time.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so we wanted to learn, okay, what was the best percent market share for us to take for us to be profitable as a railroad, but not to create a volatile reaction where, okay, now the truckers are cutting their rates, now we can't match that.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're actually ending up losing money uh because all the freight's going back to trucking, as well as creating a consistent cycle for our train schedule to make sure we're staying on time and actually able to deliver competitively with the trucking industry.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was a short to mid-haul, uh, which is something that Intermodal is perceived slower in.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so in this case, we were able to actually show, hey, we're able to do this in the same amount of time, if not faster than trucks actually.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, how familiar were uh were you with Intermodal, for instance, Natalie, before you uh got in here?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, you know, everybody knows truckload.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's the most straightforward version of uh freight, but uh with intermodal, uh in terms of what you've studied so far, how much was that uh a part of it and how much have you kind of picked up just uh being involved in this?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'd say as far as picking up information, I've definitely learned a lot from being involved and kind of bouncing ideas off of not just the classmates, but also specifically this team.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's definitely a great way to kind of grow your knowledge.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: I will say I came in with a general understanding.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: I had taken one supply chain class that obviously led to our spring case competition, which is similar, is over intermodal stuff as well.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_04: So that definitely kind of helped prep me for this.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: So my knowledge of intermodal was fairly decent, but I'd say I definitely grew a lot here, just kind of getting to understand more on a complex level and take into application practice of what we're learning, how it's learning, how we're actually building a solution, and kind of act as consultants in a way.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_04: So that was definitely a huge aspect of it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_06: So outside of um the competition itself, let's talk about Expo.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_06: Right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_06: This is cool.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, have you been to many things like this?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_06: No.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, so tell me about when you're walking around and you're looking at the floor, you you you meet all these people.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_06: What what is something that you think is exciting in the internet?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_06: Like, because it, you know, our business, you can do anything.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_06: You can do marketing.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_06: See, I did I get your crop, see?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_06: You can do marketing, you can do finance, you can do engineering, you can do operations, you there's everything in this space, right?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_06: And we've got the the different modes.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_06: You've got trucking, we've got the rail, we've got all these things which you guys know a lot about because you did great.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_06: Um, what what's driving each one of you?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_06: Like, what do you think is really cool?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_06: Is there a certain piece of this you like?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'll answer first.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think one thing just the cool that uh across like walking across the floor in in supply chain in our in my internship experience, it's cool it's interesting to see how the plan that you create with create create with your supply chain has to kind of meet the projections and the demands of every single department in that business.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so seeing how all the different departments are represented on that floor and the different people who are looking for the different niches uh is really interesting just because it shows the depth of how many opportunities there are in this um in this uh career path.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for me, I love dealing with people.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a people person.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it's uh driver facing, whether it's customer experience, whether it's dealing with teammates, I I love just having to deal with people rather than numbers.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was that's where I accepted.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the expo is cool.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, walking around, you're seeing all the different parts that go into making intermodal happen.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I went to a booth that was literally just lighting, like big stadium lighting.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they were like, well, yeah, we do a lot of sporting facility lighting.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's funny because you're like, why are you at the intermodal expo?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: But it's because that goes into having that all over the ports to make sure there's good lighting for people to continue.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, freight's moving 24-7.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something that I think I've realized more and more as I've taken classes and just had internship experiences, seeing freight is always moving.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like we go to bed, freight goes to bed.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's not how the world works, that's not how we can function as uh, and so just like seeing all the different parts from lighting all the way to actual innovations to the truck and electric trucks and things like that.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's just cool to see how many different parts there are and you know, relationships with all these different companies is vital for intermodal success in the first place.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's the coolest part of being here is just seeing how much action goes into intermodal in in general.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I would say kind of like what Drew said, there's just so many different parts that go into it, and just learning about all of them, there's the robot dog or something.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's really interesting learning about that.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_05: But also just talking to these people, seeing how excited they are for this next generation is really cool to see as someone who's about to graduate and just knowing that they're gonna pour into us and develop us.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: For me, it's definitely one of the most interesting things, just in general, also about supply chain as well, but specifically intermodal is how complex and vast it is and how many different aspects of business it reaches.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it reaches literally everything from suppliers, very niche tiny companies to these large corporations.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I just think there's so much potential and complexity to think about.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_04: And that is kind of like a puzzle to me.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: Everything else is a puzzle.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_06: It really is.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_06: Very good.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: So one thing I think that we can take away from this is all the other schools are gonna do their own case competitions before they come next year.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because it obviously works for them.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh yeah, so uh the case competition has wrapped up and uh you know, great job to all of you.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: We really appreciate thank you having you on, and uh best of luck as you uh finish up the the conference and then head back uh back to school.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for your time.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate your time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for judging us and giving us feedback and we really appreciate it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for judging us.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's yeah, I don't know if I've heard that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for taking the time.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you guys.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you for joining us on this edition of the Intermodal Logistics Podcast.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can find us wherever you get your podcasts, and uh, please do drop a comment or a question, and you can email us at podcast at intechlogistics.com or more about in tech logistics.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: The company is available at www.intechlogistics.com as well for Shelly Austin and the entire University of Arkansas team here.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us, and we'll be back again soon with another episode.