UNB Students Tackle Real-Life Problems at J.D. Irving Limited Case Competition
Hands-on work experiences have helped UNB student Anna Wyllie see what she describes as “the intersection of business administration and engineering.”
As a business student with UNB’s Faculty of Management, Wyllie participated in the Supply Chain Competition sponsored by J.D. Irving, Limited and got hands-on experience with real-life problems faced by industry.
“The problem we had to solve was a case study where a railway company was expanding their operations to handle international, intermodal container freight coming in from cargo ships at a regional port,” Wyllie explains. “The challenge was adapted from JDI’s own experiences with their railway operations.”
Wyllie says she focused on the problems of loading optimization, a task that had to be solved using the constraints of real-life infrastructure like the company’s distribution centre and rail yard, to reduce delays or congestion.
“The direct incorporation of a local business stakeholder into university curriculum is a unique feature of this competition,” says UNB business professor Dr. Donglei Du.
“The interaction between the students and the practitioners exposes students to real-life problems and brings home why the material we cover in class can be useful and relevant to solve practical problems.”
This is the second year the Faculty of Management has partnered with the J.D. Irving, Limited Supply Chain Case Competition, in connection with the business course taught by Dr. Du.
“This was my first experience with this type of event since graduating myself from UNB in 2007,” says Christian Belliveau, director of safety and maintenance at NBM Railways, which was involved in the competition.
NBM Railway provided a case study for students to work on throughout the semester. Meanwhile, J.D. Irving, Limited mentors returned in April to judge the competitors.
“It was great to see the next generation of our workforce engaged in helping solve problems that our businesses are faced with each day. The dedication and commitment to their education was evident in the quality and professionalism of their presentations.”
Wyllie and her teammates were the recipients of the $1,500 prize for winning the competition.
“I didn’t expect us to win. I think we had a sense we had a good presentation but some of the other teams had some very innovative ideas — stuff with blockchain technologies, or digital twin models of the entire railway,” Wyllie says. “But I think JDI liked how concise and clear we were with our ideas and how we presented them confidently and responded to questions well.”
She says her three teammates all made important contributions. The cooperation with industry partners, was an invaluable part of the experience.
“I really enjoyed the collaborative element of it. It’s great to do a group project dealing with real-life issues. I did the Bank of Canada’s Monetary Policy Challenge with my UNB Economics classmates the last couple years too, and this felt similar in the sense that it sort of simulates the feeling of collaboration working in industry.”
The Supply Chain competition project included elements capitalizing on the strengths and weaknesses of different classes of railroads, strategies for loading and unloading freight containers, and forward-looking green technologies that could be adopted to get ahead of the net-zero curve for 2050.
“I think this competition helped me realize that my interest in networks and logistics systems isn’t purely limited to top-level supply chain management. I would absolutely enjoy working for a railway, or a public transit system,” Wyllie says.
Even though she’s not currently working in supply chain management, she says the lessons she learned are still applicable.
“I’m now working in payments system infrastructure. For me that’s sort of a similar mindset to supply chain — these are large-scale networks with flows and exchange where the infrastructure you’re supporting enables mass commerce, including buyers, sellers, retailers, consumers.”
“Ideally, if it’s running smoothly, it’s sort of ‘in the background’ — you send someone money and you expect them to be able to quickly and easily receive it, just like if you order a product online or you go to a retail store you expect to be able to get what you want. But it’s these innovative tech and logistics systems in the background that are creating that convenience.”
This story is sponsored by the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Management.