Sam Nocera [00:00:00]:

The way that the industry is going, it's just, it's not sustainable. Like, and I don't know for how much longer we're going to be able to keep at this, but in my mind, none of this is sustainable and I'd love to just be able to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:19]:

Welcome to Supply Chain Now the number one voice of Supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Luton and special guest host Deborah Dull with you right here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show. Deborah, how are you doing today, my friend?

Deborah Dull [00:00:44]:

I'm doing great, Scott. As you can hear, I am in an airport. I tried my hardest to avoid this, but I am joining you on the go, but couldn't miss the chance to introduce these students to your listeners today. So I'm really excited for today's episode.

Scott W. Luton [00:00:58]:

I am too. And you know what? Deborah Dull in the airport is, is, is still a great guest and special co host. I'll take it in a skinny minute. And I really appreciate your help in getting the panel together. So today folks, we're continuing one of my favorite series, one that we like to call the Now Generation, where we sit down with students and professional educators from some of the leading supply chain management programs around the world. And today we're diving into an exceptional panel from an incredible program that happens to be Deborah's alma mater. How about that? We're talking about Western Washington University, AKA Western. So if I, if I say that throughout the conversation, that's what we're talking about.

Scott W. Luton [00:01:45]:

So unique to this episode, we're going to be featuring an award winning team of students that amongst other things, successfully tackled a supply chain case competition. More on that in just a moment. We're also going to be talking with a teaching and education legend that is turning on light bulbs with hunt by the hundreds every single day. So folks, stay tuned for a great conversation featuring brilliant minds that will be setting out to change how Supply Chain is done in the months ahead. I'll call it. Deborah, are you ready for this?

Deborah Dull [00:02:19]:

I am ready and excited.

Scott W. Luton [00:02:21]:

Ready and excited and ready to go. So with all that said, let's introduce our panel today. I'm going to start with Sam Nocera. Nocera rather. Sam, my apologies. I almost had it right the first time I said it. Sam Nocera, a first year manufacturing and supply chain management student at Western Washington University. Sam has cultivated a passion especially for sustainability and lean principles.

Scott W. Luton [00:02:46]:

And it's going to be graduating in June 2027. It's just around the corner now. After spending the first 15 years of his life in Italy, Sam has really enjoyed relocating to Washington state and plugging into the school community and local industry. Sam, great to have you. How you doing today?

Sam Nocera [00:03:02]:

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:04]:

You bet. I can't wait to dive in. And you're joined by Joshua Young, a first year student at Western in an undeclared major. Stay tuned for that. He's, he's, he's a hard sell. He's identified a couple of majors he's kicking the tires on. So we'll see if we have a eureka moment the last, the rest of the session. Now he, he's passionate about all things people related.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:29]:

Right. And, and people, hey people make all supply chain happens across the globe. Right. He's also passionate when he's, when he's not hitting the books and studying and attending classes get this dancing, fencing and even investment clubs. But there's one more thing about Joshua. He is a bow tie enthusiast and as we were saying in the pre show, life is too short not to be really interesting. Joshua Young, how you doing today?

Joshua Young [00:03:55]:

Doing amazing. Thanks for having me.

Scott W. Luton [00:03:57]:

You bet. Great to have you. And one last so beyond Sam and Joshua part of that award winning team we were talking about earlier, we're also joined by Dr. Peter Haug who serves as professor of Operations Management at Western Washington University. He's also a professor of manufacturing and supply chain management in the Department of Decision sciences at Western. Dr. Haug also serves as program director for the Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management program and the Manufacturing and Operations Management Industry Advisory Board. His teaching areas include project management, designing and improving lean operations and manufacturing and supply chain management strategy.

Scott W. Luton [00:04:42]:

And there's more. His research work concentrates on empirical studies of lean enterprise principles and mathematical techniques for global plant location decisions. Dr. Haug, how are you doing?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:04:54]:

I'm doing great, Scott. Thanks for having us on board today. This is great. Deborah, thank you for organizing this and getting it launched today. This is going to be fantastic.

Scott W. Luton [00:05:04]:

Completely agree. Completely agree. All right. So Deborah, really quick, I'm going to come to you and get your comment there. I'll tell you between the three, our three panelists that has a wealth of expertise and passion they bring to the table. But Deborah, this is indeed your alma mater. And how excited are you? I mean you know, I know you're a huge Dr. Haug fan.

Scott W. Luton [00:05:24]:

But I think you've also become a Sam and Joshua super fan too, huh?

Deborah Dull [00:05:28]:

Oh, absolutely. I've been blown away by these students. We'll talk more about the case competition and the scholarship overall. But the fact that first year students won this entire competition is always one of my favorite parts about this scholarship. One of the very, very first time we ever put it on. Dr. Haug will remember it was also a young student first year that won our very first scholarship years ago. And such a nice showcase to see what critical thinking and new ideas the students come up with.

Scott W. Luton [00:05:58]:

Oh, well said, well said. That new perspective man. The power of new perspective cannot be overstated. So with all that said, let's get into our panelists, Lamar, because I'm just scratching the surface with how I introduced them. And Sam, I'm start with you. So we learned in the pre show that you're all, you're a fellow big baseball fan. So I've got my Atlanta Braves and we'll see how this year, you know, we've had a slew of injuries last couple years. You're a big Seattle Mariners fan, is that right?

Sam Nocera [00:06:28]:

That's correct.

Scott W. Luton [00:06:29]:

So who's your fa. Who is your favorite Mariner if you had to pick one favorite Mariner of all time?

Sam Nocera [00:06:35]:

Oh, of all time. Well, so, you know, I spent the first 15 years of my life in Italy, so I'm so a pretty new fan. But the first person that comes to mind is Ichiro. I mean, to me, the fact that he wasn't unanimous when he got voted into the Baseball hall of Fame made me a little upset. But yeah, definitely Ichiro.

Scott W. Luton [00:06:57]:

Sam, I don't want to see you upset, my friend. I don't want to see you upset. But I, I'm, I was kind of upset too. Ichiro, one of the sweetest swings in the modern era and incredible. The guy would get two hits in his sleep. I think each game Sam and I would just add to that. It was probably before your fandom, but of course, Ken Griffey Jr. I know he ended up with the Reds in the last chapter of his career, but you know, he's an iconic Mariner as well.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:23]:

So between Ken Griffey and Ichiro, that's quite an offensive one, two punch, huh?

Sam Nocera [00:07:30]:

Well, and yeah, and to add something to that, my whole family's, you know, they're Mariners fans. And my dog, you might see in a few frames, his name is Griffey. Okay, so he was named, he was named after Griffey. And when my mom and my stepdad got engaged. They actually met Ken Griffey Jr. At a restaurant. Because my stepdad proposed. Proposed at the ballpark, I believe, against the Blue Jays.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:57]:

Okay.

Sam Nocera [00:07:57]:

Yeah, it was a pretty cool day.

Scott W. Luton [00:07:59]:

All right, so you got lots of Submariner tie ins, and I do hope your dog Griffey makes an appearance. I'll be disappointed if he doesn't. All right, Sam, great to have you here today. Let's switch over to Joshua. Now, Joshua, as I shared earlier, you've got tons of passions both within kind of business stuff and, and, and outside it. But I want to talk more, a little more about your bow tie fascination and, and fandom. So what's your. What's one of your favorite bow ties? Did you get it in a special place? Does it have a special look? Does it tell me more.

Joshua Young [00:08:32]:

There's a lot of great stories behind a lot of the bow ties. There's a, like a kind of a brotherhood that I'm a part of. And it's like a youth organization that was for leadership that I participate in. And there's been a couple bow ties that have gotten from there. One of them was from. It's covered in flamingos. The organization is called DeMolay, and it comes from the last, like the last grand master of the Knights Templar. His name was Jacques de Molay.

Joshua Young [00:09:01]:

And so we came up with a slogan called Join the Jacques Flock. And so it was like everyone was a DeMoLingo. And so. And so it was like a flamingo kind of a theme. And so I have like this flamingo theme bow tie. And then there's another bow tie that I got kind of from a related organization, from going to like a state level, like, convention. And then they were like. And like there was like this crowd of like 300 people or something like that.

Joshua Young [00:09:27]:

And they're like, okay, do we have any boat, like any bow tie fans in the house? And I was like, of course, I'm raising my hand. And they, they, they were like, all right, we're gonna have a bow tie tying competition and to see who can tie it the fastest. And I was like, oh, I got this on lock. This is like, no question. And so I was like one of the three people that they called up on stage. And you know, I don't normally get stage fright, but I couldn't even remember the first step of tying a bow tie once I was up there. And so I totally, like, was just not remembering until it was over. And then when I tied it, I was just like, like done in a Second.

Joshua Young [00:10:02]:

And so it was like if I had done that speed during the competition, I probably could have won it. But at the very least I got the bow tie for free. So it was a great, it's a great bow tie and it's a great story for me.

Scott W. Luton [00:10:14]:

So Joshua, I appreciate you sharing and for folks out there in our audience, if you've never tired of tied a bow tie, it is difficult. It is really difficult. And I tell you for that stretch, Joshua, that I wore one way back in college, you know, way back in the 1920s. It feels like clip on, didn't you? Well, how did you know? Also relied on muscle memory and I don't have that muscle memory anymore. So I completely get it. And I'm looking forward to seeing one of your many blow boat bow ties. And I love the flamingo tie in as well. Good stuff.

Scott W. Luton [00:10:48]:

You need to have a maybe a book written on the story behind each of those. Maybe I'll be an Amazon bestseller. We'll see. All right, so Joshua, great to have you as well. Looking forward to your perspective. All right, so Deborah, between Sam and the Mariners, of course, the dog Griffey, which I'm hoping makes an appearance. And Joshua, I'll tell you, he said he was passionate about bow ties. He illustrated that here.

Scott W. Luton [00:11:11]:

It's important that you know what they're describing in my ears at least describes a healthy work life balance that is so important in supply chain and elsewhere.

Deborah Dull [00:11:23]:

But your thoughts, they're demonstrating the behavior that I should follow myself. You know, healthy work life balance is important and shoot, I wish I had a little bit more of that myself these days. But both are fantastic. Both happily don't involve screens. I find it's often a challenge to find something that's not as I like to read books but anymore I put them on my Kindle on my phone, which doesn't get me off of screen time. So anything I can think of that doesn't involve screen. So playing with training dogs, you know, watching sports, if you're in person, that counts. And certainly gathering up bow ties, learning to tie bow ties.

Deborah Dull [00:11:58]:

So I've taken good inspiration from these two today to really examine my life and figure out how I can have non screen time during my week.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:06]:

Hey, it's so important and kidding aside that work life balance, it is. It is really tough oftentimes to manage, especially during those busiest, busier peaks of the year. Right. So good stuff there. Deborah, Sam and Joshua. Dr. Haug, I want to come to you because we have something in common. I think I think I have something coming.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:26]:

All for all. All of y'all, for matter of fact. But I hear. Because Deborah prepped me. Well, I hear you've got a passion for military logistics. I want to know confirm that for us. And if it's correct, where did that originate?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:12:44]:

Well, yes, I have been fascinated with military history as long as I can remember. Now, I grew up in western New York, where there were numerous forts and battlefields associated with the French and Indian War and the War of 1812.

Scott W. Luton [00:12:58]:

Yeah.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:12:58]:

Well, my older cousin, who had a tremendous influence on me, he and I would visit places like Fort Niagara, the battlefield of Devil's Hole. And therefore, over time, as we did these visits, and his influence grew and my fascination with military history grew, I suddenly developed a lifelong passion for military history and logistics that has been there ever since.

Scott W. Luton [00:13:23]:

So, Dr. Haug, Deborah also gave me a little tip because, you know, this day in military history, each and every day. So what's the one for today?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:13:34]:

Today, March 24, 1944, Germany. Stalag Luft 3. 78 Allied prisoners of war escape by tunneling out of the prisoner war camp. Unfortunately, 50 are captured and executed by the Gestapo.

Scott W. Luton [00:13:55]:

Oh, my gosh.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:13:56]:

25 are captured and returned to prisoner war camps. Only three made it back to England.

Scott W. Luton [00:14:03]:

Wow.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:14:04]:

This may date myself, but, of course, that story was the story behind the great movie The Great Escape.

Scott W. Luton [00:14:12]:

Ooh.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:14:13]:

So that happened today in 1944.

Sam Nocera [00:14:16]:

Wow.

Scott W. Luton [00:14:17]:

I love that. You know, I hate to call it trivia, because it. It's not trivia. Right? It. I mean, we're talking about loss of life. We're talking about World War II. We're talking about, you know, people fighting to. To get out of being imprisoned.

Scott W. Luton [00:14:32]:

But I love the factoids that are so easily unfortunately forgotten. And I love. Do you start every class with that this day in military history?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:14:42]:

I start every class with the military history moment. It gives me about a couple of minutes for everybody to settle into their seats, hear a story. Sometimes I feel some. The news is pretty bad. People may get depressed, but I try to at least educate them. That is history. People die for the way we live today.

Scott W. Luton [00:15:05]:

Yes, man, Dr. Haug. And one on a much lighter note, when it comes to military logistics, of course, it didn't start. It's been around since the beginning of time. But the Berlin Airlift was a aspect of military logistics history that I became closely related with being. We had learned about an air force way back in the day. And, Dr. Haug, I bet that's something on your radar too, huh?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:15:32]:

Oh, yeah, I've studied pretty much every period of civil military history.

Scott W. Luton [00:15:38]:

Okay. All right. And Deborah, I believe him, and I know you've seen him in action, so I want to get Deborah to check you before we learn more about his background and, of course, his passion for educating others. Deborah, you came to really admire Dr. Haug and comment on what we've heard already from his passion for military legacy.

Deborah Dull [00:16:02]:

Absolutely true. And I ask him every time I see him, even if it's not class, you know, he has a beautiful slide that he opens class with, and I ask him at some point. So sometimes I do. You know, we get to talking and actually catching up, talking to each other. So it takes me a little bit to remember to say what happened today. And then sometimes it's a struggle. He'll say, oh, gosh, there's a couple options I could choose from. But inevitably we get a story like the one he's had, which is just such a marvelous amount of information in his mind that he's able to share and create joy for all of us.

Scott W. Luton [00:16:37]:

Oh, well said, Deborah. And I'm good now. I'm going to go learn. I'm going to look up The Great Escape, the movie you referenced, Dr. Haug that Story. Yeah, I'm have to go do some Wikipedian. All right, so Sam, Joshua, and Deborah, hang on for just a second. I want to get a little bit more of the Dr.

Scott W. Luton [00:16:55]:

Haug story. So tell us, if you would. So, Dr. Haug, you talked about growing up in upstate New York. If I'm. I heard that right. And eventually you found yourself out in beautiful, beautiful Washington State. Tell us a little more about your background and, of course, your passion for educating others.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:17:12]:

Okay, well, after getting a master's degree in military history, so I actually got a bachelor's in history and then a master's in military history. I was talking with my advisor, John Lynn, and he suddenly gave me three caveats that I had to be concerned about. One, he said, it's going to take you six years to get a PhD in military history. Two, you can have about a 5% chance of getting a job teaching military history. Let's say you get one of those, you get your PhD, and you get one of those rare jobs. Now, this is many years ago. You learn about $13,000. Well, it took me about three seconds to realize that prospects for an academic career in teaching military history were pretty dire.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:18:00]:

So therefore, I decided to get an MBA degree. Getting smart, finally. Which I did at the College of William and Mary. And while talking with faculty There they said, why don't you get a PhD in business? And I said, well, I've heard about PhDs. No, military history is totally different. A PhD in business is going to be far superior to what you could do in military history. So I said, okay, I'll consider that option. Well, before going on to get a doctoral degree, I decided to spend two years overseas.

Scott W. Luton [00:18:33]:

Okay.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:18:33]:

I got a Master of Philosophy and Business Studies at Edinburgh University in Scotland. And then when I came back to the U.S. i decided, you know, I think operations management will be my primary area of study. And so I decided to apply and complete a PhD, which I did at the University of Washington in Seattle. So, Having got my PhD, I then taught at Indiana University for just one year because my love of hiking and the outdoors resulted in me returning back to the Pacific Northwest. And lo and behold, I was so lucky. There was a position at Western and I was hired by Western Washington University. And Here you go, 1986.

Scott W. Luton [00:19:18]:

So you've been a fixture there since the mid-80s, is that right, Dr. Haug?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:19:22]:

Yes, very much a fixture.

Scott W. Luton [00:19:25]:

And it sounds like you've kind of had your cake and eat it too, because from what I'm if I'm following along, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the great advice you had about majoring more in the business side, that's provided a great career while allowing you to continue to study your passion in military logistics while being able to enjoy the outdoors and the beautiful scenery up there in the northwestern part of the country. So it looks like you won on all accounts, huh?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:19:56]:

Well, yeah, I mean, I look throughout my entire academic career, you brought about. I love the word passion because my passion and the rewards that I've derived from my position here at Western really come from working with young people and industry leaders to develop the talent that can immediately benefit a supply chain organization, but while also offering and supporting very impressive career opportunities for my students. So it's incredible the effect that we can have on our students and watch them go out and start their careers and then progress in life and success, both in business and personally.

Scott W. Luton [00:20:35]:

Wow. Dr. Haug, this is my first time meeting you, but I felt that passion and dedication and that response way over here in the Atlanta area. Deborah, give us an anecdote or so about what you've seen with Dr. Haug in action, you know, pursuing his passion of helping those light bulbs go off.

Deborah Dull [00:20:58]:

It's been so fun to be a student of Dr. Haug's and then also be a participant in the advisory board when I'm able to be there in person and just to be a friend and sponsor of the program you asked about, you know, how we saw this passion come alive as students. And then since then, you know, Dr. Haug takes care that students are employable. And it doesn't necessarily mean box checking. It means helping people to truly understand and grasp the concepts we hear about. So we'll learn about it in the classroom. Of course, he does a great job having pictures a real factories and real supply chains.

Deborah Dull [00:21:34]:

And then importantly, he takes students on field trips. And that really solidified for me what these concepts mean in real life. And nothing beats going to Gemba. Nothing beats, you know, sitting and seeing with your own two eyes. And he's so passionate about that that actually once a year, the advisory board meets at a business and is also able to take part in the tour, which is so fun because, you know, as professionals, we don't often get to be able to go out and see the factories like we used to. And so he really aims to help students understand what they're being taught and be able to go and add value then to the businesses that they join.

Scott W. Luton [00:22:14]:

Oh, Deborah, I love it. I love it. I love where you started making students more employable. So quick comment. So, Sam, let's circle back to you. Sam, as you heard Deborah describe Dr. Haug's approach there, which of which one of those things really resonated that you've seen firsthand. Let's see.

Scott W. Luton [00:22:32]:

Employable, reality, practical. We talked about going to the Gemba, which really helps us all learn, I think, when we can see and touch and ask and talk about. Sam, what have you seen and appreciated?

Sam Nocera [00:22:47]:

The first thing that comes to mind is definitely his excitement in just supply chain and just being there for the young students. An example that comes to mind is when we'll meet on Wednesday nights during the ASCM meetings.

Joshua Young [00:23:01]:

Yeah.

Sam Nocera [00:23:01]:

You know, even after the long day, he'll still be there right after his class, you know, either eating pizza or Jimmy John's just being there with us as we, as we learn and as we progress, you know, through for school, career.

Scott W. Luton [00:23:16]:

Love that, Sam. And now we're getting to the good stuff. Dr. Haug. Okay, so you're a fellow pizza aficionado, Joshua, what else would you add that you've really appreciated from what you've seen of Dr. Haug?

Joshua Young [00:23:29]:

Yeah, so I've had very limited, like, experience with Dr. Haug. I've probably talked to him on a total of like six different days.

Sam Nocera [00:23:37]:

Okay.

Joshua Young [00:23:38]:

But we did get to sit by each Other at, like, the scholarship dinner, which was great. And in just sitting next to him for the hour, two or maybe three that we were there, I got to see that he was very passionate about the stories that he got to share and, like, the opportunities he was involved with. But it. He wasn't just sharing them because he wanted to talk about himself. He was sharing because it was, like, connecting with us, and he wanted to hear about us. And so it was like. It was really just a. When he says he talks about the word passion, and he likes that word, you can tell, because he delivers his stories and his interaction with others as if he's passionate about them and, like, the success of, you know, the next generation.

Joshua Young [00:24:22]:

So I definitely say passion is a good word to describe Peter Haug.

Scott W. Luton [00:24:26]:

It seems like it. And I'm, you know, I'm way, way, way out here, but I look forward to sitting beside you at a future dinner, Dr. Haug. And. And seeing. I bet you're the mayor in those sessions is kind of the scene that I'm. I'm picking up on. All right, so, Dr.

Scott W. Luton [00:24:45]:

How Joshua, Sam, Deborah, really appreciate the opportunity to get know each of y'all a little better. Of course, Deborah's an old friend and. And a wonderful regular interview interviewee. Is that a right word, Deborah? We're gonna go with it and then co host here. But Sam and Joshua and Dr. Haug great to see y'all. Let's talk about this Available to Promise case competition. Okay.

Scott W. Luton [00:25:11]:

I'd like to start with learning a little bit more about the overall competition first. And what I'd love to do is get Sam and Joshua to kind of share a little bit. And before we get to y'all's solution, I'll probably get Deborah and Dr. Haug to add a little bit more color commentary and what they saw related to the competition. So, Sam, tell us about the overall Available to Promise case competition.

Sam Nocera [00:25:33]:

Yeah. So it all started with Dr. Haug actually introducing it during the Wednesday meetings that I was talking about earlier. And for me, I always knew that I wanted to get involved in a case competition like that. The only problem is I didn't have a team. I didn't know who I wanted to do it with. So then on my left, I see Joshua and Adam talking about it. I was like, worth a shot.

Sam Nocera [00:25:58]:

Let's see if. If we can get something going. So me and Josh didn't know each other before the case competition, which is pretty unique to me. Yeah. Basically, in this case competition, like Deborah was talking about earlier, is the first ever time that has been done at Western, and it explored topics such as supply chain circularity, which, to be honest, wasn't one that I was very familiar with. But as we progress throughout the case competition and our solution, I found that it's actually really interesting, and I think it's. It's the future.

Scott W. Luton [00:26:35]:

Ooh, I love that. And I bet you see Deborah smiling from ear to ear. I'm circle back with Deborah in just a second on that. Joshua, what else would you add? First off, you are able to meet via competing in this case competition. That is outstanding. What else would you add? Just about the overall competition first, Joshua.

Joshua Young [00:26:53]:

Yeah, so I essentially, when people ask me, what is this case competition, the most common answer that I give them is that they've given us what is happening right now with what supply chain is and how things are managing. But then what they've done is that they've given us. Or by they, I mean Deborah. Deborah has given us a vision of what it looks like in 2030. I like to describe that it's very futuristic with holograms and floating robots that do repairs. But it's our job to communicate how we're going to get from point A to point B. And so in. In five years, show the judges a roadmap of how we're going to get there in terms of actually how I was getting involved.

Joshua Young [00:27:36]:

I remember I had signed up for a mentor in the business program, and he happens to be also part. Who also partook in this competition. And he was telling me about the scholarship meeting, and so I was gonna go. And then my. Our teammate Adam was like, hey, I'm going to that meeting. Do you want to go together? So we came together. We were, like, learning about it. We're like, yeah, we don't really know what this is, but it seemed like a cool opportunity.

Joshua Young [00:28:04]:

I was, like, on the fence about it. And then this guy walks up to me and like, hey, do you guys want to be a team? And I'm like, well, since I guess the hardest part would be figuring out a third team member. And this guy is literally just presenting himself in front of me. And he's got a really charming smile. Like, why not? So I just was like, sure.

Scott W. Luton [00:28:23]:

Cool.

Joshua Young [00:28:23]:

Let's do it. And so then I was like, okay, well, if I'm gonna do something, I'm not gonna just go in and test the water. I'm not gonna just dip my toe in. I'm gonna go full cannonball. So we, you know, we just planned out meeting each other every single day for at least an hour. And we spent that week really buckling down on this competition and put a lot of time and effort into it.

Scott W. Luton [00:28:46]:

Okay, and we're going to find out what all that led to here in just a second. But, folks, let's give a quick shout out. Adam could not join us for this, and that's who Sam and Joshua are referring to, additional team members. So, Adam, look forward to joining us next time. Dr. Haug, let's go to you first, and then we'll circle with Deborah Dull, the cleanup hitter. Dr. Haug, what else would you like to add about this? The overall case competition we've had for.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:29:13]:

11 years, a case competition with Boeing. Unfortunately, that was suspended this year, but I was part of a scholarship committee of the advisory board, and we were looking at ways to increase the number of scholarships, both quantity and quality. And I thought, here, Deborah has this grade available to promise scholarship. And the idea was to get more people involved in that scholarship because generally she would put together a challenge question. Students individually would write their responses, and then we judge them and pick a winner. And I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could get more students involved and have a larger number of students looking at the challenge question? So I thought, why not make it into a case competition? That way we'll have three people per team. Deborah will write up. She did generously wrote up an incredible case study.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:30:05]:

And then the students had a week in which to complete their analysis and then make a presentation. And I thought, this way we'll get more students involved. It'll benefit more students because each of the first and second place team members will each get a scholarship. So I thought, what better way than a case competition is to do that? And Deborah was very generous and kind to say, let's do it, Dr. Haug.

Scott W. Luton [00:30:31]:

Outstanding. And Deborah, between the scholarship and then the new case competition, and sounds like the incredible case that you wrote up. And when they mentioned supply chain circularity, you were beaming ear to ear. So tell us more.

Deborah Dull [00:30:49]:

Absolutely. And thanks, Scott, for shining a light on this. I was a scholarship student through university. I applied for every scholarship I could find under the sun and found the process to be always just about the same. You know, write a letter or memo or a statement about what you want to be when you grow up, which is funny to ask an 18 or 19 year old up and then submit your grades and you'll maybe or maybe not get a scholarship. And so as I got out of school and happily started a career at Microsoft, I Started giving money to the program. And a wonderful woman encouraged me to give just a little bit more than I was already giving and I could make a scholarship. And my question was, can I name it? So it's, you know, a nice supply chain joke.

Deborah Dull [00:31:36]:

Available to promise how many funds are available to promise this year? And I really wanted it to be closer to industry. So something that's happening, current events, and I never ask for grades. And so it's a space for students who sometimes work a couple of jobs and may not have as much time in their week to dedicate to studies, but they're learning the content, they understand how to apply it, and they can showcase it through this scholarship. So over the years, and huge thanks to Dr. Haug for being my partner in this and making it actually possible to do. But every year, it's one of my favorite parts of the year is to see what the students come up with. And then we go to dinner and usually debate over the winter. In this case, we got to bring the students with us to dinner, which was a really fun twist.

Deborah Dull [00:32:22]:

And so, as he said, this is the first time we've turned it into a case competition. I hope we do it again like this. It's just more in depth to have the students work together with each other and really impressed with some of the ideas that were presented in a very short period of time. We were not generous with presentation slots. I think they only had 10 minutes to give us the results, which is not a lot of time. So absolutely delighted. It is about a future where we repair more than we build. New 2030.

Deborah Dull [00:32:52]:

It's actually a section of. I've finished a book with Kogan Page out of London and have a little. A little fictional vignette at the beginning of every section. My original vignettes were not so little.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:05]:

Okay.

Deborah Dull [00:33:06]:

And so I pulled that concept out and created this day in the life of somebody in 2030 working at supply chain. And that became the basis for this case competition, which I think was a lot of fun.

Scott W. Luton [00:33:18]:

And really quick question, Deborah. If folks out there listening are viewing wherever they may be and they'd love to do a case competition and could use some benchmarking help or is that. Is that you? Welcome.

Deborah Dull [00:33:31]:

I would love to. If you thinking about giving money to a scholarship, if you have any inkling and wanting to do anything, please do reach out. What's very odd, Scott, for a couple of years we had one of my co workers come and be on the selection committee and she said that some larger supply chain programs it's actually kind of difficult to become a donor because they set their minimum threshold at 20 or 40 or $50,000 in a year. And happily, Western will take checks of all sizes. So if you want to give to a program and see the delight on a student's face, then definitely consider a variety of programs, community colleges, where, where your money is going to go really far. But I would love to. I would welcome the opportunity to talk about philanthropy.

Scott W. Luton [00:34:17]:

Outstanding. It's great perspective that I bet it's going to. Going to run counter to how folks assume certain things work out there. All right, so let's get down to the solution itself. So, Sam Nachera, let's go back to if you would describe the solution that you and your team came up with.

Sam Nocera [00:34:38]:

Yeah. So basically we start under the assumption that we have this centralized repair hub and we're repairing industrial pumps. Right. When we find that it's just inefficient and all it does, it contributes to this linear supply chain model that ultimately results in a ton of waste. Right. And obviously that's not sustainable. So then in this case, competition, we tried to find a solution in which we could make this business model more into a circular operations model. And obviously that wasn't easy, but all we did basically is we leveraged the tools that we know exist currently and who knows what they're going to come up with from now until 2030.

Sam Nocera [00:35:21]:

But one of the solutions was where the solution was that we were going to sort of dismantle the centralized hub and create smaller ones that sort of were able to have a bigger outreach and just take care of, take care of more industrial pumps. And one of the solution that we incorporated was actually augmented reality and virtual reality. So basically we would go to these industrial pumps, we would install IoT sensors and sort of like how IBM Watson does with the oncology, we do this predictive maintenance. We would always know the status of a part or a component within the industrial pump and we would know the estimated timeline for when it needed to be repaired. And this AI diagnostics was called Trash or Stash. Right. Because the whole point, in my opinion of circular operations model is that we want to reduce waste. Right.

Sam Nocera [00:36:25]:

And so thanks to Trash or Stash, which, by the way, Joshua came up with the name, I will not take credit for that. But yeah, just finding a way in which we can really eliminate waste and always be on top of the maintenance.

Scott W. Luton [00:36:40]:

I love that decentralization is what I'm hearing. And by the way, GE or Ingersoll, Rand or who knows Maybe giving you all a call to figure out how they can operationalize your solution. Joshua, anything else to add to the solution? Then I'm going to circle back and get you to tell us a little more. You already gave us some benefits of participating. We're going to get a few more there. But, Joshua, anything else you want to add in terms of the solution you all came up with?

Joshua Young [00:37:05]:

Absolutely, yeah. So the Trasher Stash AI Diagnostic system was a very catchy name that I was very happy to put as one of our creative solutions. But one that he left out that I think was really important, that was actually, I think mainly him pushing it was bioplastic from seaweed. And so, like, that's a very sustainable method of plastic. Plastic is a huge issue today in our supply chain model. And if we're going to be circular, it's important that we're not having a way of collecting resources and then disposing them with no way of recycling. So that was a really important part. Digital passports, standardized inventory count, these were all great parts of our creative solutions.

Joshua Young [00:37:49]:

But in terms of the actual solution itself, Sam did a great job, like, kind of covering all of that. And those localized repair hubs were a big part of it. That decentralization that you were mentioning, was.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:06]:

It a joint presentation? Did all y'all have a. Have. Play a role in presenting a portion of the solution? Okay, absolutely. In 10 minutes, folks, y'all were the winners. Not only did you come up with a great solution, but it sounds like you were able to communicate it in a short period of time. I can barely say my name in 10 minutes, so I'm very jealous. Sam, Joshua, and Adam out there. All right, I'm gonna bring back in Dr.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:30]:

Haug and Deborah in just a second. But, Josh, if you would, maybe a quick thing from you and Sam, what else? Sounds like you had a great experience that's really maybe took. You know, we all have blinders on. Some. Some are very conscious blinders, some are subconscious blinders. It looks like through via participating. You know, y'all took some of those blinders off. But, Joshua, what.

Scott W. Luton [00:38:51]:

What are other. Some other benefits from participating that we haven't touched on yet?

Joshua Young [00:38:56]:

Yeah. So there's a lot of benefits. There's the obvious ones, and there's the less obvious ones. Yeah. One of the obvious ones is experience. And that if you participate in this, my brother once told me that your time in college should count as work experience on your resume because you're working in the industry, even if you're. Because you're just being tested on more specifics. When you're in the real world, perhaps you're going to be working on it, but they're not going to be as, you know, specific and harsh as maybe school or a test might be.

Joshua Young [00:39:29]:

And so experience is one. One that Peter mentioned was the if you're going to be on a team with somebody, you're going to know them really well by the end of the week. He said that at the very beginning, and I have to say, I didn't know Sam at all. And by the end of it, I'm like, this guy's awesome. And that was a great benefit of this, like, this whole competition. Another one is just in a sense of accomplishment. You know, it takes a lot of dedication and time, and you have to really put yourself in front of judges. For a lot of people, that's really scary.

Joshua Young [00:40:01]:

So there's a huge sense of accomplishment there. Another one is, for me, I'm really competitive. I love to win. And the thought that Sam had two mentors and I had a mentor, and the three of them made a team of three seniors and we could beat them. That felt like a David and Goliath moment where we're overcoming the huge obstacle that they. We were. They were the competition. We were like, oh, our mentors are going to compete against us.

Joshua Young [00:40:28]:

And they didn't place as well as Sam did. Anyway, then another great benefit is networking. I like to put myself in the business, college whenever possible, just so that I can get to know the people around me, even if it's just spending free time. And so now I know Peter, now I know, like, Deborah a little bit better. And it's all because of this competition. So networking is a great benefit of this competition. And I mean, another really cool opportunity is if you win. There's, like, this podcast that some people have been on before, and it's like, pretty cool opportunity.

Scott W. Luton [00:41:08]:

Okay.

Joshua Young [00:41:08]:

And then, of course, scholarship money. Like, that's the most obvious. But man benefits.

Scott W. Luton [00:41:15]:

Joshua, I'll tell you, you just presented a compelling list of reasons, a case, if you will, for why folks got to compete in case competitions. And really sounds like it was a highlight of your year. One of them, at least thus far. Sam, I kept. I'm keeping score here, taking lots of notes. Joshua. I just grabbed about 12 bullet points from all the different holistic reasons and benefits from participating. Sam, that's gonna be a tough list to add to, but what would you add to that?

Sam Nocera [00:41:44]:

Yeah, I think, honestly, just putting yourself out there, just doing something that's hard. You know, constructing and presenting a case competition in a week isn't something easy, especially for me. I think during that week, I also had two midterms, so the timing was a bit challenging. Yeah, you know, get putting yourself out there doing something challenging and especially doing something that's different from what you're doing in classes somewhere, something that you're actually able to just use your hands and just, you know, make it yours and then present your case in front of the judges. That's not something that you do in a classroom setting.

Scott W. Luton [00:42:24]:

Love it. Sam, we all need to take a lesson from what you. From what you and Josh have both have been saying, but especially on that last note, you know, folks can be deep in their career and not have the confidence to kind of put their self out there for y'all to have the experience while you're still in school. That is outstanding. All right, so, Deborah, what was one of your favorite parts from Sam and Joshua?

Deborah Dull [00:42:45]:

You know, the chance to network, I think, from Josh. That's such a thoughtful benefit of this. And for the record, this is the very first time anyone has been able to be on a podcast. So thank you, Scott, for having us on as an extra benefit. But to be able to meet students in the program, because, Josh, you are going to be a supply chain major, so this is going to be your program. And to spend more time with the other judges at dinner and have a chance. I love that it's, you know, the first and second teams were mentor mentee, and, you know, I talk a lot about the value of reverse mentorship, of finding somebody if you're, you know, 20 years in your career, find somebody who's just two or three years in into their career and take it seriously and be genuine in asking for help and mentorship and guidance, and you'll have a completely different perspective than what you would have otherwise had. And so I like that this is almost a reverse mentorship moment between the teams and really, really proud again of such new students making such a big wave.

Scott W. Luton [00:43:54]:

Well said, Deborah. And I love your call out of the immense value of reverse mentorship. Doctor, how. What. What would you add, what you. What you hear there from Sam and Joshua that. That you want to call out or something else you would like to add to the overall experience?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:44:10]:

Well, I think probably what they brought out is probably the most critical aspect of the case competition is networking. It's not only part of a case competition. It's part of our degree. It's part of how we try to educate our students And I think that the fact you can bring these three students together who may not know each other, and they very quickly become a great team with very creative ideas, very confident. I mean, here they're giving a presentation to industry people. They're used to talking to me. But it's great to bring Deborah and Michael in and have them have to present in such a short time. But it's all about networking.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:44:51]:

And then we took both the first and second place teams to dinner. As Joshua mentioned, we were there for three and a half hours. So brilliant networking. I thought this is what it's all about. Not just the money, but the who you get to know and how those connections can probably benefit you in the long run.

Scott W. Luton [00:45:08]:

Yes. You know, I would, based on what I've heard over the last, you know, 45 minutes or so. And to pick up on that networking thread, Dr. Haug, it's even better than networking. It's like purpose driven, highly practical, competitive fueled networking, which, which really takes networking to a whole new level. Right. Because I bet we've all been, I bet even Joshua and Sam have been in some events already in their collegiate career where they're networking events. And, and you got one folk, there's, there's always a couple in every room that they're intent on handing out a business card to every single person.

Scott W. Luton [00:45:43]:

And that's the networking no one really enjoys. And then you've got this purpose driven where networking is one of the many things, but, but it's building relationships with that end goal, that outcome in mind, and that's what I'm hearing. Dr. Haug, would you agree with that, that heightened approach to networking?

Dr. Peter Haug [00:46:02]:

Oh, yeah. I think these case competitions are brilliant for that. I mean, I was so glad Deborah wanted to support it and wrote, as I said, she wrote such a challenging but brilliant case. And it's something that we can use Harvard cases. But this is something that one of our advisory board members has done that exactly challenges the students to apply what they've been learning in class. So definitely.

Scott W. Luton [00:46:27]:

Oh, the age old battle of applying what we've learned and operationalizing.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:46:31]:

Right.

Scott W. Luton [00:46:33]:

All right, so let's stick with Dr. Haug here for a second as we. I hate to leave the case competition, but for the sake of time, there's some other things I want to get you all to address too. And by the way, to all you listeners and viewers out there, if this case competition appeals to you and your school or your alma mater, you name it, reach out to Deborah Dull or Dr. Haug. I bet and they'll share some. Some really cool best practices. So, Dr.

Scott W. Luton [00:46:57]:

Haug, share more information, if you would, on the Bachelor of Science and Manufacturing and supply Chain management at Western.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:47:05]:

Okay. Well, as you already know, many years ago at a time, many, many moments ago, Mark Springer and I joined Western Washington University. And we. I've always thought of education as a value stream. You've got your material, the students coming in. We try to add value so they can go into industry, and hopefully industry is getting a product that they can benefit from. So we started building a lot of networks with industry executives down in the greater Seattle area. But we weren't finding a lot of our colleagues valuing those interactions.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:47:43]:

So I said, we need to really make it more systematic. So what I did is I wrote a manual on designing and operating advisory boards.

Scott W. Luton [00:47:52]:

Okay.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:47:52]:

And so what we did is on December 20, 1989, we launched the Operations Management Advisory Board with 15 companies. Now, those companies sort of surprised Mark and I very quickly because they said, you know, we can support you with speakers and tours and internships, but we think you need much more. We want to design an entirely new undergraduate degree with some innovative components to it. I like to use the analogy of basically what we did is we took a blank sheet of paper, spent about a year with the board saying, what do you want students to know? What topics, skills, techniques do they need to know to be effective in your organization? And then Mark and I took that list and put together the curriculum. So it has quite a few unique ideas together. First of all, the MSCM degree has a comprehensive operations management curriculum foundation. So we offer courses in project management, ERP, ESG, logistics, procurement, and Lean.

Scott W. Luton [00:48:54]:

Okay.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:48:55]:

Second, we integrated manufacturing engineering technology courses into our curriculum so students learn about materials, processes, and computer aided design. Then probably the thing that is most significant about our degree, way back then, 30 years ago, we said, the advisory board said we want every student to have practical industry experience. So we said, okay, we'll make sure they have internships. Now the advisory board said, three internships. We go three internships. We want one internship to be where they actually work building product, two, where they work on projects, and three, where they actually supervise. Well, we had to say to the board, great idea, but we think the students want to graduate. So we backed it down to two summer internships.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:49:48]:

800 hours of work experience.

Scott W. Luton [00:49:51]:

Wow.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:49:51]:

Little did we know how unique that design of the internships would be to our degree. No other department within the College of Business and Economics requires internships. We're still alone. And so a Lot of supply chain programs across the country want their students to have internships, but very few require them. We not only have the one, we have two. Then a fourth factor was the advisory board said we're going to hire these quality interns, right? We want to make sure they're high quality. They said we want the grade point average in the nine foundation courses for a student to be admitted to be a 3.0 A B average, which is quite a bit higher than any other program in the college. Finally you look at the integration of this engineering, business, operations management courses with six months of work experience.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:50:43]:

We had said it has to be a Bachelor of Science. Fortunately we got the college to agree to that. So we became the Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Supply chain Management. Formally approved on September 16, 1993. This is my history speaking. But today the MSCM program is now ranked number 13 in the Gardner survey of undergraduate supply chain programs and is also designated by the university as a STEM program. And right now, currently we have about 60 MSCM majors. So the Gardner ranking has started to attract some attention, which is impressive.

Dr. Peter Haug [00:51:23]:

Our little program at Western Washington University got number 13. We moved up from 18 in 2022 to 13 in 2024. So now the future lies ahead. Who knows where we'll be next time?

Scott W. Luton [00:51:37]:

Well, I got a good idea, Dr. Haug, and I'm not even a futurist, but I see continued upward mobility. I can only imagine, Deborah, all that went into those like eight minutes of kind of program background that Dr. Haug just left put out there. From the sheer origin to the methodologies, the tech, the processes, the practical experience, the stringent requirements of getting in and of course the 800 hours of experience that students get. No doubt, no wonder why it came in at number 13 is moving up the rankings. But Deborah, respond a little bit to that. Then I'll get Joshua and Sam to maybe add their quick perspective.

Deborah Dull [00:52:25]:

Perfect. It's a fascinating program. As part of the advisory board these last several years has been really eye opening on how much can we advise it's an advisory board. We don't have, you know, power. We can't go and make any demands or make program changes. But the level of depth in conversation, the debates that we have as a board really for the students best interests and also so that they can stick around and contribute to the industry that's in Washington State, which is a lot when you start thinking about who's in Washington from Boeing and the ecosystem around the industrial world and Genie and Microsoft and Amazon, Starbucks and they've all contributed to the program over the years. And so it's a really unique little cushion up in the upper left corner of the United States to have such a high quality program, small but mighty. And then the students are known.

Deborah Dull [00:53:21]:

So Western holds their own against the best of the best of the best in the hiring processes. When I, when I came out, it was really intimidating to interview against really these very polished business students from the other side of the country. But shoot, they taught us really well and we were able to succeed not only through the interviews, but of course when we get in. And so we've got good credibility in all these businesses I mentioned. And that's why our program continues to get more hires and why sometimes we get into these businesses and then they come and join the advisory board. So it's happened, flipped sometimes that they say, what is this program that's at Western Washington? How do these amazing students keep coming out of this program? So they come and learn more and then they continue to be involved through different jobs or different titles and so forth.

Scott W. Luton [00:54:10]:

Outstanding. And all of that is my hunch is all of that you wish more supply chain leaders knew about Western's program or the university in general. Is that right, Deborah?

Deborah Dull [00:54:21]:

Okay, that's right. You know, it's an interesting program. It Again, it's a 13,000 student university with no football team and no Greek system. So when you think about the combination that you've got there almost fully undergrad, it's a really unique student that self selects into that environment when we have two big football schools that are alternatives.

Scott W. Luton [00:54:44]:

Yep.

Deborah Dull [00:54:45]:

And so I find a Western student is a very, very unique student.

Scott W. Luton [00:54:48]:

Very positively unique and powerful and ready to move mountains is what I'm hearing. So after Deborah and Dr. Haug shared more about the program, Joshua and Sam, we got a couple final questions for y'all here. And then of course we're gonna make sure folks know to connect with all four of y'all. But Joshua, circle back to you. Give us your perspective. One of the things you like about of course not the program yet because you're still undeclared. Although we hope to close the deal soon and get you into the.

Scott W. Luton [00:55:19]:

As a fellow supply chain Jedi. But what's, what's one thing about the university or any element that Dr. Haug was kind of sharing about the program that you see in other majors? Give it, give us one of your favorite things about being a Western student.

Joshua Young [00:55:32]:

Yeah. Specifically with this program, one thing that I like is that it's kind of a tight knit community it seems like if you're in a very popular major at a very populated university, you're just one of the fish in the sea, one of the people that's just going to be another number going through the system. But in this program, because it's smaller and because it's like they're trying really hard to give really good quality, you're. You're kind of more of a valuable part of the program. And like, I, I especially feel that way because people like Peter and Deborah are trying as hard as they can, you know, to get me a part of this because it's, I'm not just going to be one more person. I'm going to be another kind of valuable part in terms of just being a western student. The, I mean, the campus life itself is really amazing. It's truly like out in nature and you're always kind of surrounded by a community.

Joshua Young [00:56:26]:

One of my passions is people. And so my thought is if I go to a university filled with 16,000 people, my close circles, and my network is only limited by my own abilities, essentially. And so if I have the ability to network, when you have 16,000 people to pull from, you can pick the best.

Scott W. Luton [00:56:46]:

I'm with you. Oh, man. All right, so, Joshua, we're gonna see, we're gonna see if that deal gets closed. And. But I. Kidding aside, I love how you describe the, the campus, the community, and the, the connectivity of the student body, I guess, for lack of a better phrase. But good stuff there, Joshua. Now, Sam, same question.

Scott W. Luton [00:57:11]:

You, but you, of course, are part of this program that we've heard so much about from Deborah and Dr. Haug and this whole conversation. What's one thing that maybe we hadn't touched on? That's one of your favorite parts?

Sam Nocera [00:57:21]:

Yeah, definitely the mentorship. You know, as soon as you enter in the program, you get a ton of emails saying you're appointed one industry mentor and one student mentor, which is super valuable because, you know, anytime you have a question, you know exactly who to ask. But on a broader scope, like Joshua was saying, this is an incredibly tight knit group. Like I. With there being about 60 students, I feel like I know most of them. And like, without a doubt, whenever I have a question, I know exactly that I can always go to them because they were in my same shoes. And you know, another thing with the weekly Wednesday meetings, we also have, you know, sort of a networking opportunity every week, given that there's a, there's an, you know, industry expert coming to speak for about an hour or so. Yeah, I mean, I genuinely believe this is the best program at Western.

Sam Nocera [00:58:19]:

I'm very fortunate to be able to be a part of it.

Scott W. Luton [00:58:22]:

Okay. And these Wednesday meetings, I have to learn more. They're not just meetings, and they're tons of value and good food and leadership development opportunities. Good stuff. It's not just another meeting. All right, so, Sam and Joshua, we're gonna have a fast and furious finish here. It's not a fair question to some extent, because we really need a lot more time to dive into some of the change, some of the opportunities you see out there, and some of the change you want to drive. But, Joshua, you've got.

Scott W. Luton [00:58:50]:

You've got an undefined career path in front of you. We know some of your leanings when it comes to industry in general. Right, Just general business. What is one big impact do you want to make out there? And why?

Joshua Young [00:59:04]:

Yeah, so when I thought about where I wanted to go, I wanted to go more into a leadership path. And luckily, I was presented with this great minor opportunity. And so my. I'm going to have a minor in leadership when I graduate. And business administration is all about, I guess, showing off. Not showing off, but using that leadership and improving businesses that way. And so one of my personal joys in life is to kind of mentor people that I can give insight to or give. I can inspire in a way.

Joshua Young [00:59:43]:

And so I think that one impact I would like to make on the industry as a whole is kind of just to inspire leaders to either be the leader that they can be or to maybe see another perspective so that they can be like a leader with more tools at their disposal or maybe rely on a different method of seeing how they're doing things now and reevaluate. And so that way there's kind of more equity and inclusion and belonging and community within businesses. Because I think oftentimes the people at the bottom of the pyramid essentially are not treated as well as they could be or not paid as equitably as they could be when the person at the top is making more money than is reasonable in comparison to how much the people at the bottom that are doing the most work are being paid. So I want to be able to inspire others to make that change.

Scott W. Luton [01:00:35]:

Joshua, I love it, and I can't wait. We're going to be watching. We're going to keep our finger on the pulse and watch you and Sam get into action. And I would. Just one quick question. Bow ties after you graduate, Josh, is this a lifetime commitment?

Joshua Young [01:00:49]:

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Scott W. Luton [01:00:50]:

Okay. All right. We're going to see them flamingos and the whole nine yards. Sam, similar question and maybe this one with, you know, given your more declared major, of course, maybe the change you want to drive in supply chain specifically. And why your thoughts?

Sam Nocera [01:01:07]:

The moment I realized is, you know, while we were working on the case, competition. But yeah, I really want to help out with sustainability.

Scott W. Luton [01:01:15]:

It.

Sam Nocera [01:01:16]:

I just think with the way that we're going, the way that the industry is, is going, it's just, it's not sustainable. Like, and I don't know for how much longer we're going to be able to keep at this, but in my mind, none of this is sustainable and I'd love to just, you know, be able to contribute to a more sustainable future for, specifically for the industry. You know, I have a passion for the transportation industry because I feel like it's the backbone of any economy, but also being in Washington state with like sort of an air where it's an aerospace mecca. I'd also like to, to sort of be involved in aerospace and defense just because, you know, every day in the news you'll hear about a country being mad at someone else or tariffs and you know, it's, it's nonstop and anyway, it'd be cool to, to be able to incorporate sort of the two good stuff.

Scott W. Luton [01:02:13]:

There's always, always going to be a mission. And Sam, going back to the first part of your. Your response that sustainability and that. You know, I hate to be pessimistic, But Deborah and Dr. Hage, I'll circle back with y'all and make sure folks are going to connect with the whole panel. But it, to some degree, Deborah, I'CIRCLE back to you first. Some degree. There's a little bit of an element of a race to the bottom.

Scott W. Luton [01:02:36]:

I mean, you know, until we can like teleport things like instantaneously with like no impact to the environment and, and no, you know, really limit waste. I mean, do we. We pick on this example all the time? Do we really need those socks like in two days, you know, but, but Deborah, get your final thought. And also, how can folks connect with you and the cool things that your team is doing over at Trillium?

Deborah Dull [01:03:01]:

Yeah, absolutely. Look, the world is going to continue to be more sustainable. We just don't talk about it as much. So that's really the biggest shift we're seeing in the industry is that sustainable action is continuing. And a topic for another day is if anybody watched Star Trek and you have the Replicators where you can make something out of thin air, it's not so crazy, actually, when we think about the building block of most items around you that's not glass or metal is carbon. And as we suck carbon out of the air, we can make party dresses and vodka and buildings out of carbon. We can actually make food out of the carbon that we capture out of the air. And so I see a bright future where actually there is a little bit of that idea of poof and we've got something.

Deborah Dull [01:03:44]:

But that's for another show. Please do get a hold of me. I'm happy to hear your perspectives. I'm active on LinkedIn, but be patient with me as it'll take me a minute to get back to you. My LinkedIn inbox is almost worse than my email inbox. And you can certainly find more about us at Trillium.digital.

Scott W. Luton [01:03:59]:

Awesome. You know my reason 572 why I like Deborah Dull, is that Star Trek example. Are you a Trekkie as well, Deborah? This first time I heard this. So that replicator, you gotta admit, are you willing to admit that here today.

Deborah Dull [01:04:15]:

I grew up with three TV channels and a big brother six years older than I am. Therefore, I did the hobbies that my brother did, and I watched the shows that my brother watched because he was bigger than I was. So I never knew later in life the street cred I would get from blue playing a blue white magic deck. But man, I get street cred from that now. And I did it against my will when I was a munchkin.

Scott W. Luton [01:04:40]:

Oh, I love it. All right, so there is a whole bunch more there. And I love your practically optimistic view on the path ahead because, you know, where there's a will, there's a way and there's, there's a massive and growing will. And it is that awareness play. We still have a challenge with that, so stay tuned for a whole bunch more to come there. Dr. Haug, to circle back with you. Summer question.

Scott W. Luton [01:05:02]:

I'll give you the final word and make sure also folks know how to connect with you. You got to be beaming. I mean, to hear Joshua and Sam give offer their perspective on the program and the university and the case competition, you know, all these things that you of course have a big part in your final word here today.

Dr. Peter Haug [01:05:20]:

Well, I mean, it is all about the students, Scott. I mean, taking in students who may not know what they want to do in life, like Joshua, hopefully convincing them that this degree has so many resources where students are really number one.

Scott W. Luton [01:05:35]:

Right?

Dr. Peter Haug [01:05:36]:

And we're trying to do our very best to educate you with exactly what you need to succeed in a supply chain position for years to come. I mean, that's why we have the motto industry partnered education, because industry is a critical partner like all the companies that Deborah mentioned. But the students are part of that partnership and we work really hard to provide them with the resources, the knowledge and the talent to go out and get great jobs. And it is amazing the success some of the students have had. I think another thing that I wanted to mention was just about six weeks ago, the brand new governor of the state of Washington decided to hold a meeting down at his mansion in Olympia with all the presidents of the public universities. So they all showed up and Sabah Randowa, President Western, was there, but the new governor decided to make the introductions and make one comment about each university. So he finally got to President Randhawa and he said, well, this is Sabah Randhawa. He's president of Western Washington University.

Dr. Peter Haug [01:06:41]:

And they have the 13th ranked supply chain program in the country.

Scott W. Luton [01:06:46]:

Love that.

Dr. Peter Haug [01:06:49]:

Followed that up with. But they need more students. The governor can pick our program as the highlight about our university. We've done something right.

Scott W. Luton [01:07:01]:

Very well done and well said.

Dr. Peter Haug [01:07:04]:

Yes.

Scott W. Luton [01:07:06]:

All right, so Dr. Haug, I love that. And there's got to be a clip of that somewhere. We're gonna have to get it from y'all. How cool is that? How can folks connect with you? Who knows, they may want to have you come in and speak or benchmark or you name it. How can folks reach out to you?

Dr. Peter Haug [01:07:20]:

I mean, directly, of course they can just contact me by email. Phow Edu. But I'd be glad to provide any information or provide any help that I can.

Scott W. Luton [01:07:31]:

Outstanding. Dr. Peter Haug, I really appreciate you being here today and we're going to have you back. And congrats on the success. I mean, ever since y'all built this thing and seen it take off to now being the 13th ranked, at least according to Gartner. I'm sure there's other recognition out there that is wonderful to see. All right, Sam and Joshua, you just heard it from Dr. Haug.

Scott W. Luton [01:07:52]:

It is all about the students, all about your experience, all about the goals that you have and how they can help you reach those goals and beyond. So, Sam, how can folks connect with you? And are you ready to defend your. Your number one here case competition win next year?

Sam Nocera [01:08:13]:

Absolutely. I fully plan on being a part of it. And you know, if you want recommendations for an Italian trip or you want any help with a case competition, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn just first name, last name S A M N O C E R A Outstanding.

Scott W. Luton [01:08:32]:

I love that little, little value add there. Sam. Outstanding. All right, Joshua, same question for you. How can folks connect with you as well?

Joshua Young [01:08:42]:

Yeah, so primarily I just have my personal social medias mainly Instagram is a great way to contact me and as well as LinkedIn, my LinkedIn is still being developed. So if you see only like 20 connections or something, it's not because it's fake, it's just because I'm new.

Scott W. Luton [01:08:57]:

Hey, I appreciate that transparency and that authenticity. Some days, Deborah, I wish I was newer to LinkedIn because man, that LinkedIn inbox is no joke, is it? But hey, Joshua Young and Sam Nocera, both students at Western Washington University, thank you so much to you both for being here. Congrats on all the great things you are doing in this case. Competition win big. Shout out again to Adam who couldn't join us here today. We'll have them next time. Dr. Peter Haug with Western Washington University.

Scott W. Luton [01:09:32]:

I really appreciate your not all that you do, but also the vision you and and your colleague had way back in the day and gosh, to see where it's gone. So really appreciate you being here. Dr. Haug.

Dr. Peter Haug [01:09:45]:

No thank you Scott. This is a great event. We really appreciate you taking the time and allowing us to come and be with you today.

Scott W. Luton [01:09:53]:

Vice versa. Vice versa. Made our day. And Deborah Dull, I tell you, you're moving up the charts of all time appearances here at Supply Chain Now and we're very thankful, really appreciate you facilitating this conversation on these bright leaders from your alma mater. And I also appreciate your very tangible giving forward to Western but also challenging others out there that maybe hadn't thought about the different ways they can help give forward at their schools of choice. But appreciate you being here today, Deborah.

Deborah Dull [01:10:25]:

Thanks Scott. Always a pleasure. And I would love to gain and retain most frequently guested guest on your show.

Scott W. Luton [01:10:33]:

Hey, you're shooting up the charts just like Western shooting up those Gartner charts. So I look forward to featuring you again here real soon. To all of our audience out there, whether you tuned in and watched us or you listened to us, you name it. Gosh, hopefully you've got seven pages of notes like I do from what our panels have shared, panelists have shared because there's a way that we can act in our own neck of the woods and help make this happen and really help students and the now and the future generations that come along that's going to make global supply chain global business even better. So but we got to act right. We got to take a note out of Deborah Dole's book and Dr. Haug's book. And it's all about deeds, not words.

Scott W. Luton [01:11:18]:

With that said, so hopefully you enjoy this episode as much as I have. Big thanks to our entire panel, Sam, Joshua, Dr. Haug and Deborah. Folks, stay tuned as we continue. All sorts of podcasts coming through the rest of 2025. Keep the feedback coming. I'll tell you, feedback is a blessing. So keep it coming.

Scott W. Luton [01:11:37]:

And with all of that said, on behalf of the entire team here at Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton challenging you. Do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody. Join the Supply Chain Now community. For more Supply Chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out SupplyChainNow.com subscribe to Supply Chain Now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain Now wherever you get your podcasts.