Supply Chain

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SCMA – Office Depot Visit, Cool Kiva Robots

February 7, 2011 in Uncategorized by Supply Chain Association | Permalink

On Friday, January 28, 2011 the Supply Chain Association organized a visit to the Office Depot facility in Newville, PA. Our trip brought us face to face with three Penn state alumni who extended a very warm welcome and a guided tour of the facility. We received an overview of the Office Depot operations and Mr. Zelis explained how the company was in the process of consolidating its supply chain operations. This new facility setup about a year ago is catering to the entire Northeast region – Maine to Virginia – and reduces the need for a cross-dock in Mountain Top, PA and distribution centers in West Hampton, NJ, Baltimore, MD and Boston, MA. The key focus of their supply chain operations currently is to reach a high success rate of 99.3% in their next day delivery and also to convert their retail operations from a Push to a Pull process.

The most exciting part of the visit was seeing the Kiva robots in action. These robots are commissioned to fulfill the end customer orders for Office Depot, which are typically split case orders. The Kiva robots come in handy right from the inbound order station to the intermediate picking station and finally to the shipping station.  The Kiva robots are designed and programmed to bring the inventory to the picking stations where the associates can pick the appropriate items to fulfill the order. The robots move based on Cartesian co-ordinates and recognize their relative positions based on Bar code stickers on the floor, which they capture using a camera. They navigate to different parts of the floor and identify the target inventory to be fetched and bring them to the picking station. They are equipped with sensors and are programmed to avoid collisions. When the inventory rack arrives at the picking station, the associate is guided by a laser and a display picture as to which product (SKU) to pick. Once the pick is confirmed, the Kiva robot moves the rack back to the original position and a next one takes its place at the station. The average time for a Kiva robot to fetch a product to the picking station is 14.4 seconds, and they definitely did seem to meet that tirelessly. Once, an order is fulfilled, the robots move the order boxes to the shipping area, where they are sealed and then sent to the sorting station, which directs these cartons to the correct loading deck. Most of us were amazed at the efficiency of these robots and that they were constantly optimizing the location of the inventory based on repeat requests for products. This meant that fast moving products were brought closer to the picking stations while the rarely demanded product moved away from the picking stations.  This was a tour that we all enjoyed and one that has enriched our knowledge, tying MBA class concepts to the real world.

Please click on the link below to see a video of these robots in action:

http://db.tt/Or1Bvcp (Courtesy: WeiCai Li)

-Viswanathan Adinarayanan,

MBA Class of 2012


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J&J + Cincinnati = Happy Hoover

July 7, 2009 in Career by MBA Association | No comments

Summer Series – Johnson and Johnson

Heeeeeeeelllllllllooooooo from Cincinnati! I’m currently spending my summer rocking out at Ethicon Endo-Surgery here in Ohio. The Johnson and Johnson EES business unit creates, markets, and sells medical devices for minimally evasive surgery. As a supply chain specialist, I’ve been working with suppliers, warehouse logistic managers, and transportation carriers in order to reduce the amount of product expedited (air freighted) from the suppliers to our warehousing facilities. Not only have I been plugging away at my project, but I’ve also met with Chief Procurement Officers, Vice Presidents, and Presidents of various departments in one-on-one meetings. Can you believe that they’ve already flown me to New Jersey for a three day trip? Seriously, how can you lose?

As a hardcore Steelers fan, I did have some initial doubts about moving into Bengals Country (not to mention the home of many Ohio State fans). However, I’ve already watched a Reds game from a luxury box, knocked the stuffing out a few softballs in our company softball league, spent more than a few evenings in Mount Adams (a social haven for young professionals), plan to tear it up on the golf course this Thursday, and hope to visit either the Zoo, Aquarium, or King’s Island Theme park before I leave. Woo Woo Woo.

Catch you on the flip side, my friends.

- Dave Hoover

VP of Recruitment, MBAA


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Spring Career Fair

March 7, 2008 in Career by Supply Chain Association | Permalink

The Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) sponsored the annual Spring Career Fair held on Feb 5th and 6th. More than 70 companies participated in the event, which was open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Due to the overwhelming response of participant companies, this was the first time that the Career Fair was held for two days. Recruiters from the top Supply-Chain companies in retail, pharmaceuticals, energy, healthcare, technology, logistics, aerospace and virtually every other sector held on-campus interviews. Some of the shortlisted candidates were invited by the companies to either interview at Penn State the following day or to visit their facilities for on-site interviews. Many Penn State alumni were also present as representatives of the visiting companies and shared their industry experiences with the current students. The Supply Chain Career Fair was a tremendous success in offering new career opportunities for supply chain practitioners and has continued to grow over the years.

Rohit Gurtu

MBA Class of 2009

Prior to Smeal, Rohit has worked for more than 15 years in the automotive industry. He has undertaken various roles in manufacturing, purchasing, and procurement with Maruti Suzuki, Honda Siel Cars, Delphi Automotive Systems, and Saud Bahwan Automotive, LLC.


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Supply Chain Coffee House

March 7, 2008 in Career, Uncategorized by Supply Chain Association | Permalink

“Let me guess, you didn’t tell them about your 15 minutes of fame with the P-Funk,” my wife asked me after I told her the good news. She was referring to an old Andy Warhol comment and my former employment as a musician in LA; I was telling her about the Career Fair we had on campus. Over 50 Supply Chain companies had come to the Business Building recruiting for internships, co-ops and full time jobs. Because of the large number of companies who attend, success comes from knowing what you want and which companies are offering it. I was looking for an internship. I had already scheduled an interview with Dell later in the week, but I wanted one for a different department there as well. I also wanted to talk with ExxonMobil – my Dad worked for them his whole career and so I knew what a great company they are. I went to the Coffee House we had Monday night before the 2-day career fair where several companies each gave a short presentation and then met with students. We rotated through companies every 30 minutes. I met with the ExxonMobil recruiters and I was able to schedule an interview. Two days later at the Career Fair in the atrium, I met with the recruiters for Dell and I was able to schedule the second interview I wanted so much. Recruiters look for so many different things from students that it’s hard to know what they want. The best approach is to talk with other students who have interned or worked there to find out what the company is like. You can also find a lot of information on the web about the operations, locations and cultures of all of the different companies. Alumni are always willing to help also – so don’t be afraid to cold call them and ask questions. Career Services gets you ready for these events so you can hand your resume to potential employers with confidence knowing that they will like what they see.

I spoke with the ExxonMobil recruiters at the Coffee House just after they told the group they would collect resumes, review them that night and then call the people they would like to interview. However, I had done enough research on the company that I knew what to say and how to write my resume so that they would want to interview me. I got to sign up for a slot right then. Dell was no different; I knew exactly how to approach them. What took me by surprise, though, was where the conversation went – I don’t know how, but we got onto the topic of my musician days in LA and the recruiter not only ended up knowing who the Parliament Funkadelic was, but he was also impressed that I had once done a gig with their drummer. Yes, my experiences before coming to Smeal range all over – but I never thought (and neither did my wife) that I would be using that one to sell myself to a company.

I don’t think it matters who you are or what your background is – Penn State has such a diverse group of students and a broad range of companies who recruit here that you will be able to make the most of what is offered and companies will show up looking for you. My wife has teased me for our entire marriage about how nobody knows who the P-Funk is and how playing a gig with their former drummer won’t ever be of benefit to my new career – now when she pokes fun at it, I remind her that it was instrumental (no pun intended) in landing a great internship.

-Sammie Markham

MBA Class of 2009

Sammie Markham is a 1st year Supply Chain student in the Smeal MBA Program. He has a background in facilities management and funk music.


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