Students from Darmstadt University of Technology beat 11 other teams to win the 10^th Annual FedEx Freight International Graduate Logistics Case Competition in Fayetteville, Ark.

Teams from Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota placed second and third, respectively, in the February 22-24 competition sponsored by FedEx Freight in alliance with the Supply Chain Management Research Center at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. The top three finishers were awarded $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

“The supply-chain solutions offered by this year’s teams were thought-provoking and showed that these graduate students have top-notch analytical skills,” said Pat Reed, executive vice president and chief operating officer of FedEx Freight. “FedEx Freight was pleased to sponsor this exchange of knowledge among the logistics professionals of tomorrow. It’s heartening to know that this caliber of student is in the pipeline for the transportation industry.”

Each team competed as a “consulting firm” for DuPont, which in the 1988 scenario had just been given by its board of directors 10 years to phase out all ozone-depleting Freon® products. The 12 teams were given just 24 hours to review the logistics case and prepare their recommendations for a supply-chain plan. They presented their solutions to a panel of industry judges, which chose three finalists who competed before a second group of judges in the championship round. The winners were announced at an awards banquet on February 24.

Participating universities also included Arizona State, University of Arkansas, Chalmers University of Gothenburg, University of Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Texas Christian University and University of Wisconsin – Madison.