Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee

Global supply chains are built, governed, and operated in real places with real constraints. 🌎 🇵🇦 Students in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee M.S. in Supply Chain Management (Global) program recently traveled to Panama to see firsthand how international trade, infrastructure, and government policy come together in practice. Led by #GSCI co-executive director Thomas Goldsby, the experience immersed students in live operating environments and reinforced a core lesson of supply chain leadership: global trade doesn’t function the same way everywhere, and effective leaders must understand those differences. Experiential learning like this is central to how Haslam and the Global Supply Chain Institute prepare talent to navigate today’s increasingly complex supply chains. 🍊 🔗 Read the full story: https://hubs.la/Q048tW6c0

Global trade volatility isn’t new—but how organizations respond is where leaders separate themselves. In a recent CFO Brew feature on tariff strategy, #GSCI co-executive director Ted Stank and Lance Saunders shared insights on why early movers gain lasting advantage when navigating tariff disruption. Their perspective highlights a critical truth: tariffs aren’t just a cost challenge—they’re a strategic #supplychain test. “Companies that moved capacity out of China into Mexico, Vietnam, Poland, et cetera, reduced geopolitical exposure, shortened lead times (nearshoring), and improved working capital turns," Stank said. "[The savviest companies] treated trade volatility as a permanent operating condition, not a temporary disruption." At the Global Supply Chain Institute, our faculty help organizations think beyond reaction and toward proactive, data‑driven supply chain design, especially when policy shifts reshape sourcing, network strategy, and risk management. 🔗 Read the full piece: https://hubs.la/Q048sDWS0 cc: Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee

When margins tighten, executives must be willing to challenge assumptions and make hard decisions about what the business should—and should not—keep doing. 📊 In an interview with Competitive Insights, LLC, GSCI managing director Scott DeGroot discussed critical actions leaders can take to improve operating performance in uncertain conditions. DeGroot outlined several levers organizations are using in response to tariff pressure and rising costs, including: 🔸 Changing product assortment 🔸 Modifying product specifications 🔸 Rethinking distribution networks 🔸 Adjusting transportation routes 🔸 Revisiting pricing strategy He emphasized that real performance gains often come when executives push the organization to move activities from the red to the green—questioning unprofitable work, reducing cost, improving price realization, or removing products from the portfolio entirely. Watch the interview clip: https://hubs.la/Q047Ds8M0

⏰ Final reminder for GSCI partners Monday is the last day to take advantage of the #GSCI room block at the Marriott Knoxville Downtown for the Spring 2026 Supply Chain Forum, April 21–23 on Rocky Top 🍊. 🔗 Register now: https://hubs.la/Q048h8TT0 The UT Supply Chain Forum brings together supply chain leaders from more than 75 partner organizations. Basic partners are allotted five seats, while premium partners ⭐ will have eight seats at #Spring2026SCF We look forward to welcoming professionals from across our partner community, including: 🔸 Albemarle 🔸 Amazon 🔸 Anchor Trading 🔸 Auger 🔸 Axle Logistics 🔸 Berkeley Research Group (BRG) ⭐ 🔸 BNSF Railway 🔸 Bridgestone Americas 🔸 Bush Brothers & Company ⭐ 🔸 C.H. Robinson ⭐ 🔸 Caterpillar Inc. ⭐ 🔸 Clayton Homes 🔸 The Clorox Company 🔸 Colgate‑Palmolive 🔸 Comcast 🔸 Conagra Brands 🔸 CONSOLIDATED NUCLEAR SECURITY, LLC ⭐ 🔸 Cummins 🔸 DCLI 🔸 Delek US 🔸 Dell, Inc. 🔸 DENSO ⭐ 🔸 Dominion Energy 🔸 Eastman Chemical Company 🔸 ExxonMobil ⭐ 🔸 Genpact 🔸 GEODIS 🔸 Gnosis Freight 🔸 Hapag‑Lloyd AG 🔸 HF Sinclair Corporation 🔸 Highway Transport 🔸 Hunter Douglas 🔸 IBM 🔸 Johnson & Johnson 🔸 KBC Advisors 🔸 Kenco Group ⭐ 🔸 Kimberly‑Clark Corporation 🔸 Leidos ⭐ 🔸 Louisiana‑Pacific Corporation 🔸 Lowe's Companies, Inc. ⭐ 🔸 Lutron Electronics ⭐ 🔸 Mars ⭐ 🔸 Martin Brower 🔸 Michelin ⭐ 🔸 Mondelēz International 🔸 Nissan Motor Corporation ⭐ 🔸 Norfolk Southern ⭐ 🔸 Oldcastle APG 🔸 PepsiCo 🔸 Pfizer ⭐ 🔸 Philips 🔸 Pilot ⭐ 🔸 Pratt & Whitney 🔸 Procter & Gamble 🔸 PwC 🔸 R&S Logistics, Inc. ⭐ 🔸 Red Stag Fulfillment 🔸 Redwood Logistics 🔸 RoadOne 🔸 Ryder 🔸 SAIC ⭐ 🔸 SC Johnson 🔸 Schneider Electric ⭐ 🔸 Shaw Industries ⭐ 🔸 Shipium 🔸 SMC3 🔸 Smurfit Westrock 🔸 Sunland Logistics Solutions 🔸 Tractor Supply Company ⭐ 🔸 Trane Technologies ⭐ 🔸 Trimble

No. 1 nationwide for empirical supply chain research 🏆 The Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 in the United States for empirical #supplychain management research by the SCM Journal List. The recognition reflects a culture of scholarship that informs industry practice and decision‑making, bridging academic insight and real-world impact. UT has now placed in the ranking’s top five for 12 consecutive years. “Some of the world’s foremost supply chain minds call Haslam home, and this ranking is a fitting testament to their exceptional capabilities," said department head Yemisi Bolumole, PhD. For #GSCI partners, this distinction reinforces the value of engaging with a research community whose work is shaping how supply chains evolve today and in the future. 🔗 Read more: https://hubs.la/Q048gl-v0

What we covered in the March edition of the #GSCI newsletter 📬 🔸 The Spring Supply Chain Forum (April 21–23) is fast approaching. The agenda features sessions on AI, global trade, planning transformation, procurement strategy, and more, with speakers from across our partner network. 🤝 🔸 On the #TennSCM podcast, Kevin O'Marah, co-founder of Zero100, joined Scott DeGroot and Lance Saunders to discuss industrial policy, agentic AI, and the widening performance gap between #supplychain leaders and laggards,🎙️ 🔸 Yemisi Bolumole, PhD succeds John Bell as department head for #SCM at Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee and vows to continue UT’s tradition of close partnership between faculty and industry. 🎓 🔸 In new academic research, Seongkyoon Jeong and his co-authors uncover how free product promotions on digital platforms can sometimes benefit competitors 🔍 🔸 New applied research from the Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative explores why forecasting failures persist and how companies can rethink planning to drive total value. 📊 The #TennSCM newsletter is published once a month. Register to receive the latest supply chain insights and updates. 🗞️ Read the newsletter to stay up to date: https://hubs.la/Q047yz_20

Season 4 of the #TennSCM🎙️🍊 podcast continues with a conversation on why forecast-driven planning continues to fall short—and how leading companies are redesigning their #supplychain planning processes. Hosts Thomas Goldsby and Scott DeGroot spoke with Michael Burnette, Lance Saunders, and Daniel Pellathy about new research from #GSCI's Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative examining the limits of one-size-fits-all planning models and the need for more agile, segmented approaches to demand. Key topics include: 🔸 Why improving forecast accuracy alone rarely fixes service and inventory problems 🔸 How leading companies segment demand and use different demand triggers instead of relying on a single planning model 🔸 The role of planning agility and supply chain capability in reducing dependence on excess inventory The research discussed in this episode is being published in the forthcoming GSCI white paper "Love to Hate the Forecast: Segmenting Planning Demand Triggers to Drive Total Value," to be released at the Supply Chain Forum, April 21–23. 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts: https://hubs.la/Q047ZbpZ0

More than 200 scholars gathered in Knoxville for the recent Daugherty Logistics Doctoral Symposium at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. 🏁 The Department of Supply Chain Management welcomed doctoral students, faculty, and researchers from leading universities to Rocky Top for the three-day program, led by Professor Alex Scott, director of UT's highly-regarded PhD in #SCM program. One highlight of the symposium was a panel featuring #GSCI managing director Scott DeGroot and professors John Aloysius of the University of Arkansas and Sean Wan of The Ohio State University. The discussion explored how academia and industry can collaborate to enhance the relevance and impact of doctoral research. 💡 Throughout the three-day event, several other UT faculty members moderated sessions, including John-Patrick Paraskevas on job search strategies, Lance Saunders on AI in research, Emily C. Dickey on navigating career opportunities, and Stephanie Eckerd and Chris Craighead. In 2026, for the first time, UT was ranked the No. 1 empirical research university in the United States by The SCM Journal List. Learn more about how GSCI bridges academia and industry 🍊 https://hubs.la/Q047MzbT0

Forecast accuracy alone won’t fix planning. The real challenge is aligning demand signals with how the #supplychain actually operates. 📈 A new #GSCI blog post, based on research from Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee's Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative, explores how leading organizations are moving beyond traditional forecast-driven planning toward more flexible demand triggers and right-to-left synchronization. "While inaccurate forecasts create service and inventory defects, the deeper issue is misalignment between demand signals and supply system capability," writes GSCI Fellow and former P&G executive Mike Burnette. "The solution is not eliminating forecasting altogether. Rather, it is segmenting demand triggers and applying forecasting only where it creates the highest total value. The article previews the upcoming white paper, “Love to Hate the Forecast: Segmenting Planning Demand Triggers to Drive Total Value,” by Burnette and Lance Saunders, which will be released at the Supply Chain Forum, April 21–23 in Knoxville. Read more: https://hubs.la/Q047ynrJ0

At #Spring2026SCF, we’ll hear how operational excellence is executed across one of the most complex industrial supply chains in the world. 🌍🚜 Wendi Gentry-Stuenkel, SVP of product support and logistics at Caterpillar Inc., will join Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee SCM department head Yemisi Bolumole, PhD to discuss what it takes to lead logistics at global scale. Their conversation will explore how Caterpillar aligns #logistics strategy, global parts networks, and customer-focused service models to drive performance across continents, even in volatile conditions. Topics will include: 🔶 Synchronizing aftermarket support across global operations 🔶 Aligning supply chain capability with enterprise strategy 🔶 Maintaining reliability, cost discipline, and growth at scale 🔶 Leading logistics as a strategic function—not a back office Don’t miss this session and other main-stage conversations at the Supply Chain Forum, April 21–23, in Knoxville. View the full agenda: https://hubs.la/Q047xgc60