I would like to highlight a fantastic experience I had during my NMGZ trip to Atlanta. One of the companies NMGZ ambassadors had the opportunity to visit during our Atlanta trip was UPS. During our visit to UPS, we were lucky to have an inside look into the company’s supply chain.
As a marketing and supply chain student, seeing this process in person stood out to me. Getting a first-hand look at how operations (like processing inbound and outbound packages) physically run inside a large company like UPS will significantly benefit me when analyzing a supply chain in the future.
Additionally, speaking with Carl Edens, a Global Process Manager at UPS, was super insightful. Learning about Customer Experience at UPS and how it varies based on the company’s customers was very interesting. It is extremely important to understand that the approach used to create a supply chain differs significantly from company to company and from consumer to consumer. I have always been aware that target audiences were extremely important for marketing, but this conversation with Carl taught me that it is equally as crucial for the supply chain of a company as well.
If I could give one suggestion to students studying marketing/supply chain, it would be to take advantage of any opportunity you are given, even if it doesn’t seem 100% relevant to you. Stepping inside UPS’ production plant was not something I was expecting to do on this trip, but I was able to take away vast amounts of information from this experience. Walking into the UPS production plant, it could have been very easy to feel confused and wonder why we were not at the UPS corporate office. However, I entered the building with an open mind and plenty of willingness to learn. Being open to new ideas and ways of learning will truly teach you so much! Visually seeing a supply chain in action helped to reinforce the knowledge of the supply chain I previously had from school. Overall, it is essential to remember that there are many different approaches to learning. Being open to engaging in any approach will help you learn and grow faster than limiting yourself to certain experiences.
To conclude, I would like to thank NMGZ for arranging this fantastic trip to Atlanta and this visit to UPS! I am already looking forward to attending another NMGZ trip soon. No two firm visits looked the same, and I value this greatly. Every time I attend an NMGZ event, I will walk away knowing more people and information than I did before!