Home > Centers > Center for Supply Chain Innovation > Supply Chain Case Competition > Rules

Eligibility

  1. Participants must be full-time MBA or MS students only.
  2. It is strongly encouraged that participants are supply chain or business majors.
  3. Each invited program is limited to no more than four MBA or MS SCM student participants.

Rules

  1. Each team will be randomly assigned a flight. There will be a maximum of five teams per flight. Under no circumstances will there be less than three teams per flight.
  2. To maintain anonymity for the judges during Saturday’s competition day, teams cannot identify their university, their state or wear school colors. The exception to this rule is the Thursday opening reception where the teams are free to identify their university. During Saturday’s competition, teams are referred to by team name (sponsor's name). They can reflect the team name, but disclosing the identity of the university may lead to disqualification.
  3. Digital copies of the case will be given to each participant 24 hours prior to the final presentation being submitted. The digital copy of the case cannot be printed, shared or distributed in any way. Failure to comply could lead to team disqualification. All teams will receive the case via email at 7:00 a.m. on Friday and must submit their final presentation by 7:00 a.m. on Saturday.
  4. Once the case is released, students may not consult with any non-team members during the team preparation, or on competition day until the competition concludes with the announcement of the top teams advancing to the championship round. 
    1. In the event that the team advances to the championship round, the above rule applies up to the announcement of the winning teams during the Saturday awards ceremony.
    2. This rule applies to academic advisors, faculty, staff, student ambassadors, other students, etc. Contact such as phone conversations, emails, texting, Skype/Zoom  conversations, etc., with non-team members is not allowed.
  5. Teams are permitted to utilize any written resource, scholarly publication, internet, industry journals, academic textbooks, etc. Any sources utilized need to be clearly cited. Teams should understand that case data may have been modified and not tie to publicly available sources.
  6. Teams are expressly prohibited from discussing or accepting assistance from any person outside their team. No physical or electronic contact is allowed. 
  7. Teams are asked to be present 15 minutes prior to scheduled presentation time. The room moderator (ambassador) will admit the team members into the presentation room no more than 5 minutes prior to the scheduled presentation time. Once the presentation begins, any missing team members will not be allowed to enter the room.
  8. Presentations should be in PowerPoint format (16:9 will fit best). Access to a shared drive will be provided for collection. The files must be uploaded by 7:00 a.m. on Saturday to the designated Box folder. Once submitted, there will be no changes allowed to the files.
  9. At the beginning of the presentation the team will confirm one of two presentation formats:
    Option A) 25-minute presentation followed by up to 10 minutes of questions from the judges.
    Option B) 20-minute presentation followed by up to 15 minutes of questions from the judges.
    The total allotted time is 35 minutes. If a presentation is shorter than the minimum 20 minutes, the judges may penalize the team as well as fill the remaining time with additional questions. A time-keeper will ensure the 35 minutes is adhered to.
  10. The winner from each flight will advance to the championship round. In the event of 16 or more competing teams, an additional team may be selected by the judges to advance to the championship round.
  11. Each member of the team must present during the formal presentation.
  12. Attire for the competition is business formal.
  13. All are welcome, including all academic advisors and the public, to attend the afternoon round with the exception of the team members of the finalist teams. All spectators will be placed in the waiting room in between presentations to allow for judges' deliberations.
  14. The presentation order for the championship round will be randomly drawn immediately after the announcement of the winners from the preliminary rounds.

Academic Advisors

  1. Once the case has been distributed, teams are not allowed any type of coaching or consulting from non-team member persons until the competition concludes or the team has been eliminated. 
  2. The academic advisors for the teams advancing to the championship round are expressly asked to not provide any feedback or coaching of any kind until the competition concludes with the announcement of the winning teams at Saturday's awards celebration.  
  3. Academic advisors are permitted to attend and record the morning presentation of the their school's team. Academic advisors cannot make any comments during the presentation. Any comments by the academic advisor during the presentation may result in disqualification of the team.
  4. Academic advisors are not permitted to attend and record the morning presentation of another school's team.
  5. Academic advisors are invited to attend the championship round of all teams.

Evaluation Criteria

  1. Judges are provided a rubric for evaluating the presentations. However, judges are professionals in the field and may use the evaluation criteria as they see fit. 
  2. Decisions by the judges will be final.