- Introduction and Personal Learning Objectives:???
- Hi, my name is Alexander Dennis! I am a Junior at the University of Arkansas’s Honors Walton College of Business. I am pursuing a double major in Supply Chain Management and Finance with a minor in Data Analytics and information security. For the past 3 months, I have been an Intern at J.B. Hunt as a CE Account Manager Intern. Where I am responsible for all communication between J.B. Hunt and my clients. Those being: The Home Depot, Campbell Soup, Nestle, and GE. When my client’s tender loads to me, it is my job to ensure our internal teams create and deliver solutions for my clients. And when problems occur it is my job to then again work hand in hand with both the client and the internal teams to create a recovery solution.
- While I was shadowing a CE Account Manager, I first saw this problem which has been coined as “loads at risk”. Using your basic over-the-road trucking scenario, imagine you have a driver heading towards the receiver but for whatever reason whether that be mechanical, weather, driver's legal hours, or just miles left till on-time delivery (OTD) the driver cannot feasibly make it for on-time delivery. On that morning, while sifting through data by hand, we found two loads for his client that simply could not make it for on-time delivery. When I asked if there were insights to help identify loads at risk, he wasn't aware of one for the truckload business. So, I set out to make this my summer project, to make a tool for this CE Account Manager.
- Background Review:???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
- When I began my search, I was poking around, and someone pointed me in the direction of a group that had started back in February of this year. When I had my first meeting with the team, I found that they were trying to solve the same problem as me but from a different perspective. Back in February they identified this same problem and came together to try and find a solution based on logic they were already using previously but they wanted this tool from another point of view from the business, so they happily had me join them and bring the CE account manager perspective to the project.
- My Project/Assignments/Duties:????????????????????????????????????????????????????
- When I joined the team, we had come to the consensus that a power BI dashboard was the best solution, and we were just deciding what data we wanted to pull. It was up to me to instruct the rest of the team what account managers will require from the dashboard it gave them valuable insight into how the new solution could impact the entire workflow.
- Analysis/Implications for the Company:
- When it came to for me to give my presentation on this PowerBi Report, as a part of my internship, the team partnered with an engineer to test our logic against real-time data. During the final week of my internship, I was sifting through data and trying to validate the logic. It is my understanding that this logic is valid, and the project moves on to the next phase in which a rough draft PowerBi dashboard will be made and given to a small number of individuals to test out the live usage of this PowerBi before it is then released for all of the truckload business. Once fully rolled out, the very instant that a load no longer mathematically can make for on-time delivery the PowerBi report identifies and presents the problem so that the right teams and the right people can make the right solutions.
- Conclusion and Personal Evaluation:?????????????
- I learned the teamwork that it takes to make a cross-departmental solution, I also learned just how hard is to find time and dedication outside of your normal workflows to work on side projects. As the intern of the group, I placed it upon myself to help where others simply didn't have time not because I was bored but simply because I cared for these people and saw how hard they were working and just as equally how important this solution was. People, I learned the importance of good people, doing great work, Solving problems.
- Shoutout:
- Summer! - Absolute Rascal, does amazing work at an astronomical rate! Always the first to make someone laugh and feel welcomed! Hope you enjoyed your Jello lol!
Industrial Engineering Student at University of Arkansas
7 个月Congrats Alexander!
Undergraduate Student | Double Major in Supply Chain & Finance (Investment/Management) | Dedicated Intermarket Trader
7 个月Congratulations on completing your internship! I’m looking forward to hearing what’s next for you. Keep up the great work!