thoughtleaders
Judith Whipple
Dr. Judith M. Whipple, associate professor
in the supply chain management department at Michigan State University (MSU),
got her start at General Motors, working in
production, purchasing, and materials management. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in
business administration with a minor in
logistics from MSU under the guidance of
the late Dr. Donald Bowersox. A respected
researcher, Whipple has co-written more
than 80 research papers, book chapters, case studies, and
magazine articles, and has delivered more than 100 presentations at conferences and seminars. She’s received numerous awards, including “best paper of the year” from the
Journal of Operations Management and (twice) from the
Journal of Business Logistics.
But Whipple was nominated as a Rainmaker for more
than her publications. As one of her supporters said, “Judy
has been the lead in numerous research initiatives that
proved to be thought-provoking and always had a strong
value proposition. It was never research for the sake of
research.” She’s also been recognized for her teaching skills,
winning Michigan State’s universitywide Teacher-Scholar
Award and being named Teacher of the Year by the Supply
Chain Management Association.
ciation of the complexity and challenges of
supply chains.
I love it when students tell me they can’t
go into a grocery store now without thinking about supply chain management. They
have an understanding of the numerous
processes required to get those products
there.
QYou worked at General Motors early in your career. Why did you switch from industry to academia?
A My undergraduate degree is from GMI, now Kettering University, which is a co-op school that
General Motors used to own. I studied logistics and started
working for GM. When I decided to get a Ph.D., I was interested in the advanced study of logistics and purchasing, and
I thought I would bring that knowledge back to my job. But
during the first year of my doctoral program, I had the
opportunity to teach, and I just loved it. I also had the
opportunity to work with [MSU Professor] Don Bowersox
and other faculty and doctoral students on the textbook
World Class Logistics. Those experiences convinced me to
follow a career in academics.
QWhat led you to choose supply chain collaboration, integration, organizational design, and security and risk management as the
focus of your research?
A Collaboration and integration are something I’ve been interested in throughout my career, starting with
my experience in purchasing at GM. I could see how relationships with some suppliers worked really well, while others could use improvement. Additionally, I worked in various functions—for example, I worked in a plant before I
went to purchasing—so I understood the need for cross-functional integration. That drove a lot of my early
research—I wanted to help people learn how to make
improvements.
My research in the food industry led me to security and
risk management. It was after 9/11, and there was a lot of
concern about how to keep the food system secure. I
worked on a research project funded by the Department of
Homeland Security that dovetailed with my research on
collaboration and integration. When you think about it, it’s
only through collaboration that we can identify the weakest
links in a supply chain. Integration is key, too: Do you have
integrated processes and common protocols? How do various functions work together to detect breaches and other
risk issues?
My research on organizational design is newer. It came
about because we were approached by companies that were
trying to figure out how to organize and integrate their
internal supply chain activities.
QWhat do you consider to be your most important mission as a supply chain educator?
A Even though logistics and supply chain have come a long way in terms of recognition within corporations, we’re still battling to get recognition in academia. So
one important mission is teaching people across the university about the importance of supply chain management
and introducing prospective students to the field.
Another is to help students learn about the power of
logistics and understand how a company can become more
successful by having a stronger supply chain network, for
example. It really is exciting to see students gain an appre-
QHow important is communication and collaboration between academics and practitioners?
A In order to conduct relevant research, I need to be lis- tening to and working with practitioners. … That
enables me to keep my research focused on issues that matter to people in industry. That, in turn, helps me in the
classroom because I can talk to students about what’s really
going on in industry and share best practices.
On the flip side, people in industry often don’t have as
much time as they’d like to learn about what’s going on outside their industry and at other companies. We can help by
synthesizing lots of data and identifying best practices. We
can also give managers meaningful insights based on the
results of our research.
