New England Hall of Fame
The 2018 New England Supply Chain Conference Hall of Fame Award winner is Bruce C. Arntzen, Ph.D. He has contributed in distinctly outstanding ways to the Supply Chain profession. The following summary is an excerpt from the full article. There are nine attributes that constitute the award criteria, and Bruce fulfills each criterion in an exemplary manner. His participation as a speaker at NESCON many times was in recognition of his body of professional contributions that pre-dated the award.
Career
Dr. Arntzen spent four years at MIT to fulfill a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, making significant contacts and being exposed to many different career opportunities. He commenced a career in operations management as a consultant with Arthur D. Little, Inc. focusing on distribution operations and planning, manufacturing operations, supply chain process re-engineering, and optimization and simulation modeling for which he became well known and in demand.
Later during the middle and late 1980's with Digital Equipment Corporation, he helped country-wide distribution teams and product business units reduce costs and cycle time and implement new planning processes and tools. Later he co-founded two consulting firms – Global Supply Chain Associates and Avicon Partners – that were dedicated to Supply Chain problem-solving, transformation, operations management, industrial engineering, and process re-engineering.
Contributions to the field
He recognized the growth value of belonging to a professional organization that would enhance professional performance. What ensued was twenty-five years on the board of the New England Chapter of CSCMP serving as President three times, Program Chairman many times, and on the Program Committee of the national CSCMP conference. Voluntary presentations at numerous industry and professional conferences including Shingo Prize, CSCMP, OMTEC, and WERC were part of his outreach. This is the short list of many other actions and achievements.
Bruce then moved on to influence the next generation of professionals by returning to academia as the Executive Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management Program which trains managers on five different campuses around the world for futures in SCM. In this role he teaches the courses in Supply Chain Fundamentals, Global Supply Chain Management, and Leading Global Teams. But the emphasis is not just in the classroom. The programs provide for exposure to the values of association with professional organizations – CSCMP and its Best Thesis Competition, APICS and its Case Competition, and ISM with its Best Poster and Supply Chain Game Competitions – that not only expose the “best of the best” to students but build cross-functional and cross-industry bridges.
What is most refreshing about Bruce is his continuing drive to build stronger professional organizations through streamlining engagement, adaptive mediums of information and personal interconnectivity so that future generations can appreciate and enjoy the benefits of association involvement as our honoree did and continues to develop in our behalf.
Receiving the award
Pictured below are Leonard Morrison, MIT CTL Career Development and Alumni Relations Officer with Diane Cotter, NESCON Chairperson and Dave Kriz, NESCON Programming Committee Chair and Hall of Fame Committee Chair. Len Morrison received the award on behalf of Dr. Arntzen who was not available for the event.
