A Career in Supply Chain Management

Jeffrey Stanley has something many new college graduates don’t have—a good job in his field.

When Stanley received his bachelor’s degree in supply chain management from the College of Business Administration, he had already been on the job for several weeks at TracRac. The Fall River, Mass., firm manufactures rack systems for pickup trucks that hold ladders and heavy tools.

Stanley said the supply chain program at URI, through rigorous coursework and work with local and national companies, prepared him well for his new job: “The professors are great, especially Doug Hales and Jim Kroes. They brought in recent grads to do presentations on supply chain management and conduct interviews with us. Those experiences helped us get a real feel for the career.”

Hales and Kroes also involved students like Stanley in the CONNECT (Coalition of New England Companies for Trade) Conference in Newport: “We worked the conference as volunteers, which gave us the chance to go to seminars and network with the companies there.”

Last September, Stanley held an internship at VIBCO Vibrators of Wyoming, R.I., makers of high-quality industrial vibrators for a wide range of industries, including construction and agriculture: “These are large products that go in dump trucks, cement mixers, and industrial hoppers that help shake out or mix the material,” said Stanley. “They treated me as a member of the team. I did projects to help on the floor, worked to decrease inventory, and worked directly with the manufacturing employees.”

Probably most beneficial was his work with Paul Cary, a leader in the lean manufacturing movement, whose main job at VIBCO is eliminating waste and enhancing productivity. Stanley also appeared on the AM 790 talk show, The Lean Nation, which is hosted by VIBCO President Karl Wadensten ’82.

“The experience at VIBCO led me to my current job at TracRac,” Stanley said. “TracRac is a great place where I can apply all my lessons from VIBCO.”

—Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87