GREENVILLE N.C (WNCT) — A team from the industrial distribution and logistics program in East Carolina University’s College of Engineering and Technology finished third in an international competition.

A five-week logistics sustainability game allowed students to apply their knowledge to make strategic decisions about a dairy distribution company. Although they finished third place, they were the top American university in the competition. 

Dr. Mark Angolia, ECU’s professor in industrial distribution, was the team’s advisor and helped lead them throughout the competition.  

“These guys you know, they just out-performed,” he said. “They just demonstrated what they’ve been learning and the really neat thing was how well they worked together. Because not only was there three on-campus students, we also had a distance education student.”  

During the competition, ECU’s team of four students used S-A-P software, the largest software in enterprise planning in the world, to manage the dairy distribution. Costs of goods changed weekly, and the students had to factor in taxes, distribution and transportation.

Emma Gilbert, the student organization president, explained what the team had to accomplish.  

“Basically, we would have team meetings every Tuesday and we would analyze data on excel,” she said. “Go through our SAP which was the E-R-P (Enterprise Resource Planning) system we were using to play this game. Change our prices, order inventory.” 

Gilbert rallied the troops with her excitement before the competition as well and Angolia was proud of her high spirits but nervous to compete against people on completely different parts of the globe.  

“She goes ‘And we’re going to show them we’re going to win.’ I mean she was ready to win even before the competition,” he said. “And I’m thinking, we’re going to be playing against you know, dozens of schools from around the world and I’m like I just want a good showing.”  

The team fell short to the University of Sherbrooke, one of the top business schools in Canada, as well as the Monterey Institute of Technology in Mexico. Reflecting on the experience, Gilbert has nothing but fond memories. 

“We just had fun with it we just did our best,” she said. “And it ended up being great.”