From November 14-17, the 12th edition of the Global PRO Final of The Fresh Connection took place in an on-line setting with 50 teams competing to realize the highest Return on Investment for the fruit producing company The Fresh Connection. Each day one round of The Fresh Connection was played. During timeslots of 1.5 hours per day the teams had to take decisions for The Fresh Connection with the aim to improve the company’s supply chain and financial performance in a dynamic and changing environment.
Team Quick Sip from Germany with the participants Benjamin Bloch (Itron), Paul Stadler (Kinexon) and Daniel Freiersleben (Linde Hydraulics) participated in the global PRO final of The Fresh Connection after winning the PMI Challenge of The Fresh Connection with an impressive weighted Return on Investment of 28.18 %.
As all 50 teams in the Global PRO final had different paths into the final, all teams started in round 1 anew with a negative Return on Investment and given settings The aim of round 1 was to get all participants familiar again with the Business Simulation, therefore this round did not count in the final score. Team Quick Sip already positioned itself well by taking rank 4 with a ROI of 18.40 %. Rank 1 was taken by Team CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co with an ROI of 27.10 %.
In round 2 the complexity for the teams increased as they had to introduce a new product for their existing customer base. This new product had different characteristics compared to the existing products in The Fresh Connection’s portfolio ! This round was the first round that counted for the end result. Team Quick Sip ranked 5th after round 2 was calculated. Also the highest ranking team from round 1, CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co, lost ground somewhat as they were overtaken by team Oriflame who now ranked number 1.
In round 3 complexity increased even further as a new customer had to be served and capacity proved to be constrained given the increased volumes. On top of that, the teams also had to manage their carbon footprint and had to make promises to their customers about the CO2 emission to deliver their products to them. Not meeting this promise resulted in high penalties !
Team Quick Sip managed to step up in the ranking again to rank 4, just one rank away from winning an Executive Course at Cranfield School of Management as the top 3 teams in the final round would win this course at this renowned institute.
So the tension rose in the last and decisive round with a weight of 50% in the final score. In this final round everything was possible as the capacity restrictions were lifted and also collaboration within the value chain with suppliers and customers was possible. When the calculation was completed, Team Quick Sip was only 0.34% away from rank 3 with a weighted ROI of 26.98 %. The final was won by team CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co with a weighted ROI of 41.50 %. Congratulations team CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co !
Though Team Quick Sip just missed the top 3 by a small numbers, Benjamin, Paul and Daniel highly valued the experience of participating in the Global Challenge. Daniel Feiersleben wrote via LinkedIn: We are of course a little bit sad that we only took fourth place. But the recognition belongs to the top 3, well deserved. Thank you Inchainge and PMI Production Management Institute GmbH for making it possible to participate. Special Thanks to Paul Stadler and Benjamin Bloch. We didn´t know each other before, but we all learned a lot and I haven't had so much fun for a long time. Great experience and I can only recommend it to everyone.
PMI Production Management Institute would like to thank team Quick Sip for their participation in the Global PRO Challenge and for achieving rank 4 in a strong competitor field of 50 teams from all over the globe. Congratulations Benjamin Bloch, Paul Stadler and Daniel Freiersleben!
