The passage describes Intel's Supply Chain and STEM Volunteer Outreach program, which aims to address the growing supply chain talent gap. It began as a grassroots effort led by Cheryl Dalsin and has expanded globally with the help of Intel volunteers. The program introduces K-12 students and educators to supply chain concepts through hands-on activities that highlight STEM principles. It hopes to inspire interest in supply chain careers and make "supply chain" a more common term. The program has experienced rapid growth but now seeks support from other companies and organizations to meet rising demand.

1. 36 January/February 2016
A SUPPLY CHAIN INNOVATOR
IS WORKING TO FILL THE GAP
SEEKING2MILLION
PROFESSIONALSIN1DECADE

2. The APICS Interview
apics.org/magazine 37
Rennie:Please tell me about Intel’s Supply Chain and STEM Volunteer
Outreach program. How does it work, and who is involved?
Dalsin:The program is unique in that it combines business with
STEM and shows the business side of STEM. It started as a grass-
roots, employee-driven, volunteer effort. I proposed the program as an
innovation idea to my division and was given the green light to develop
it at a local [Arizona] school. Key connections were made to university
supply chain experts … and we had a small team from Intel.
After reaching 700 K (kindergarten)–8 Arizona students with
exceptional teacher and student metrics, I applied for an Intel
Involved Volunteer Seed Grant of $5,000. That grant led to expan-
sion across four US sites—Arizona, Oregon, California, and New
Mexico. Now, it has grown into five Asia sites as well, and one
in Ireland. We are reaching more than 11,000 students globally
through Intel volunteerism.
In addition, Michigan State University has incorporated the
program into [its] summer Grandparents University program and
is doing local outreach in East Lansing with the student population.
Arizona State University (ASU) has created a high school activ-
ity through a Barrett Honors College thesis from student Kelsey
Hughes. And ASU’s supply chain student body is partnering directly
with Intel to bring this outreach to local communities.
Our program growth has been explosive, but we have reached the
limits of a primarily Intel-driven volunteer model. Demand for our
program is far exceeding the supply of volunteers, and thus we are
now in the process of creating a nonprofit where industry, academia,
and consortia can unite under a common umbrella to confront the
supply chain talent crisis and the supply chain identity problem
head-on. Intel has taken a huge first step and donated $10,000 to
move us forward in the nonprofit direction. Our hope is that other
industries and consortia will follow in Intel’s footsteps.
Rennie: So addressing the supply chain talent crisis and brand are
the primary missions of the outreach initiative?
Dalsin: Yes, the mission is to annihilate the supply chain talent crisis
and make “supply chain” an everyday, common term. We know that
this crisis is looming: Baby boomers are retiring, supply chain talent
gaps are widening, and supply chain complexities are ever increasing.
Furthermore, STEM-based skills like data analytics and structured
problem solving are increasingly required in supply chain.
Our program reaches out to K–12 students and their educators,
promoting awareness of supply chain and the importance of STEM
and supply chain working together for success. A company can have
the world’s best engineers designing amazing products, but if they
don’t have a healthy supply chain in place to support production and
distribution, this company will fail.
In the K–5 space, it is all about sparking awareness through hands-on
fun. Everything we see has a supply chain, from a bottle of drinking
water to lemonade to the shoes on our feet. For middle school—the
most impressionable time in a child’s development—it’s about creating
awareness of supply chain and STEM-based college career paths [as well
as] planting that critical seed of why supply chain and STEM need to
work together for success. In high school, it’s that crucial time period
of students selecting which universities to apply to and which majors to
consider. How can high school students consider supply chain manage-
ment as a career option if they’ve never even heard of it?
We’ve also started professional development workshops for K–12 edu-
cators and are planning college workshops for freshmen and sophomores.
We have diversity efforts underway, and even more is envisioned.
Rennie:Are all of the people you mentioned part of your key target
audience for the program?
Dalsin: First and foremost, it’s about our future generation of
supply chain leaders becoming aware of exciting career paths in
supply chain management and an environment where supply chain
complexity and the need for technical skills are continually increas-
ing. Secondly, it’s about our future generation of STEM-based
leaders becoming a much better asset to their companies [because
they know] about the importance of supply chain and include
supply chain in their decision-making processes. Third, there is a
global industrial gap today where technical decisions are made in a
silo with zero consideration of supply chain impact simply because
it’s just not considered relevant. We have not yet branched into this
space, but I envision leveraging this program to promote industry
awareness of supply chain through workshops and the like.
Editor’s note: Cheryl Dalsin is supply chain technical program manager at
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, California. She is the founder of Intel’s innovative
Supply Chain and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Volunteer
Outreach program. Elizabeth Rennie, APICS magazine managing editor,
recently had the opportunity to speak with Dalsin about the program, its
objectives with regard to addressing the supply chain skills gap, and strategies
for enhancing supply chain’s brand with the workers of the future.

3. Rennie: How are the participating schools, educators, and
students selected?
Dalsin: The first two schools in the program were actually program
partners.Iapproachedthefirstschool,mydaughters’school,withthepro-
gram idea, and they loved it. The second school happened by chance,
as I randomly sat next to the CEO of a different charter school whose
daughter happened to participate in an activity that very same day and
couldn’t stop raving about it. So karma played a role. … Then, as the
programspreadthroughIntelvolunteerism,itbecameverymeaningfulfor
the parent volunteers to bring the program to their own children’s schools.
The volunteers loved the program and the students’ responses, and it grew.
Rennie:Is the program established enough to show that, after stu-
dents participate, their interest in supply chain lasts as they get older
and move on to higher education?
Dalsin:This is a great question and one we need to start tracking.
The program officially started with K–8 students three years ago, so
none of them have reached college age yet. This school year is the
first one that we are bringing the high school game to new areas.
So it’s definitely something to watch, and we need to determine a
method to track this.
Rennie: How do the students participating in the program respond
to learning about STEM and supply chain?
Dalsin:Most people—children and professionals alike—have no
concept of what supply chain is. Yet supply chain is such an integral
part of our daily lives. By bringing this outreach program to students
at a young age, we are creating a spark of awareness. Students learn
through everyday, common themes about what supply chain is, why
it is important, and that it is all around us.
Something magical starts to happen in the way these children
start to view things and piece things together. Suddenly, a grocery
store has a completely different meaning: Those bananas on the shelf
had to travel all the way from Guatemala; that glass of lemonade
started with a farmer who grew sugar beets. Students start to won-
der, “Where did this chair I’m sitting on start?”
By presenting supply chain and STEM as very fun and very
important career options, we already can see some [of the partici-
pating] students gravitating more toward science and engineering
and others toward logistics and supply management during the
activities. You can see this by their key learning drawings. In first
grade, for example, a boy drew out the transportation routes for
delivering cars; a girl drew the entire supply chain for lemonade.
They remember these activities as pure fun. We often hear,
Activity Grade Level STEM Concepts Supply Chain Concepts
Lemonade K–1
• Five senses—sink or float?
• Measuring liquids and solids
• Measuring mass and volume
• Human lemonade supply chain
• Make and deliver lemonade
Intel Day 1–4
• Melting point
• Water fabrication
• Sand magnification
• Design cookie wafer
• Changing sand to silicon
• Packaging and shipping
• Cleanroom suit try-on
LEGO Car 2–7
• Design your own car
• Ratios and story problems
• Engineering
• Assembly
• Quality engineering
• Bill of material
• Prototype to production
• Production line interruptions and
other mishaps
• Supply chain competition
Lean Paper Airplane 6–8
• Metrics and measuring success
• Design prototype
• Quality and test engineering
• Mass production
• Work in process
• Lean manufacturing
• Demand changes
Cell Phone Game 9–12
• Planning
• Metrics
• Quality
• Insource and outsouce
• Lead time
• Random demand
• Excess inventory
• Inability to meet demand
Supply Chain and STEM Outreach Activities by Grade Level
38 January/February 2016

4. “This is the best day ever!” and “When are you coming back?” Later,
when it comes time to consider career paths, supply chain and
STEM come to mind as fun and important options to consider.
Rennie:Did you know the term “supply chain management” when
you were a student?
Dalsin: No, as a college student, and through my first 11 years
in industry as a materials science engineer, I had zero recogni-
tion of the term “supply chain management.” Supply chain was
first explained to me 10 years ago when I was looking for a career
change. My initial thoughts weren’t very positive—and fortunately
quite erroneous: “Supply chain equals shipping things in boxes,” and
“How boring! Who in their right mind would ever want to work in
supply chain?”
But I continued to explore this concept and eventually moved into a
program-management role in Intel’s supply chain customer fulfill-
ment, planning, and logistics (CPLG) area. In CPLG, I became keenly
aware of the criticality of a healthy supply chain, and it opened up a
whole new way of thinking for me. … I also tuned in to the supply
chain identity problem. I truly believe I would have been a much more
impactful engineer in those first 11 years if I had known the impor-
tance of supply chain in engineering and how supply chain impacts
should always be considered when making technical decisions.
For example, I never thought twice about expediting shipments
during engineering development. Sourcing and procurement
strategies, business continuity planning, excess inventory, and envi-
ronmental impacts were something I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t
even consider. The best decision from a purely technical perspective
could end up being horrific if the supply chain impact is not consid-
ered. Had I known the importance of supply chain, I likely would
have focused my technical career on it much earlier.
Rennie:So are your daughters destined for a career in STEM and
supply chain?
Dalsin:As I mentioned, Lily and Abby are the reason this program
was started. When my oldest was in first grade, she wanted me
to come into her classroom and do something “really fun.” I was
already feeling that hands-on STEM was lacking, and I wanted to
show her and her class the amazing technology of Intel. Plus, I was
feeling guilty about working full time and not being able to volun-
teer in her class very often. So I aimed high with the goal of educat-
ing her class about Intel through fun, hands-on STEM and really
worked hard at pulling together an amazing activity.
Any child, I believe, feels that way when his or her parent brings
an activity in like this. The students say things like, “I learned that
things go faster if you work together as a team,” “I learned how an
engineer has to hurry; but if you hurry too much, you make mis-
takes,” “I learned you shouldn’t make your customer mad,” and “I
learned how something like lemonade has a lot of science behind it.”
The teachers also love it. They are amazed at how it ties into the
common core requirements. … And the parents, in fact, have a sim-
ilar reaction. In my opinion, this is why the program has seen such
amazing volunteer growth.
The program was a grand-slam home run. The students’ reac-
tions were over the top with excitement, grins, and giggles. I never
expected such a positive response—and that’s what gave me the
idea that this one-time activity really should be something so much
more. That “catalyst class” really lit the spark.
Elizabeth Rennie is managing editor for APICS magazine. She may be
contacted at editorial@apics.org.
To comment on this article, send a message to feedback@apics.org.
apics.org/magazine 39
First graders at a Tempe, Arizona, school display the “silicon wafer” they fabricated using cookies, sprinkles, and frosting while also learning
about the importance of manufacturing cleanrooms.