Cardinal Health through 6 weeks

It has been a while since I have posted in the blog, so there will be a lot to update on from the first six weeks of my Tauber Project at Cardinal Health (CAH). In short, we have been very busy working on the project and are currently preparing to pitch some of our suggestions to the management teams at CAH. The ability that we have had to shape the project has been a refreshing change from previous corporate internships where you may be given more more task related work. Along with my team we have, with the help of the CAH managment, been able to totally scope and control the direction of the project. I think that part of the allure of these projects for the companies is that they are able to give basic guidance to the student teams and then allow them to run with the ideas and craft totally new knowledge for the companies.

To step away from the internship for a bit, I am currently living in a extended stay hotel. Most of the Tauber sponsors provide housing or at least housing assistance during the summer. I have been able to enjoy the luxuries of daily maid service and free breakfast and dinner during my stay. It may be a wake up call when I return to the UM in the fall and the dishes don't do themselves!

To shift back to the project that my team has been working on, the sheer scale of the operations are incredible. I think this along with the industry were some of the things that drew me to the project. It is incredible for us to look at the changes we are making in a small subset of products and then look at the potential if theses changes can be scaled company wide. It is a surprisingly scary but empowering felling to have this much influence. At least in my case, the sponsor company has done a great job of getting our team access to all of the information that we need. There is no hesitation allowing us to talk to different VP's about our project. I think in the first week we talked with 3 VP's who have all been supporting our project since.

Despite being located in Waukegan, IL our team has been able to do some exciting traveling. Just a few weeks ago we spent a week in El Paso looking at some of the companies operations at a large replenishment center.

We worked long hours, but were still able to enjoy some great Mexican food and checked out the UTEP campus. CAH was event nice enough to get us a sexy red 4 cylinder Chevy HHR for the weekend!

I will try to post a picture that we took with the team in El Paso, but I can't seem to find a good one right now.

I am looking forward to presenting our preliminary findings in the next few weeks and then working to add our advisers recommendations to our findings. Our whole team is hoping that we will be able to being our pilot project to verify our findings soon!