From Steam Engines to Global Supply Chains

From early studies of transportation in the age of the steam engine to satellite tracking and global logistics models, Wharton has shaped the flow of commerce around the world.

Emory Johnson, Wharton's first specialized business professor, was a towering figure in early studies of transportation. He conducted extensive studies of the transportation industry, which was crisscrossing the nation with railroads, canals, and other systems. In 1903, he published American Railway Transportation, one of the first volumes in the field that offered systematic studies of existing transportation systems, common business practices, and government regulation. He developed courses and books on issues such as managing railroad traffic and setting railroad rates. He went on to become recognized as one of the leading authorities in the transportation industry. In 1911, Johnson was called to the Panama Canal to help set tolls on the waterway under construction, and in 1913, he was appointed Pennsylvania's state regulator of railroads.

Five years later, Johnson helped shape national transportation policy as a member of the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce's National Transportation Conference. Johnson helped develop a common program among the nation's railroads that was enacted into law as the landmark Transportation Act of 1920 ‹ a program with far-reaching implications. Wharton, meanwhile, emerged as a leader in transportation studies, offering more courses than any other institution in the nation. Johnson's students included the director general of the Chinese National Railroad System and the director of the Japanese government system.

With the advent of computers and satellites, Wharton again emerged as a leader in shaping transportation and logistics of trucking, rail, and logistics systems around the world. Railroad tracking models developed by Professor Patrick Harker in the 1980s saved millions of dollars per year for companies using them to route train traffic.

In the early 1980s, Professor Morris Cohen supervised a supply chain research project with IBM that has saved the company millions of dollars in providing spare parts to support after-sales service. The model-based system, still in use today, determined the location and stocking quantity for more than 500,000 parts at more than 10,000 locations. It reduced inventory investment by $500 million, cut annual operating costs by 10 percent, and improved overall customer service levels.

Wharton Professor Marshall Fisher developed systems for agile supply chains linked to customer demand that have significantly reduced costs of overproduction and underproduction in apparel and other industries. Wharton faculty, with other researchers, are now engaged in a major study with a consortium of leading consumer products retailers to create an information technology-based retail structure.

Wharton was the first business school to require a course in supply chain management for all MBA students, and the School's PhD program in the field has been a major source of business faculty and leading researchers at other institutions. Faculty also lead in understanding interlinked supply chains in the age of electronic commerce.

"Better than any other business school, we have integrated research and practice. The highest-level work begins with a real problem, extracts a researchable question, and eventually brings the research finding back to a real-world implementation. We do that best."
Marshall L. Fisher, Stephen J. Heyman Professor, Professor of Operations and Information Management, and Co-Director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management

Emory Johnson (right), Wharton professor and dean from 1919 to 1933, conducted the first systematic studies of railroads, canals, and other transportation systems. In 1911, he was appointed to help set tolls for the Panama Canal.

Professor Marshall Fisher (left) developed agile supply chain models that have helped some of the nation's largest retailers to significantly improve their operations.

"We at Wharton have developed an approach to the field of operations management that captures both its strategic dimension and its linkage to technology and fundamental business processes. We have built that approach on a solid methodological foundation and a close relationship and partnership with leading companies and practitioners."
Morris Cohen, Matsushita Professor of Manufacturing and Logistics, Professor of Operations and Information Management and Systems Engineering, and CO-Director of the Fishman Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management