Supply Chain Management Online Master’s Degree Rounds Out Career Experience

Rudy Schmerber considers himself a late bloomer, academically, but at 52 he now wears his University of Arkansas class ring with pride.

It was not Schmerber’s first experience with online education when he earned a Master of Science degree in supply chain management from the Sam M. Walton College of Business last year. In 2012, he earned a bachelor’s degree delivered online from LeTourneau a small Christian university in east Texas. He was spurred then by the need for the diploma to continue advancing in his career.

Schmerber is in his 32^nd year at RS Americas Inc., a distributor of electronic components, where he works as a supply chain manager at the corporate distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. When he heard about the master’s degree from his daughter, who is a U of A graduate, a desire to continue advancing with RS Americas compelled him to check it out. He was interested in rounding out his knowledge of supply chain, and the U of A program didn’t disappoint, Schmerber said.

His daughter earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science with a minor in psychology and had an internship with the Razorback football team as an athletic trainer.

“When she graduated, it was like saying goodbye to a friend,” Schmerber said. “I thought, ‘We’re not coming to Fayetteville anymore.’ I had been hesitant, talking about a master’s degree, and when she mentioned the master’s in supply chain, I thought, ‘Now, I’m going to have my own true ties to the University of Arkansas.’”

He walked at his commencement in Fayetteville and plans to return when both his and his daughter’s names are engraved in Senior Walk.

The U of A offers more than 90 online degree, certificate, microcertificate and licensure programs. They can be viewed at U of A ONLINE. 

 

Prior Experience

Schmerber said he challenged himself to go for the master’s degree.

He wanted to prove to his employer that he is committed to learning more about supply chain outside the experience of how the company operates.

“I have confidence in what our company is doing,” Schmerber said. “We are doing it right and I learned new strategies, new models to introduce in topics such as inventory management, supplier relations and contract management. I wanted to understand more of the end-to-end process.”

He saw the U of A program’s emphasis on the manufacturing aspect as a pro because his work involves that aspect.

“It always helps to understand what suppliers have to do in order to offer the products we are purchasing from them,” Schmerber said. “Why it takes eight weeks, how to choose the right carrier, negotiating terms. It’s good to have that understanding, to talk their language. Distribution and manufacturing work cohesively when everyone understands where their role is.”

His company also assisted with tuition costs, Schmerber said. RS Americas lists more than 3.9 million products on its website and ships more than 7,000 parcels per day from the Texas location. It’s a publicly traded company that is part of the RS Group based in the United Kingdom and was formerly Allied Electronics.

 

Studying Online

With his years of experience in the field, Schmerber felt he was able to add value to conversations with his classmates in the program.

“Most were working professionally,” he said. “In board discussions, we helped each other.”

Schmerber and his wife are empty nesters, he said, with three adult children.

“That was a lucky thing for me,” he said. “My wife was happy to have her time alone, and we knew it would be a short time (in the degree program). The dynamics were a little easier when it came to my personal life and how to interweave schoolwork into it. We had three kids in the house when I did my undergraduate degree.”

Schmerber said he typically did most of his studying and assignments on the weekends, after getting as much reading done as he could during the workweek.

“The professors brought real-world, relevant, current experience to the program and could talk about those areas in detail,” he said. “The program pretty much checked every box for me.”

To learn more about the supply chain master’s degree, visit the program website.