The Eliason Five

Photo of Eliason team - Chris Hopkins, Jarrod Yingling, Brandon Becker, Saeed Alsaeed and Khalid Haque.

Team members included (left to right) Chris Hopkins, Jarrod Yingling, Brandon Becker, Saeed Alsaeed and Khalid Haque.

A group of Integrated Supply Management undergraduate students from Western Michigan University's Haworth College of Business teamed with Eliason Corporation, a leading manufacturer of commercial, double-action traffic doors located in Portage, Mich., to design a process that would eliminate the occurrence of delamination on lightweight doors. Students were given the opportunity to systematically and creatively develop improvements for a real supply management process in a client company. 

The project challenged each student to apply and refine concepts learned within the ISM curriculum. In turn, students gained valuable insight into what it takes to not only be a supply chain professional but also how to compete in a world-wide market that demands better, faster and cheaper solutions.

Eliason's Tim St. Onge, vice president of operations; Rob Fletcher, director of continuous improvement; Tom Mack, fabrication supervisor; and John Ryan, lightweight door lamination guru worked with the WMU team on the project.