Beyond the Classroom: Fastenal Brings Supply Chain Management to Life

For the second time, Dr. Qin Geng has collaborated with Fastenal, the largest fastener distributor in North America, for her Principles of Supply Chain Management class. The company is known as the “smallest big business” and offers supply chain solutions as part of its services.

Mikayla Swirsky, Regional Recruiter at Fastenal, came to her class on September 28th and assigned students a case study based on a real-life scenario in their distribution center. Working in groups, students are given the task of studying similar scenarios that have occurred before and using Fastenal products to implement realistic money-saving solutions.

Through this project, students are able to combine the ideologies taught by Dr. Geng that would help Fastenal make the distribution process more efficient. They are implementing a culmination of supply chain principles that make real businesses work. “Fastenal is trying to make students understand the total cost of a distribution process,” Dr. Geng highlights. Over the course of the project, the supply chain students need to review the total cost of ownership. By lowering how much production processes cost, like manufacturing or transportation, the total cost goes down, and the business can save money.

Fastenal will be returning to Dr. Geng’s class three more times throughout the semester. Two of these meetings will be through virtual classes to survey how the projects are going, and a final session will be in November to watch the completed group projects in person. During this presentation period, Fastenal will choose a winning group with the best solution.

Students are encouraged to ask Fastenal questions over the course of the project and demonstrate engagement, as the winner of last semester’s project was chosen for an internship at the company. The project is also a resume-building experience, with students being able to state that they were a Supply Chain Strategy Consultant for a multinational Fortune-500 company.

Currently, the project is exclusive to Dr. Geng’s class. However, given the reach that Fastenal has with other areas of business, there is potential for expansion. For interested students, Dr. Geng recommends taking the prerequisites for her class, Communication Studies 10 and Economics 120, and asking questions if they need help. “Fastenal is waiting to take your questions, and I’m open to them, too. There are resources out there for you.”

-Linnea Devenney '27