Supply Chain HOF in Rogers has full lineup after grand opening

Just a few months after its virtual grand opening — and with limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic — the Supply Chain Hall of Fame in Rogers is offering plenty of programming.

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), based in Illinois, inducted its inaugural Supply Chain Hall of Fame class in 2016. It included the late Johnnie Bryan (J.B.) Hunt, a co-founder of J.B. Hunt Transport Services in Lowell; Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co.; and Malcom McLean, inventor of the shipping container. The hall of fame pays tribute to those who have made revolutionary contributions to the supply chain industry. Hunt was selected because of his role in pioneering intermodal transportation.

CSCMP officials voted in September 2019 to host the hall of fame in Rogers. Construction crews built out the hall of fame space as a multifunction exhibit and meeting venue on the top floor of the six-story Northgate Plaza office building at 5111 W. J.B. Hunt Drive in Rogers. A partnership between the Blass family of Little Rock and Johnelle Hunt, chairman of Hunt Ventures in Rogers and a J.B. Hunt co-founder, owns the building.

The hall of fame hosted a virtual grand opening this past October with several speakers, including Hunt, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz and Matt Waller, dean of the UA’s Sam M. Walton College of Business.

The Walton College hosts the hall of fame for an initial five-year period. Remko van Hoek, a supply chain management professor in the Walton College, is the HOF’s executive director.

Van Hoek, a supply chain professional with a long history in the industry, was instrumental in securing a place for the hall of fame in Northwest Arkansas. It is hosted in Rogers partly to recognize the central role in supply chain management played by many of the companies headquartered in the region, such as J.B. Hunt, Walmart, Tyson Foods and many others.

Northwest Arkansas is also home to the No. 1 supply chain management undergraduate program in North America, as ranked by global research firm Gartner, at the Walton College.

“By engaging our students and entrepreneurial region, we can bridge the greatest of the past with the best of the future,” van Hoek said. “The hall of fame will help educate, engage and inspire our future and current supply chain leaders.”

The hall of fame has space for rotating exhibits about the hall of fame inductees, recognizing the achievements of practitioners and academics that have created, innovated and worked in the supply chain management industry.

The space is also used for lectures, roundtable meetings and functions for as many as 100 attendees.

The hall of fame has been busy with programming following the October grand opening. Two CSCMP roundtable events were held to discuss OTIF (on time, in full) topics with socially distanced attendees in the room and additional attendees online. The first Master of Science in Supply Chain Management classes were taught in the hall of fame space, and Waller, recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Service Award, participated in a ceremony to include his name on the wall with other DSA winners.

Van Hoek said the hall of fame added its inaugural exhibit in February — video content devoted to Henry Ford. Future events at the hall of fame include the Trends in Supply Chain Management Conference in April. The annual event is hosted by the Walton College’s Supply Chain Management Research Center.

Van Hoek said the hall of fame is also working on a display about the supply chain industry’s future.

“Part of our mission is to inspire future innovations and leaders,” he said. “We have worked with students to develop a ‘wall of statements’ about the dreams and hopes of the future leaders that are going through our program now. It’s a really encouraging and exciting future perspective.”