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MMM – Worth going back to school
Venky Iyer is a rising star. As well as becoming the youngest Lead Process Engineer at a global engineering and construction services provider, he also later worked on a project for the construction of the world’s largest oil refinery. So why would he choose to go back to school? In a nutshell, the McGill’s Master in Manufacturing Management.
“I heard about McGill University when I was doing my engineering in India. After having worked in the industry for over three years, I was looking for a management program that was relevant to my experience in the manufacturing industry.” said Venky, now a student at McGill.
At first, Venky thought about pursuing an MBA but he came to the conclusion that if he were to obtain a Masters degree, it should be related to his field, engineering and manufacturing. The MMM program does exactly that –by offering subjects focussed in operations and supply chain management it integrates skills in business management, manufacturing and engineering, the combination of which gives graduates in the program a leg-up in a competitive field.
A unique component of the program is industrial case studies where students are given real life company problems to solve. A number of internships are also available to students, giving them the opportunity to work on solutions for corporations partnering with McGill University.
One of the case studies Venky worked on was a logistics optimization problem for Praxair, a Fortune 300 company that supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gasses. Praxair has four plants in South America and wanted to have optimal use of their trucks between the plants and customers.
“This was more of a computation problem so we used linear programming to determine optimal scheduling of delivery.” said Venky.
When asked about adjustment to a new country and being a student again, Venky states: “I was impressed with the infrastructure at McGill; the administrative formalities such as application processing, student housing , acquiring student I.D.s and registering for classes were done very quickly by university administrators.”
Venky is the recipient of a 3M Entrance Scholarship that covers half of his tuition. The scholarship is given to two students each year. Students are automatically considered based on grades in previous studies, job experience and their GMAT or GRE score.
When Venky graduates this December, his plans are to work for at least three years in Canada in order to gain international experience, “When I go back to India my experience will be of great value.” said Venky.
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