(RED OAK) – As Texas State Technical College’s Logistics Technology celebrates the milestone of its first two graduates earlier this month, instructor William Scott reflects on the program and how it’s grown.

Instructor William Scott teaches the steps of the Supply Chain.

“The program has grown leaps and bounds,” Scott said. “There’s a lot more things for the students to learn to use, and they’re learning how everything fits together. As we get all the pieces, it’s easier for a student to understand the beginning through the end process.”

And that’s specifically what industry is looking for.

“Industry today is looking for somebody that understands the big picture. Graduates may end up working initially at a warehouse, but three or four years later they might go into purchasing,” Scott said. “There’s a whole host of jobs, but industry still wants our students to understand the overall process. That’s the real focus on this program; exposure to each element in the process.”

The process begins with raw materials, which get made into inventory, and then are transported to warehouses for distribution.

“The merchandise doesn’t stop being inventory until it gets into the customer’s hands,” Scott said. “At its simplest, logistics is about acquiring inventory, moving inventory and delivering it to the end customer. This program covers the entire process.”

The program is still moving forward, introducing new logistics technologies to the students.

“Amazon is building a new million square foot distribution center. One of the techniques they’re thinking of using, is to use drones inside the warehouse to scan items for inventory purposes,” Scott said. “I got a couple of drones for the students to practice using a drone in a warehouse environment.”

The students will also use 3-D printing to cut back on down-time.

“In the manufacturing world, you have parts that break on the machines. Historically, what logisticians would do is go to the warehouse and see if the part is available. If it’s not, we go back to the manufacturer, expedite the part being shipped to us, and finally you get it. In the meantime, that machine has been idle for maybe two days. With 3-D printing, you just take the engineering drawing of that part, print it on a 3-D printer and you can substitute that part into the machine to get it back up and running while you’re waiting for the other part to come from the supplier. So, instead of being down days, you’ll only be down hours.”

The 3-D printing software is among the many that logistics students will learn.

“In today’s modern logistics world, information is the key,” Scott said. “It’s no longer the hardware, it’s the software. We’re pushing the software aspects of logistics really hard now, from tracking information to managing your inventory to moving parts through a manufacturing process.”

Scott chose to help pioneer the program at TSTC after 17 years in logistics in the Air Force.

“Four of those years [in the Air Force], I had the opportunity of teaching logistics to international students as well as U.S. Military students,” Scott said. “I moved on when I got out of the Air Force to do some work for NOAH NASA on satellite systems. I got near that retirement age and wanted to do something where I could give back. I loved teaching. I loved logistics. I loved TSTC’s idea of being hands-on and job oriented, so those were appealing to me.”

According to O*NET OnLine, Texas expects a 40 percent increase for Logistician jobs over the next seven years. Logistics Technology is exclusively offered at TSTC’s North Texas campus.

TSTC is registering now through Jan. 4 for the spring semester, but will be closed for the holidays from Dec. 24 through Jan. 3. For more information on the program, visit www.tstc.edu, or call 972-617-4040.

Meet the Teacher: TSTC Welcomes New Logistics Instructor

Mathew Dromey has joined the TSTC team as the newest instructor in the Logistics program.
Dromey retired from the Army & Air Force Exchange Service after 30 years, and was looking for a way to give back.

TSTC welcomes new Logistics Instructor Mat Dromey, who joined the team at TSTC last month.

“I had a chance to talk to the current logistics instructors and was able to learn a lot about the program, what they did, the kind of things they offer to the students and it seemed like a good fit,” Dromey said.

In his 30 years at AAFES, Dromey worked in 17 different positions. Because of it, he can offer the students advice on real world experience.

“I went from a college trainee up to a Senior Vice President. I’ve been exposed to many different aspects of the retail world and international business, because we were in 50 states and 39 countries,” Dromey said. “I did everything from taking care of the local guys down in Fort Hood in Killeen, to taking care of the ones that are deployed in Baghdad. If we have students coming up who want to get into that business, I can give them honest and realistic answers. It’s not just theory that’s in the book.”

Though Dromey is new to TSTC, he isn’t new to teaching.

“I’ve been teaching for 20 years; I taught at Northwood University,” Dromey said. “So teaching isn’t something new to me, it’s just a different aspect of it. We’re in a segment of technical school where we’re teaching students the managerial part of logistics. I would put it up there with any college around.”

He also taught at Texas Wesleyan University. Dromey will be teaching Freight Loss and Damage Claims, Materials Requirement Planning and Domestic and International Transport Management in spring 2016, and is happy he will be making a difference in the students’ lives.

“The students are my favorite part of working here, without a doubt,” Dromey said. “I’ve always enjoyed working with students.”