One hundred and eight (108) students from 14 different schools competed as 25 teams in the APICS West Coast 7th Annual Student Case Competition on February 22-23, 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. This event was hosted by the APICS Southwest District and coincided with the district meeting. As in previous years, there were two separate divisions – a Graduate and an Undergraduate division. Eleven (11) teams competed in the graduate division, and 14 teams in the Undergraduate division.

University of Houston (Team 2) took first place in the Graduate Division. Second place was awarded to another team from University of Houston (Team 13).

University of Portland (Team 19) took first place in the Undergraduate Division. Second place was awarded to University of San Diego (Team 5).

The University of Houston first place team received the highest score out of the two divisions and will be invited to compete at a case competition at the APICS International Conference & Expo in Orlando, FL in September.

Students were given the case problem at approximately 9 a.m. on Friday morning by case author John Newlyn, CFPIM, CIRM, CSCP. At 4 p.m. that same day they submitted an executive summary case solution and PowerPoint presentation. All teams presented Saturday evening to determine the top two teams from each division that would compete in the final round of judging Saturday morning. The judges for the final round were the chapter leaders of the Southwest District.

The case was based on a real digital billboard manufacturing company that was seeking recommendations for the allocation of one million dollars for business operations. Students took on the role of a consultant organization and presented their recommendation for which activities to fund. Students competed for cash awards provided by the chapters of the Southwest, Pacific Western, and Terra Grande Districts.

Teams are listed below and color-coded by District. Southwest, Pacific Western, & Terra Grande