Paul Seitz is a Smeal finance major with a minor in economics. Paul spent an exciting summer in Santa Ana, California, working as an intern at Pioneer Circuits.  This company makes circuitry for the military, NASA/ JPL and others. 

As an intern, he managed four different projects.  He needed to make sure the projects were not only correct, but also delivered on-time to the appropriate managers.  Analysis included a technologically advanced line of machinery, labor costs, purchasing costs, and supply chains. 

Paul emailed me regarding a project he was working on to identify an appropriate MRP system.  MRP (material resource planning) systems help manufacturers plan and track manufacturing projects, including the necessary resources.  Currently the term ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is more commonly used to describe a broader MRP initiative.  Microsoft elaborates on ERP at their website. 

Among other suggestions, I also advised Paul to visit a tradeshow or schedule meetings with value added resellers (VAR) in the area.  The latter was a successful strategy that I used in business when I was managing similar projects.  Be advised, though, that VARs can be a great source of information and even help guide questions that need to be answered, but at least some can be a bit deceptive and aggressive.  I usually met with three to five VARs before I felt I had a good start of what I was looking for (and what I was not).