The Deming Center organizes annual study tours for faculty and students to diverse organizations so that they can observe effective strategy and operations implementation in real-world contexts, while also exchanging ideas with business leaders. Past visits have included Inditex (Zara) in La Coruña, Spain, SC Johnson, Inc. in Racine, WI, the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH, and, most recently, Target outside of Philadelphia, PA.
2025: Pennsylvania
Target and Martin Guitar
On Monday, May 19th and Tuesday, May 20th, 2025, the Deming Center hosted a student and faculty study tour to Target and Martin Guitar. The focus of the visit to Target was on Target’s stores-as-hubs strategy and its operations around fulfillment and distribution, as well as its in-store and last-mile logistics. The visit took attendees through a flow center, a Target store, and a distribution center as critical points in this strategy, all located in the outskirts of Philadelphia, PA. This customized visit was graciously organized by the Target team after Brian Cornell, Chair and CEO of Target, was awarded the Deming Cup for Operational Excellence in 2023.
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Following the visit to Target, the visit to Martin Guitar took place at the company headquarters in Nazareth, PA, where attendees were given a guided tour of the factory for a behind-the-scenes look at the guitar-making process, as well as a visit to the museum, which showcases the company’s nearly 200-year history.
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Find a detailed summary of the study tour here.
2024: New York
Steinway & Sons
On September 30th, 2024, the Deming Center hosted a study tour for Columbia faculty, students, staff, and other guests to the Steinway & Sons factory in Astoria, Queens. Since its very first patent was granted in 1857, the company has been granted more than 150 additional patents and positioned Steinway as the piano by which all others are judged. Since 1880, Steinway pianos have been produced in the company’s New York and Hamburg factories, hand-built by artisans with decades of experience passed on from generation to generation. Consisting of more than 12,000 individual parts, each Steinway is a masterpiece of craftsmanship and a work of art with its own musical character. During the visit, attendees were able to get an inside look at the making of a Steinway—from wood selection to polishing to final tuning—and learned about the company’s commitment to continuous innovation and improvement from its Director of Operations.
For a full recap of the trip, please view the study tour booklet.
2023: Cleveland
EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub and Cleveland Clinic
In April of 2023, the Deming Center hosted a study tour to Cleveland, OH, where its invited guests were able to visit the EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub—hosted in collaboration with EY and the Deming Center’s Supply Chain Innovation Network (SCIN)—and the Cleveland Clinic.
The visit to the EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub on April 27th, 2023 brought together senior business leaders with Columbia faculty, staff, and students for a first-hand look behind the hub’s success in innovation, commercialization, and digitization within manufacturing and supply chain. Additionally, it featured guest speaker, Bob Schug, Vice President of Digital Services and Supply Chain at Mondelez International, who expanded on Mondelez’s journey into digital manufacturing and the digitization of its operations.
On the following day, April 28th, 2023, the Deming Center was given an inside look at the operations of the Cleveland Clinic—a visit that was generously hosted by the clinic’s senior operations teams in part thanks to Toby Cosgrove, Former President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic and recipient of the 2015 Deming Cup for Operational Excellence. Overall, the visit provided attendees with a comprehensive understanding of the clinic's initiatives within technological innovation and operational excellence, as well as its unwavering commitment to providing exceptional patient care, driving research advancements, and creating a thriving work environment for its employees.
For a full recap of the trip, please view the study tour booklet.
2022: New York
Lafayette 148
On July 18th, 2022, faculty, staff, and current and former students of CBS visited Lafayette 148’s vertical operation at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City. Organized by the W. Edwards Deming Center and facilitated by the Lafayette 148 team, the visit was hosted by the fashion label’s co-founder and CEO, Deirdre Quinn—member of the Deming Center’s Advisory Board—and gave insight into the fashion label’s manufacturing and production methods.
With the objective of bridging theory and practice, the visit provided an inside look at Lafayette 148’s operations around design, pattern-making, sewing, photoshoots, showroom, sales, marketing, store design and store planning, as well as insights into its over 40 retail stores located around the world and 250,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Shantou, China. Additionally, Quinn and her team gave valuable input as to how the company has re-imagined its business model post-COVID and explained the vision behind its branding strategy to capture the designer market.