Keeping up with the pace of innovation: Purdue x Accenture
An inside look at how Purdue and Accenture connect smart manufacturing, AI, workforce development
This story highlights one of the many ways Purdue teams up with corporate partners to create solutions for complex global challenges. Learn how your organization can collaborate with us.
What happens when a loyal Purdue alumnus sees a great business opportunity?
An innovative partnership is born.
“My role is to drive new value with Accenture clients in manufacturing,” says Jon Simpson (BS organizational leadership and supervision, ’00), a senior manager in Accenture’s advanced manufacturing division. “When I joined the company just over four years ago, I spoke up and said, ‘Hey, I have these relationships with Purdue. How can I help drive recruiting and other activities that we’re trying to partner on?’”
A 5-year agreement to innovate together
In 2022, Purdue and Accenture entered into the type of collaboration Simpson envisioned, signing a multiyear agreement focused on smart manufacturing facilities, online workforce upskilling, real-world student consulting and scholarships. Within just a few years, the partnership expanded talent recruitment and client engagement efforts and added Mitch Daniels School of Business collaborations.
A smart partnership
As part of Purdue and Accenture’s commitment to preparing the next-generation smart manufacturing workforce, two key programs were launched: the Smart Manufacturing Academy and the Smart Learning Factory.
The Smart Manufacturing Academy is an online, self-paced curriculum designed to teach foundations in digital transformation to machine and line operators, technicians, plant managers, engineers, and employees in other manufacturing roles.
“As we help our clients reinvent manufacturing and build new facilities in North America, we see time and time again how important it is to take the workforce along the journey,” says Prasad Satyavolu, senior managing director in Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing service.
The Smart Learning Factory is a central hub for innovation between Purdue and Accenture located on the university’s West Lafayette campus. It’s a microcosm of modern industrial manufacturing environments, demonstrating end-to-end production that utilizes the latest technologies.
Student-focused initiatives
Another area of collaboration between Purdue and Accenture is in the Krenicki Center for Business Analytics and Machine Learning where Purdue students develop data-driven solutions to real Accenture client problems.
“Students have another angle, another view. They think about challenges differently,” says Igor Kazakutsa, an Accenture global marketing lead for supply chain and engineering.
“Purdue students are working on actual client projects and gaining great work experience,” says Simpson, “and the Accenture professionals who mentor and advise student teams with regular check-ins educate and keep them accountable to industry standards.”
These real-world learning opportunities benefit Purdue students while also developing Accenture’s talent pipeline. “Students being career-ready when they join our company always makes a difference,” says Simpson, “especially when they have experience contributing to our client’s projects.”
The company also engages students through capstones and courses such as Strategic Management, where Accenture provides a practicum case study for the entire semester to help students gain the coaching and perspective that Accenture clients expect.
For companies facing workforce, innovation, research or technology challenges, Purdue can connect the right people and resources quickly.
Jon Simpson (BS organizational leadership and supervision’00)
Senior manager advanced manufacturing, Accenture
The 80/20 rule
Simpson and Kazakutsa say that a partnership with Purdue can be beneficial for any company facing workforce, innovation, research or technology challenges.
“Purdue can connect the right people and resources quickly,” Simpson says.
“Clients often come to Accenture with problems that are 80% defined and time-bound, while the remaining 20% are more ambiguous and forward-looking,” he says. “Purdue offers a place where faculty, students and industry partners can think through those less structured challenges together.”
Kazakutsa agrees.
“The speed of change in manufacturing and AI is already helping companies build faster, rethink operations and manage complex challenges,” he says. “But the pace of innovation means the industry may look very different within a year, and even more so within five. The link between education, science and practice is critical.”
As AI changes the business landscape, partnerships like the one between Purdue and Accenture prepare students for the expectations of the real world while giving industry leaders a clearer view of the people, technologies and ideas that will shape what comes next.
