Donald Ratliff, executive director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL) at Georgia Tech, and Amar Ramudhin, Director of the Center for Supply Chain Management & Technology, co-authored a chapter in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Enabling Trade Report 2012: Reducing Supply Chain Barriers.  In the chapter titled, “Logistics Investment and Trade Growth: The Need for Better Analytics,” Ratliff and Ramudhin outline the requirements that an optimization model for supply chain design should fulfill, and some of the obstacles faced in its construction.

With years of experience in the field of supply chain and logistics, Ratliff and Ramudhin provide leadership for SCL, a unit of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and the largest research program in the world devoted to the study of supply chains and logistics.  Additionally, Ratliff serves on the WEF Logistics & Supply Chain Global Agenda Council which focuses on a wide range of issues and risks facing the broad logistics and supply chain industry, including trade facilitation, supply chain risk, transport infrastructure, supply chain talent, and sustainability.

The 2012 WEF’s Global Enabling Trade Report assesses 132 economies worldwide, exploring how the globalization of value chains impacts measurement of trade and trade policies. At the core of the report is the Enabling Trade Index, which ranks the countries on a range of factors. This year, Singapore came out on top, followed by Hong Kong SAR. Denmark and Sweden, with their small, open economies, entered the top 10, placing 3rd and 4th, respectively.

The Enabling Trade Report series focuses on measuring whether economies have in place the necessary attributes for enabling trade and where improvements are most needed. A widely used reference, the report helps countries in their efforts to integrate global value chains and companies with their investment decisions. It is intended to be used as a motivator for change and a foundation for dialogue.