A supply chain is a set of organizations that work together to design, produce, and deliver a product or service to a market, beginning with procurement of raw materials and ending with distribution of finished products or services to end-users or consumers.
Supply chain research at ISyE focuses on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chains by optimizing all aspects of supply chain design and supply chain management.
Research encompasses developing business and operational strategies for:
- Designing, synchronizing, and optimizing global supply chains.
- Integrating people, processes, and technologies to achieve supply chain objectives.
- Developing competitive advantage from outsourcing and collaboration.
- Providing supply chain oversight and control.
Areas of special interest include manufacturing, warehousing, and freight transportation
In the manufacturing area, we develop concepts and tools for the analysis and design of highly capitalized factories, virtual prototyping of manufacturing and assembly systems, multidisciplinary system modeling, and designing workflow.
In the freight transport area, we focus on determining the impact of freight transportation on global trade, assessing and mitigating the impact of variability and uncertainty in freight transportation systems, optimizing freight movements across multiple lanes and modes, and effectively interfacing between modes of transportation at ports, rail yards, and trucking terminals.
In the warehousing area, we build approaches for the design and layout of distribution centers and cross-docks, order picking processes and algorithms, and distribution network configuration.
In general, we develop models and algorithms that provide practical solutions for large-scale scheduling problems, scheduling scarce resources under complex constraints, addressing practical scheduling issues including variability and uncertainty, and integrating collaboration and optimization in developing schedules.
Our research in global supply chains is enhanced by strong links with international partner organizations
- The Georgia Tech Panama Logistics Innovation and Research Center located in Panama City is the latest addition to the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL), and has three core thrusts: applied research, education, and competitiveness. The strategic objectives of the Center are to improve the logistics performance of the country and to aid in developing the logistics and trade capabilities that will enable Panama to become the trade hub of the Americas.
- The Costa Rica Trade, Innovation & Productivity Center develops insights, strategies, and methodologies to improve the productivity of existing trade-chains.
- The Trade and Logistics Innovation Center of Mexico, a partnership with Tecnológico de Monterrey focused on increasing trade and improving logistics performance.
