Students, faculty and industry leaders from across the country gathered last month in Virginia to discuss innovations in logistics and distribution as part of program led by the Univeristy of Arkansas Industrial Engineering Department.

The meeting came as part of the Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution, directed by Manuel Rossetti, professor of industrial engineering.

John A. White III, CEO and president of Fortna, opened the meeting with his presentation Design and Justification of 21st Century Distribution Centers. Other industry partners who presented were Bill Abernathy and Mike Daniel from Bayer Crop Science, who presented on Functionality of Connected Containers, and Randolph Bradley of Boeing and Ronald McGarvey of the University of Missouri presenting Optimal Inventory Segmentation.

Faculty research presentations are the focus of the meeting, with completed projects presented by the faculty researcher/primary investigator of the project.

This year’s projects included:

• Recent Research on Occupational Exoskeletons for Overhead Work and Lifting Tasks, by Maury Nussbaun, Virginia Tech;
• Intermodal Fleet Dispatch Optimization at Schneider, by Ashesh Sinha, Kansas State University;
• Terminal Modeling within the Defense Logistics Agency Energy Bulked Petroleum Supply Chain Simulator, by Manuel Rossetti, University of Arkansas;
• Dell’s Support Assist Customer Adoption Model: Enhancing the Next Generation of Dat-Intensive Support Services, by Navid Ghaffarzadegan, Virginia Tech;
• Engineering Resilient Systems, by Gregory Parnell, University of Arkansas;
• Quantifying the Benefit of Data Standards in Healthcare Supply Chain Operations with Medtronics, by Manuel Rossetti, University of Arkansas;
• Collaborative Robotics for Industrial Spraying Operations at Red River Army Depot, by Harry Pierson, University of Arkansas.

New this year was a Speed Mentoring Session. The objective; to provide CELDi students the opportunity to meet several industry representatives and gain professional insights from multiple perspectives in a short time period. Both students and industry leaders agree this dedicated time spent together allows them time to connect and learn from each other.

During the poster session, the students presented their projects to industry members. Each poster was evaluated and remarks were submitted. The student with the best poster was then presented with an award.

This year, Mack Coco from the University of Arkansas won the poster competition for his poster, Improving Process Efficiency for Centralized Warehouse Operations. Mack’s adviser is professor Joseph Geunes from the Industrial Engineering Department.

Also recognized for significant contributions to research were one graduate student and one undergraduate student. The CELDi Outstanding Graduate Student Achievement Award was presented to Juliana Bright from the University of Arkansas, Juliana is advised by professor Manuel Rossetti. The CELDi Outstanding Undergraduate Student Achievement Award was presented to Molly Laird from the University of Missouri, Molly is advised by professor James Noble.

The meeting concluded the next day with another keynote presentation from Alan Amling, vice president of corporate strategy for United Parcel Service, along with a distribution center tour of Backcountry.com.

The meeting, open to all industry members, invited guests, and faculty and students from partner universities was a success. Some comments from attendees included:

“Great to meet the next generation of CELDi professors.”
“The coaching and mentoring the professors are doing with the teams is showing great results.”
“CELDi gave access to cutting edge research and access to great talent.”
“Great Research, great value, and great future employees.”
“CELDi gives great opportunity to meet with the next generation of supply chain leaders.”

For more information on CELDi, contact Manuel Rossetti, CELDi director, rossetti@uark.edu, 479-575-6756. For more information the upcoming Spring 2019 conference, contact Sandy Sehon, sehon@uark.edu 479-575-7936.

About CELDi: The Center for Logistics and Distribution is an applied research and education consortium consisting of several major research universities and member organizations from commercial, military and government sectors. The mission of CELDi is to enable member organizations to achieve logistics and distribution excellence by delivering meaningful, innovative and implementable solutions that provide a return on investment. Research activities, graduate and undergraduate course offerings, and professional development and continuing education opportunities combine to form the foundation and structure for educating the next generation of engineers in logistics and distribution centers. Each academic partner brings complementary expertise to the organization.