Joe Verbraska joined Steelcase in 1995 and currently serves as Director of Global Logistics. Throughout his 27-year career at Steelcase, Mr. Verbraska has worked as a Financial Analyst, led manufacturing operations in two of the largest plants for Steelcase North America, served as Director of Logistics Operations in Europe, and was Director of North American Logistics with responsibility for Transportation and Distribution. He has been instrumental in developing the logistics strategy for Steelcase, including creating and implementing the company’s distribution network.

Before joining Steelcase, Mr. Verbraska worked as a supply chain consultant at Accenture and held IT, finance and logistics roles at Whirlpool. Mr. Verbraska earned his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems at Ferris State University and his MBA from the University of Chicago. 

Chris Shaver serves as the Vice President of Global Product Management for Dematic. He joined Dematic in 2020, leading the Global Vertical Strategy team before transitioning to lead the Global Product Management organization in early 2022.

Mr. Shaver brings a wide array of executive supply chain experience to SCL. Prior to joining Dematic in 2020, he built and ran the omni-channel operations organization for Chico’s FAS, a multi-billion dollar women’s apparel retail organization. Prior to his time at Chico’s FAS, Mr. Shaver spent over a decade in the management consulting industry delivering both strategic and operationally-focused supply chain initiatives to Fortune 500 organizations.  Mr. Shaver is a graduate of Georgia Tech and currently resides in Atlanta, GA.

We would like to congratulate two ISyE Senior Design teams for their outstanding performance in the Capstone Design competition organized by the Material Handling Industry (MHI) and College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE).
 
Team "Tiffany and Co. Diamonds and Distribution: Improving the Order Fulfillment Process" won 1st place, which also comes with a monetary award of $2,000 split among the students on the team. The team worked on a project to improve Tiffany's domestic and international order fulfillment goals. After the students identified a cause for delays in the value-added services station of warehouses, they created an optimization model and a heuristic to dynamically find the most efficient location for each item. The student team also created an application that the client can utilize themselves to run the models annually.
 
Students: Shreya Desai | Ozashwee Ghimire | Fares Hasan | Saman Muhammad | Neha Srivatsa | William Reich | Asli Yucebilgin 
Client Sponsor: Stephanie Brumby 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gunter Sharp

Team "SAIA. SAIA-ZING UP: Evaluation of Terminal Expansion", a senior design technical competition finalist, was recognized with an Honorable Mention. The team worked with the Industrial Engineering team at Saia LTL Freight to aid in their terminal expansion implication process. Saia has set out an aggressive growth goal of opening 10-15 terminals in the next year. The model simulated a quantification of network changes as a result of additions to Saia’s network, including operational, freight flow, and cost. The system model provides Saia with proactive, data-driven insight to the impacts on their network during their terminal expansion.
 
Team Members: Joey Abi-Sarkis | Abhishek Mattipalli | Maya Menon | Jay Patel | Santhosh Saravanan | Abhinav Sehgal | Pooja Sharma | Yashovarman Singh
Client Contact: Ryan Madura
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anton Kleywegt
 
Congratulations to both teams, their clients, and their faculty advisors.

The Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (GT-SCL) residing in and supported by the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), in coordination with Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE), is expanding its Logistics Education And Pathways (LEAP) program with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) Reentry Program to implement services for eligible participants in Chatham, Bibb, and Muscogee Education Transition Centers (ETC).

The goal of the ETCs is to reduce recidivisms and enable participants with the tools, training, and opportunities to move forward as a productive member of society with sustainable employment and a rewarding career. LEAP is a fast-paced certification program that prepares secondary education students to compete for successful high-growth jobs in the supply chain and logistics field, an outcome that is a natural component to the mission of the ETCs.

“I want to thank Georgia Tech for being a great corporate partner in rehabilitating our justice-involved youth,” said Tyrone Oliver, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. “The LEAP program will help our youth gain valuable skills to aid them towards a brighter future.”

Initially, this partnership began with a pilot program in July of 2019, and culminated when the DJJ’s Chatham ETC hosted their Award Certification Ceremony on the Georgia Tech’s Savannah campus. Expanding this program in 2022 will equip students not only in Chatham County, but now in Bibb and Muscogee Counties with the knowledge, skills, and credentials for careers in the fast-growing Supply Chain and Logistics industry. All the funding for the LEAP program comes from industry partners like the GA Power Foundation, Schneider Foundation and JP Morgan Chase & Co. In addition, DJJ also contributed funding for this successful partnership with the ETCs.

The LEAP program initially covers understanding with the Supply Chain Management Principles course and then the various domains within the supply chain through three other optional courses (i.e., Customer Service, Warehousing Operations, and Transportation Operations). It also explores with students how the supply chain supports organizations’ strategic and financial goals, and current events through subject matter lectures and simulation exercises.

After completing the program, students receive an official GTPE Certificate of Completion for each completed pass/fail LEAP course (Supply Chain Management Principles, Customer Service Operations, Transportation Operations and Warehouse Operations), that are all sanctioned by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Typically, at their end-of-program, there is an Award ceremony where they receive their professional education certificate from Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE). 

“While earning GT Professional Education credentials, attending fieldtrips to Gulfstream, GA Ports Authority, Amazon, or Dynacraft and improving their potential to secure employment in the exploding Savannah Supply Chain Industry, may have served as the initial motivation to attempt the program, the impact was immeasurable. Our students grew in areas that enhanced their self-confidence, work ethic, and intrinsic motivation. As a result, our students view themselves as productive citizens with credentials for quality jobs or careers in their future,” said ArtLisa Alston-Cone, Lead Teacher, DJJ Chatham ETC.

Students have a working knowledge of the fundamentals of Supply Chain and Logistics and will be immediately prepared for internships and job opportunities. Two students completed more than one course, indicating their interest and aptitude in this field. One student who was already working in a distribution operation actually completed four courses, earning a Logistics Fundamentals Program Certificate. After the program in December of 2019 with the DJJ’s Chatham ETC, seven of the eleven graduates received job offers, and another two were scheduled for interviews, making the program a great success. The students in the ETC’s have completed all requirements from the juvenile system. They are in transition to becoming productive members of society. At this point, many students are completing their High School Diploma requirements for graduation or getting their GED. They are typically living with family, a guardian or in a transition home.

“We’ve all had times in our lives when someone has discounted us, intentionally or unintentionally. There will always be that student in the corner who you think couldn’t care less, but given the proper attention and care, they can become a star. It’s easy to predetermine what someone is capable of doing; but when these students take this program, the lightbulb goes off, and they become interested and develop a passion and confidence because of this course,” said Charles Easley Jr., GT-SCL Project Director and Instructor.
 
The program is delivered in a cohort format so that the students always feel supported not only by the instructors but by their classmates as well. Students receive educational content but also learn how to integrate their training in the real world, so they are prepared to perform in the workplace. Students are taken on field trips with the support of community partners to learn how to apply their knowledge and see first-hand how the supply chain operates. In previous years, students were taken to Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus to explore The Ferst Center for the Arts, The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, and The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) so they could see what options are open to them for their future working careers. During these visits they were able to participate in student information sessions, see the innovative technology in the ISyE Physical Internet Lab and interact with faculty like Benoit Montreuil, Tim Brown, GT-SCL, and role models like Gen. Ron Johnson, Professor of the Practice, and ISyE Student Ambassadors. Students were also taken to Gulfstream in Savannah and The Georgia Fair where they participated in a hands-on project to map out the supply chain process for food.

About the LEAP Program
GTSCL created LEAP in 2015 through a grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to further the financial services firm’s “New Skills at Work” initiative that promotes workforce development to bridge the gap between the talent employers need and the qualifications of the local talent pipeline. The curriculum and content were developed by The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech. In August 2018, JPMorgan Chase & Co. continued once again committed to supporting LEAP with an additional grant. The Georgia Tech LEAP program has been delivered throughout Georgia to Schools, Cohorts, and Individual Students in 18 School Districts or Systems, at 46 different schools public and private, in 13 colleges and universities, and across several well-known organizations and employers. This includes schools like Maynard Jackson HS, Grady HS, North Atlanta HS, Effingham College Career and Career Academy, Fulton Schools College and Career Academy, Newton College and Career Academy, Social Circle HS, Griffin Region College & Career Academy, New Manchester HS; non-profit organizations like Goodwill, United Way(Career Rise), Scouts BSA(Crew 2421), The Latin American Association; and businesses like Sysco, and Mohawk Industries. The program has been continuously supported by generous donations from schools, civic organizations including Effingham College and Career Academy, Fulton Schools College and Career Academy, foundations including Home Depot Foundation, Fulton Education Foundation, Schneider Foundation, Georgia Power Foundation, Regions Foundation, and employers including companies like HMTX Industries, Inc.

Physical Internet Center doctoral researchers Jingze Li and Yulia Xu were recognized at the 2022 Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Annual Conference and Expo for placing 1st and 2nd in the Logistics and Supply Chain (LSC) Division Best Student Paper competition. "Both papers resulted from great team project work with industry leaders, addressing key logistic and transportation challenges and helping to shape the Physical Internet. They are quite timely as they provide solutions helping to alleviate the worldwide trucker and logistic worker shortages" remarked Professor Benoit Montreuil.

Jingze is first author of the paper "Trucker-sensitive Hyperconnected Relay-based Transportation: An Operating System", coauthored by doctoral student Miguel Campos and Professor Benoit Montreuil. Li commented, "In line with the concept of Physical Internet, we want to provide efficient and sustainable solutions from a new transportation paradigm to alleviate worldwide truck driver shortage and detention issues. I would like to give credit to my team, including PhD colleagues Katja Meuche, Yujia Xu, Onkar Kulkarni, faculty members Mathieu Dahan, Leon McGinnis, Yao Xie as well as our automotive manufacturer collaborators Brandon Walker, Ryan Purman, and Mark Owen." 

Yujia is first author of the paper "Dynamic Workforce Management in Hyperconnected Parcel Logistic Hubs", with Montreuil as coauthor. "It's my great honor that our work was selected as the second-place winner and I am grateful to my co-author Yiguo Liu and my advisor Benoit Montreuil for their great support and help."

Also of note, Reem Khir, NSF AI Institute for Advances in Optimization (AI4OPT) postdoctoral fellow, received the 2022 IISE Best Paper Award for her work "Dynamic Workload Balancing with Limited Adaptability for Facility Logistics" with Alan Erera and Alejandro Toriello in the Facilities Design and Planning Track, Supply Chain and Logistics Division.

School of Industrial and Systems Engineering Professor Pinar Keskinocak was recognized at Georgia Tech’s annual 2022 Faculty and Staff Honors Luncheon with the Class of 1934 Outstanding Service Award. The award recognizes her long service both to the Institute and to her field.

Keskinocak has long served as a leader with the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). A fellow with the institute, she has served as president, vice president of membership and professional recognition, and is the co-founder and former president of the INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Service, and Needs, and the president of the INFORMS Health Applications Society.

At Georgia Tech she has also served as the College of Engineering Advance Professor for six years and was a leading voice over the past three years of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to working with the Georgia Department of Public Health, she served on the Institute’s Covid task force helping to establish an institutional approach to the pandemic.

“It’s an honor, first of all, to have had the opportunity to serve,” she said. “Our communities at Georgia Tech and beyond are wonderful, so to be recognized among all of these outstanding contributors is a great honor.”

Keskinocak’s research focuses on the application of operations research and management science with society impact, particularly regarding health and humanitarian applications, supply chain management, and logistics. She is the director of ISyE’s Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Recent work has focused on infectious disease modeling in response to Covid-19.

Read more about Keskinocak’s latest research here: New Study Shows Hybrid Learning Led to Significant Reduction in Covid-19 Spread

Two faculty members from the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering received CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF), recognizing early-career contributions in both research and education. Assistant Professors He Wang and Siva Theja Maguluri received the award, the most prestigious of its kind awarded by the NSF, which carries a five-year term.

In addition to $500,000 in funding, which will help support the faculty member as well as their team of Ph.D. students, Wang said it provided recognition and validation for their respective research agendas.

“It’s great because it helps fund our work and will provide opportunities to support our students in this continued research,” he said. “But it also helps us to build connections with industry partners, who see the importance of our work, and allow us to implement some of it into the real world.”

Wang’s research focuses on supply chain and logistics in transportation. This particular award will fund research that seeks to design digital marketplaces for the freight industry. Describing it as a rideshare, like Uber, for trucking, Wang said that the goal of the research is to design online digital marketplaces that help truckers connect with shippers, eliminating a brokerage process plagued by inefficiency that can cost drivers both time and money.

“The idea here is to improve supply chain efficiencies and also the earning reliability of these truck drivers,” he said.

For an industry that is among the largest in the country, and indeed the most popular in more than half the country’s states, the research could have far-reaching implications.

Maguluri’s research, meanwhile, addresses optimization challenges in reinforcement learning and cloud computing, both of which are key areas of progress in the ongoing artificial intelligence revolution. The revolution is powered by the development of novel algorithms and breakthroughs in cloud computing infrastructure that can collect, store, and process large amounts of data.

“Even though neural networks were known about 50 years ago, AI breakthroughs only happened in the last 15 years,” Maguluri said. “This is because computers weren’t powerful enough earlier, and it was hard to get access to large computing power.”

Now, AI researchers can utilize massive data centers run by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, or Google.

Despite the progress, however, there are tradeoffs that affect optimal performance, and theory often lags behind practice. With this award, Maguluri and his lab will pursue studies in both reinforcement learning and cloud computing to develop optimal scheduling algorithms for cloud computing data centers that make both more efficient and, thus, further advancement in the field.

To read more about Wang’s and Maguluri’s research, follow the links below:

He Wang: Marketplace Design for Freight Transportation and Logistics Platforms

Siva Theja Maguluri: Lyapunov Drift Methods for Stochastic Recursions: Applications in Cloud Computing and Reinforcement Learning

Yentai Wan currently serves as Lead Director of the Network Planning & Optimization (NPT) Program in the UPS Corporate Industrial Engineering group. As a critical part of the UPS Smart Logistics Network Strategy, the NPT Program provides visibility across its transportation network by utilizing predictive analytics, simulation, and operations research algorithms. These capabilities help provide the needed insight to make better, faster decisions as well as provide cost effective results at a high quality of service.

Dr. Wan has demonstrated intrapreneurship by building a profitable start-up department and mobilizing top-tier talent to create high performing cultures that consistently achieve business goals in a dynamic and volatile business environment. His primary responsibilities are to (a) improve network planning processes, (b) generate network efficiencies, and (c) support strategic initiatives across the enterprise through institution of an elastic and self-healing network optimization platform. Yentai joined UPS in 2007 as an Enterprise Network Planning Manager in Corporate Transportation and also served as Director of Transportation Operations Research & Analytics.

Yentai was born and raised in Taipei City, Taiwan. He came to the United States in 2000 to advance his education and later earn a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering (ISyE) from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining UPS, he served as investigator of research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation and as an R&D Scientist in an industry-leading supply chain software company. Dr. Wan lives in Alpharetta, Georgia and when not working, enjoys traveling across North America and Northeast Asia.

The Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute is honored to have part of the Georgia Tech and ISyE family rejoin us to help shape our future.

Jianjun (Jan) Shi, Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been selected for the Society of Manufacturing Engineering’s (SME) 2021 College of Fellows. This is an honor given to individuals “who have made outstanding contributions to the social, technological, and educational aspects of the manufacturing profession,” with 20 or more years of dedication and service to the field.

In the letter nominating Shi for this honor, it was noted that he pioneered data-enabled manufacturing – an accomplishment for which he was also elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018. He has developed quality improvement algorithms implemented in over 40 steel plants globally, with hundreds of millions of dollars saved and over one billion KWh in saved energy, as well as tens of thousands of CO₂ emissions reduced.

Shi’s selection as an SME Fellow is the latest in a series of signal distinctions conferred in 2021: He received the Walter Shewhart Medal from the American Society for Quality, an award given “to individuals who have made outstanding technical contributions and leadership in the field of modern quality control and improvement.” He was also awarded the S.M. Wu Research Implementation Award, which “honors outstanding original research … that, upon implementation, has had a significant commercial/societal impact.”

Previously, Shi has also been named a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, a Fellow of INFORMS, an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, and an Academician of the International Academy for Quality. His work has also been honored with, among others, 11 best paper awards and nine international research awards.

Shi said, “I am honored to receive this recognition, and I greatly appreciate all my students, colleagues, and sponsors for their support throughout my many years of research in and implementation of complex manufacturing systems.”

Claude Bernier has been with South Shore Furniture since 1994 and currently serves as VP of Information Technology. South Shore Furniture, founded in 1940 and incorporated in Quebec, sells ready-to-assemble and fully assembled furniture in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In 2005, South Shore began selling its products online and adopted the dropship business model. It now has two manufacturing plants in Quebec, Canada, one in Juarez, Mexico and three distribution centers in the United States. During his 27 years with South Shore, Claude has led two major transformations to support business growth and now is in charge of the organization's digital transformation.

Claude brings 37 years of experience and leadership in information technology, process automation, enterprise architecture, and software implementation. His expertise includes building and leading successful teams focused on results, improving business processes based on business strategy and long-term company vision and goals, and delivering value-added to internal and external customers. Prior to South Shore Furniture, Claude was an information technology consultant specializing in the wood and paper industry. 

Mr. Bernier lives in Quebec City, Canada. When he his not working he enjoys hiking and camping in National Parks across North America.

The Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute is honored to have Claude join us to help determine SCL's future direction.