Inspiring High School Students Through Supply Chain Management

Tackling the issues surrounding today's supply chains requires the best in optimization, engineering, economics, and business management.

Supply chains are fascinating and to appropriately model and analyze them requires a holistic, system perspective. 

I have now authored two books on supply chains:  Supply Chain Network Economics: Dynamics of Prices, Flows, and Profits and Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products, which I wrote with two of my former doctoral students, Min Yu, Amir H. Masoumi, and Ladimer S. Nagurney (my husband)

Yesterday, my husband, the other Professor Nagurney, spoke to a group of 200 high school students at the Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts.

His presentation was entitled: What is Supply Chain Management?

He presented numerous applications so that the high school students would appreciate the various aspects of supply chain management from sourcing to outsourcing and even corporate social responsibility and environmental awareness. He also spoke about conflict minerals.

The high schoolers could very much relate to the apple juice supply chain and remembered drinking from juice boxes as toddlers and in elementary school. They also appreciated the forestry supply chain, the pharmaceutical supply chain, which we have done a lot of writing on. One very observant student notices that, except for the tail fin, parts for the Boeing 787 come from outside the state of Washington.

He also spoke on the medical nuclear supply chain, noted immediately above, which is a supply chain network that we have written about and which, in our mathematical models, we utilize also physics to capture the decay of medical radioisotopes over space and time. He also noted that smart grids are supply chains.

The questions that the students had were very impressive and included the following:

1. How do you decide whether to  outsource or not?

2. Does anything matter besides price of a product?

3. What happens to the supply chain when a supplier goes out of business?

Remember, the audience consisted of high school students!

The students appreciated the system perspective and the engineering and business issues.

Through supply chains, one gets to appreciate the distinct paths that products take.

For those who are interested, the full presentation can be downloaded from the Supernetwork Center website.

And for our latest research on supply chain networks with applications to food, healthcare, fast fashion, and even electric power, please visit our Supernetwork Center publication page.

Hedonistic Sustainability and Supply Chains -- Enjoying Our Environment and Our World

I often write about sustainability on this blog and also about supply chains.

I care about our world and our environment and that is one reason I am spending a lot of time in Sweden as a Visiting Professor of Operations Management, as part of my sabbatical from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. The Scandinavians are very advanced in terms of not only social welfare but also sustainability.

This past Friday, my colleague, Professor Jonas Floden, who is one of my hosts at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, and I were visited by a freelance journalist from San Francisco, who had heard me speak on Transport and Traffic at The New York Times EnergyForTomorrow Building Sustainable Cities event this past April.

Our conversation, accompanied by delicious coffee in our office suite, began with congestion charging in Gothenburg, implemented this past January, with contrasts to the Stockholm congestion charging system, which was implemented back in 2006. We also talked about the upcoming referendum, which is an interesting twist, and is due, in part, to the efforts of a local newspaper GT to try to overturn the tolls and they are working with car ridership down and transit use up!!!

In our discussions, we were also told about the waste to energy project of the leader of hedonistic sustainability, the Danish architectural genius Bjarke Ingels, who likes to think BIG,  and which will come with a ski slope! The project is now under construction in flat Copenhagen.

You can enjoy the wisdom and charisma of this visionary architect speaking at TED on YouTube.

Sustainability does not have to be all just about sacrifice. It is a design challenge and I could not agree more. Our work on design of sustainable supply chains,  Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: A Multicriteria Perspective, Anna Nagurney and Ladimer S. Nagurney, International Journal of Sustainable Engineering 3: (2010) pp 189-197 and even sustainable supply chains for sustainable cities, Design of Sustainable Supply Chains for Sustainable Cities, Anna Nagurney, Invited Paper for the Complex-City Workshop, December 5-6, 2011, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to appear in Environment & Planning B, is motivated by preserving the beauty of our world -- from the air that we breathe to the natural environment to the food that we eat and even to the clothes that we wear.

Note that consumers in Sweden favor the fish (and fishermen) that they know with information provided on the point of origin and date and I have been captivated by fish supply chains and even the use of RFID technology to track the fish.

And, how can you not enjoy the beauty and taste of the treats below, which I captured in one of my favorite cafes in Gothenburg:

Kudos also to H&M, the fast fashion house, which, I might add, was doing great sales yesterday, as evidenced by the lines in its stores in Gothenburg, for instituting its Rewear-Reuse-Recycle-ConversiontoEnergy initiative. And, according to H&M's website:

Does H&M profit from the returned garments?

No. Our revenues will be used to reward our customers, to make donations to local charity organisations and to invest in recycling innovation. For each kilogram of clothes we collect, 0.02 EUR* will be donated to a local charity organisation chosen by H&M.

I found out about H&M's Garment Collecting Initiative, after we had made purchases at H&M and I liked the bag above, which we will continue to use and reuse. Fast fashion is another passion of mine and we co-authored the paper, Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain Management Under Oligopolistic Competition and Brand Differentiation, Anna Nagurney and Min Yu, International Journal of Production Economics, Special Section on Green Manufacturing and Distribution in the Fashion and Apparel Industries 135: (2012) pp 532-540.

Whether it is the food that we eat, the medicines that we consume, or the clothes that we wear, the buildings that we live and work in, the parks and transportation systems that we enjoy, sustainability, at its best, is hedonistic. Interestingly, last Saturday, while by the Central Station and Radisson in Gothenburg, I was intrigued by the number of police and police cars (unusual in this very safe city). In asking locals what was up I was told -- a local soccer team was in town and then a Chinese princess is visiting. The truth was that a Chinese delegation had arrived and was staying at the Radisson.  According to this report, the Chinese realize west Sweden's competence in energy and eco-friendliness and have come to learn.

 I leave you with photos of the views from the top of the School of Business, Economics and Law, which has won many awards for its architecture. Note the photos of the new bus lane. I'll save the photos of the hills through the woods that I climb to get to my apartment for another post.

A Fabulous Logistics Conference -- 25th NOFOMA in Sweden with Photos

I am enjoying tremendously the 25th NOFOMA Conference, which began on June 3 with the PhD Nordlog Symposium which I blogged about.  It is taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Yesterday morning, we heard welcoming remarks and a panel on the history of NOFOMA, since this is its 25th conference. One panelist had been to the first conference back in 1989 and the moderator (a Swede) reminisced that that was the time of Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts and Richard Gere starred). Many researchers in the Nordic countries did not communicate much with those in the US, I was told, due to distance and difficulties in communicating in the pre-Internet era. I had already traveled to Sweden in 1986 to Umea and then back again when I received the Kempe Prize there, along with Jacques Thisse. But, then again, I love travel.

The panel was so interesting -- the tracing of logistics and logistics research. The panelists noted that, back in the day, academics were going to companies to learn the state of the art and now everything has flipped -- there are so many exciting advances in academia regarding supply chains and logistics and many companies have yet to learn and adapt tools and methodologies. Of course, there are companies that are leaders.  Also, major events since 1989 were highlighted by the panelists that refocused and expanded logistics and supply chain management research and practice from 9/11, which brought security and risk management to the fore, to the Haiti earthquake in 2005, which started to transform humanitarian logistics, to the growing interest and needs for sustainable supply chains because of climate change and pressing environmental concerns.

 

NOFOMA has always attracted PhD students and has been a forum for them to present their research and to obtain feedback. It has clearly expanded from participants in just the Nordic countries. At this conference -- I met not only a colleague from the Vienna University of Economics and Business where I taught a course and gave a seminar this past March, but also colleagues from South Africa, and even the University of Maryland, who congratulated my department on out latest hire, Dr. Adams Steven (yes, the plural of Adam is correct), who will be joining the Isenberg School of Management this Fall. Of course, it was also very enjoyable to hear Dr. Alex Ellinger of the School of Business at the University of Alabama speak yesterday on the journal that he edits and on the topics that he foresees as being important research areas for the future.

 

 

The Swedes certainly know how to put on a conference with style plus a lot of intellectual content.

I have been treated to sessions with papers on various aspects of supply chains and applications and have especially enjoyed the ones on food since some of my most recent work (with Dr. Min Yu) has been on competitive food supply chains published in the European Journal of Operational Research.

Here, at NOFOMA, I have learned about biosensors to track food quality, computing to capture data from sensors as fish moves through the supply chain (from Iceland to the Gothenburg fish auction) to calculate various quality metrics -- temperature days, for example, and that platinum and gold are being used to assess microbial content in food! Of course, new business models will be needed, as well.

 

I care very much about product quality, especially that in food, so I have been captivated by the talks that have combined technology with conceptual frameworks and real-life applications and blend business with engineering -- so cool! I also very much enjoyed a session on humanitarian logistics and it was nice to see Dr. Gyongi Kovacs again, who had taken part in the Humanitarian Logistics: Networks for Africa Workshop that I had organized at the Rockefeller' Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como, Italy.

The Work in Progress sessions have also been wonderful with vibrant, constructive discussions.I especially enjoyed one on transport topics, in which one of my hosts at the School of Business, Economics and Law, Professor Johan Woxenius, along with two colleagues, presented their work on transport efficiency with a focus on freight KPIs in Sweden.

And, how can you not enjoy a conference in which the conference bags/totes (with Chalmers on them) on precisely in the color scheme of the outfit you select. Plus, since Swedes do it with syle, my colleagues also had to show me their colorful socks as part of their conference attire. I think that the stars and stripes were chosen to make me feel at home.

I am looking forward to aother great day at NOFOMA -- many thanks to the organizers, the presenters, and to the reviewers of the conference papers for a great event!

Advice on Doing Research, Publishing, and Reviewing from Nordlog PhD Workshop in Sweden

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking part in the 2013 Nordlog Symposium at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The symosium is part of the 2013 NOFOMA Conference, which begins today, and will take place at the Chalmers University of Technology, also in Gothenburg. This is the 25th NOFOMA!

About NOFOMA

NOFOMA is a network of Nordic researchers within the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. The aim of NOFOMA is to contribute to the continuous improvement and further development of Nordic logistics research and researchers.

The main activities of the network include:

• The Annual NOFOMA Conference on logistics research.
• The Nordlog Doctoral Symposium focusing on issues of particular relevance to doctoral students. This event takes place in connection with the annual conference.
• The NOFOMA Educators Conference focusing on issues of particular interest to teaching and education. This event takes place in connection with the annual conference.
• The Joint-Nordic PhD Program in Logistics. See more about the program in Ojala and Hilmola (eds.): "Case Study Research in Logistics"; Publications of The Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Series B 1:2003.

Researchers belonging to the NOFOMA network are mainly from the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, but does not exclude research issues or people from other parts of the world from our activities. On the contrary, logistics and supply chain research are boundary spanning issues by nature.

Joining me in the morning part of te workshop yesterday were: Professors Alex Ellinger of the School of Business at the University of Alabama and Professor Patrick Jonsson of Chalmers.

Professor Ellinger provided the participants, which included PhD students from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Germany, insights into the journal submission process and reviewing.  He provided the perspective of an Editor.

He had some fabulous stories (I am sure that you probably have your personal ones as well), which included the following.

1. In one referee's report on a paper, the reviewer wrote: You should read the literature of Professor SOANDSO. The paper was actually written by Professor SOANDSO (the review process was double blind so the author did not know the reviewer and the reviewer did not know the author).

2. In another true story, he recalled a report that he received that said that he needs to get a proofreader for his English. (Professor Ellinger was born in England and is a native speaker of English.)

I shared my experience of a report that I had received in which the (anonymous) reviewer wrote: Please add the initial "L." to my middle name in the references.

Professor Jonsson spoke of how he goes about reviewing a paper from his personal perspective and approach and I found it very similar to mine. He emphasized that one should quickly respond to a request for a review (whether positive or negative) and spoke on the cycle of reviewing, getting the paper back, reading and reviewing the revision (assuming not a rejection), and so on.

In addition, Jonsson said that once he received a paper to review, which he had authored, so he, gracefully, declined. The Editor then responded that he clearly picked a reviewer who knows the area.

I emphasized in my presentation, where one can gets ideas for research from, how to select a journal. the importance of being very professional and diplomatic in responding to reviewers and also in preparing the manuscript. I also emphasized that one should believe in one's work, never give up, since even Nobel prize winners (in different fields) have had their major papers rejected (some, such as Akerlof, multiple times).

 

 I also spoke on the philosophy of research and why conducting research is so rewarding.

In the afternoon, we circulated among the doctoral students, all of whom have had their papers reviewed for the NOFOMA Conference, at which they will be presenting them. The goal is to ultimately (since this conference does not produce a copyright publication) have the work accepted in a journal. The limits of the papers were at about 16 pages and it was clear that the students had so many interesting ideas --sometimes difficult to fully develop within the page limit.

In my group there was papers on biosensors in food supply chains with a major funded project in Sweden, in which the doctoral student is even developing the biosensors. With so much food being wasted throughout the supply chain there could be huge environmental and economic gains from such a holistic and technological innovation. Given my latest book, Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products, I was very interested in this paper.

Another paper was by a doctoral student from Germany and it focused on package optimization in the supply chain. She had worked for the innovative company TetraPak and the discussions were very good as to how to make the paper even better. She had surveyed Swedish companies in food and in manufacturing to find out what they were doing in terms of packaging and the supply chain. She found that business to business firms were not as concerned about capturing the consumers' eye as were the business to consumer firms, which wanted to draw the attention of the consumer to their products and, hence, might have bigger packaging than might be warranted from an environmental standpoint. I was reminded of the work of Jack Ampuja of Nagara University who has a company that does packaging optimization and he has come to the Isenberg School of Mnagement at UMass Amherst on several occasions to speak to my students.

Several of the students in my group were from Lund University and there are 3 different departments of logistics there!

Another paper was on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and supply chains and I brought out that one of my former students, Jose M. Cruz, who is now an Associate Professor at UConn''s School of Business, had done a lot of work on this topic, and which had been published in EJOR, IJPE, and IJPR.

Given the largest disaster in the history of the garment industry that took place in Bangladesh, in which over 1,000 perished in a factory collapse, and now the fire in the poultry plant  in China in which over 100 perished, CSR, integrated with supply chains, to include the crucial human element is essential.

I also very much enjoyed the paper by a more senior doctoral student on supply chain strategy (or design) associated with different products in which he brought out the significance of the paper in the Harvard Business Review of Marshall Fisher of Wharton, well-known to us on OR/MS.

There were also papers on humanitarian logistics but the day went by too quickly to be able to delve deeply into all. I look forward to hearing additional presentations at NOFOMA today and tomorrow.

Below are some photos taken at the workshop. The lunch of salmon and potatoes was delicious!

Many thanks to the organizers for this fascinating workshop that was very well-done.

And the speakers were even presented with a gift -- how thoughtful!

Networks Against Time and Thanks to the Penn State School of Graduate Professional Studies

I have returned from the Philly area. I flew back to Bradley Airport at Hartford/Springfield this afternoon via USAIR and actually had legroom and a very pleasant flight.

Yesterday evening, I delivered a talk, "Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma," at Penn State's School of Graduate Professional Studies. My host was Dr. Patrick Qiang, who is also my co-author of the book, Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World.

 

 The campus had done a super job publicizing my talk.

I focused on models that we had developed and are synthesized and summarized in our new book: Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products using optimization and game theory in a generalized network framework with arc multipliers to capture the physics/chemistry of the perishability of products over space and time from food to medical nuclear products to pharmaceuticals.

In my presentation, towards the end, I included a slide on our latest paper, which is a supply chain network model for disaster relief.


The audience was terrific -- interesting questions -- thanks -- and some came from Delaware and Maryland. It was wonderful to speak to an audience of academics and practitioners and even the INFORMS Philadelphia Chapter had advertised my presentation so it was great to have representatives from the chapter also in attendance.

Thanks to all those who came to my presentation and thanks to this Penn State campus for the hospitality!

I even got to meet with its Chancellor, Dr. Ctraig Edelbrock.

As I wrote in my previous blogpost, We Must Go On, I dedicated my talk to the Boston Marathon bombing victims. I had written that one friend was not accounted for. Since the post was written, I have heard that, at the 25th mile, which she had reached at just over 4 hours, she was told to stop running. This was good news on a horrific day filled with tragedy and complete senselessness and cruelty. 

On my flight today I especially appreciated the OpEd in The New York Times written by Thomas L. Friedman, Bring on the Next Marathon, And, the UMass Amherst sports teams doctor, Dr. Pierre Rouzier, was at the Boston Marathon as a medical volunteer -- his fifth time, and he assisted victims, as reported in today's Daily Hampshire Gazette. Also, my husband's cousin, is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and an emergency room physician at Mass General Hospital.

Speaking of Chancellors and University Presidents, as a Radcliffe Fellow, I am a Harvard alumna, and we were emailed a message by the President of Harvard, Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust. In her letter, she concluded with: The Boston Marathon is an event that demands resilience. As we struggle to make sense of yesterday’s events, I urge all of us to draw on the strength of the Harvard community and the support of colleagues and friends.

The Chancellor of UMass Amherst, Dr. Kumble Subbaswamy sent out a message to UMass Amherst.

His concluding words in it were: In the days ahead we must stand together as a community to extend our support to all affected by this terrible tragedy.

Such events affect all of us as citizens of the free world.

Operations Management and Supply Chain Network Theory -- Now Online

I am starting to pack for my trip back to Sweden next week and this time around I will be taking warmer clothes than I needed for my stay there this past June.

I am very much looking forward to being back in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, and to contributing to a course in Contemporary Business Administration Research at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

The supervisor for the course has offered to have a lot of water and coffee ready since, when I forwarded my lecture slides to him, he responded by saying that he has never seen such a large one. Perhaps my students will need the refreshments more than I will.

I will be lecturing on "Operations Management and Supply Chain Network Theory" and I expect many interesting discussions with the students who represent different disciplines of business administration.

I will be covering not only some of the history of operations management but also some fundamentals of methodologies, including game theory, and a wide range of applications from food supply chains to sustainable fashion supply chains and sustainability, in general.

Excellent America Revealed Episode on Food

Needless to say, I have been eagerly awaiting the PBS four part series, America Revealed.

The first episode aired last evening, and it was on food.

The host, Yul Kwon, began by introducing the series and episodes and he noted the importance of networks, which was great!

Indeed, through last night's episode to next week's, which will be on transportation, followed, on subsequent Wednesdays, by episodes on energy and manufacturing, we will be educated and entertained in a spectacular way.

PBS has even set up webpages for Teachers, which is fantastic and you can view my interview with Yul on the Braess paradox there.

The aerial photography and filming are amazing as is Yul's courage (he parachutes out of planes and flies in planes that I would not be brave enough to do so) but, then again, Yul, is the winner of the 2006 Survivor. He may have a fear of heights but when the job needs to be done, he does it.

Given that   the most recent paper that we wrote was on food supply chains, I was completely captivated last night. The images of the tomatoes and cattle will stay with me for a long time.

Congrats to the urban farmers who are greening Detroit as well as to those who, for generations, have continued to feed Americans and beyond.