Prof. J. George Shanthikumar
Professor, Purdue University
Talk:
Supply Chain Risks: Models and Analysis
Abstract:
This talk will focus on the development of models and solution approaches for managing risks in supply chain. We will particularly focus on risks generated by the uncertainties in the demand and supply. In the first part of the talk we will focus on baseline (regular) variations. Under baseline variations, we may assume full probabilistic characterization of the underlying models, or have data to develop data driven or data integrated stochastic models. We will discuss how (a) pricing and revenue management, (b) multiple sourcing, storage and modes of transportation along with (c) information acquisition and sharing and (d) alignment of incentives can be used to reduce the effect of operational risks in supply chain. Hedging to reduce financial risks will be addressed as well. The second part of the talk will focus on uncertainties in supply and demand created by excursive (unusual) variations. Such variations are not appropriate for full probabilistic characterization. We will discuss how models of model uncertainty can be created for such cases. Particular focus will be on regret minimization and solution space expansion. We will contrast this approach to robust optimization. The first part of this talk is based on joint work with Qi (Annabelle) Feng (Purdue University). The second part of this talk is based on joint work with Andrew E. B. Lim (NUS) and Z-J (Max) Shen (UC, Berkeley).
Biography:
Professor Shanthikumar joined the Krannert faculty in 2009. Prior to coming to Purdue, he was a Chancellor's Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are in integrated interdisciplinary decision making, model uncertainty and learning, production systems modeling and analysis, queueing theory, reliability, scheduling, semiconductor yield management, simulation stochastic processes, and sustainable supply chain management. He has written or cowritten more than 250 papers on these topics. He is a co-author (with John A. Buzacott) of the book Stochastic Models of Manufacturing Systems and a co-author (with Moshe Shaked) of the books Stochastic Orders and Their Applications.He was a co-editor of Flexible Services & Manufacturing Journal and is (or was) a member of the editorial boards of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Operations Research, IEEE Transactions on Automation Sciences and Engineering, IIE Transactions, International Journal of Flexible Management Systems, Journal of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, Journal of the Production and Operations Management Society, Operations Research, Operations Research Letters, OPSEARCH, Probability in the Engineering and Information Sciences, and Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications.Dr. Shanthikumar developed a data-driven production planning tool for Intel. Through this data-driven model, he discovered several shopfloor level coordination between manufacturing and maintenance, which helped to significantly improve the working process performance. This study also led to a new theory in stochastic models that inspires a new stream of academic research.
