The Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) in the Department of Industrial Engineering is working on a new project with the Defense Logistics Agency. The agency serves as America’s combat logistics support agency and provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and combined and allied forces with the full spectrum of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America’s military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. As a global enterprise, wherever the United States has a military presence, the Defense Logistics Agency is likely there as well.

The overall goal of this research project is to create, analyze, test and render to practice new methods that can improve the Defense Logistics Agency's management processes within the context of performance-based logistics and vendor sourcing. Performance-based logistics is a program management approach that fosters outsourcing of logistics functions as services. First appearing in 2001 within the U.S. Department of Defense, the approach has shown promise for improving the competitiveness of global supply chains within civilian and military industries. This research will improve the Defense Logistics Agency's modeling tools that assist with sourcing decisions and their effects on the agency’s global supply chain.

Manuel D. Rossetti, the principal investigator for this CELDi project, is a professor in the industrial engineering department at the University of Arkansas. He has published over 85 journal and conference articles in the areas of transportation, manufacturing, health care, inventory modeling, forecasting, and simulation and he has obtained over $4 million in research funding. 

CELDi is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. At this center, engineering faculty from the University of Arkansas, Clemson University, Virginia Tech, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Missouri collaborate with members of industry to identify and carry out research projects in the area of logistics and distribution that are the most relevant to industry needs. CELDi’s 15 member organizations come from commercial, military and government sectors of the economy.

For more information on the Defense Logistics Agency project or CELDi, contact Rossetti, professor and CELDi director, at rossetti@uark.edu or 479-575-6756.