FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) in the Department of Industrial Engineering hosted their first local half day conference on the University of Arkansas campus this past Thursday, Feb. 12. Twenty-one companies from Northwest Arkansas and central Arkansas attended the conference.

The conference highlighted current projects and projects that were recently completed. Each faculty member who worked on the project gave a brief overview of their research and answered questions.

This year’s projects included:

• "The Physical Internet" by Chase Rainwater, assistant professor of industrial engineering;
• "A Decision Support Tool for Continuous Replenishment Program Analysis" by Shengfan Zhang, assistant professor of industrial engineering, for Covidien;
• "Impact of Lead Time Variability" by Manuel Rossetti, professor of industrial engineering, for the Defense Logistics Agency;
• "Army Stationing Analysis" by Greg Parnell, research professor for industrial engineering and director of the Operations Management program, for the Center for Army Analysis;
• "Scheduling Labor in a Warehouse Based on Productivity" by Ashlea Milburn, assistant professor of industrial engineering, for Medline Industries.

Harry Pierson, assistant professor of industrial engineering, reported on the expertise he brings to CELDi, such as additive manufacturing, industrial automation (which includes robotics research) and manufacturing engineering.  Patrick Sullivan, a current CELDi member and senior manager in research and development with ArcBest Technologies, an ArcBest Company, spoke about the value of CELDi. 

The conference also included a poster session which included nine projects and allowed attendees to ask questions of the students and faculty that worked on each project. The conference ended with a highlight of the Material Handling & Logistics U.S. Roadmap. Find out more at www.mhlroadmap.org.

The meeting, open to all interested companies, invited guests, and faculty and students from the CELDi program was a success. If you would like to attend the next half-day conference, please contact Karin Alvarado, karina@uark.edu, 479-575-2124 to be included on the email list.

For more information on CELDi, contact Manuel Rossetti, CELDi director, rossetti@uark.edu, 479-575-6756. For more information the next conference, contact Karin Alvarado, karina@uark.edu, 479-575-2124.

The Center for Logistics and Distribution is an applied research and education consortium consisting of:

• Five major research universities
• More than 15 member organizations from commercial, military and government sectors of the economy
• The National Science Foundation (NSF I/UCRC).