FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) in the College of Engineering/Industrial Engineering hosted their Fall 2015 Industrial Advisory Board Meeting and Research Symposium at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago, on Oct. 28-29. The CELDi meeting drew together faculty and students from five partner CELDi sites and industry leaders from eight of the 12 membership companies.

The meeting kicked off with Peer Mentoring, which has been a well-received activity for several years.  This allows students to spend one on one time with industry leaders to ask questions, learn about the industry and careers beyond college.  The Reception and Poster Session followed.  During the Poster Session the students present their project poster to industry members and network in a relaxed atmosphere.  Each poster is evaluated and submitted with remarks.  The student with the best poster is then presented with an award.  Both students and industry leaders agree this dedicated time spent together allows them both time to connect and learn from each other.  This year's Student Poster Award was presented to graduate student Lauren Himmelberg and undergraduate students Kyle Dorge and Brett Pawlak with the University of Missouri for their poster "Repair Prioritization with Respect to Inventory Requirements."

The industry and research presentations took place the following day.  David Belleville with Anheuser Busch presented on the complexity and challenges of operating a global supply chain for Anheuser Busch products.

The faculty research presentations are the focus of the CELDi meeting.  Completed projects are presented by the faculty researcher/primary investigator of that project. This year's projects included:

• "Fabrication Division Project" by Manuel Rossetti for the Red River Army Depot;
• "Analysis of Offline Service Processes" by James Noble for UMB Financial;
• "Models and Solutions Critical Decision making at Glen Raven Custom Fabrics" by Scott Mason for Glen Raven Custom Fabrics;
• "Bulk Tanks Allocation to Improve Distribution Planning for Industrial Gas Industry Replenishment Program Analysis" by Kimberly Ellis and Leily Farrokhvar for Air Liquide;
• "An Analysis of the 4-4-5 Fiscal Period" by Ashlea Milburn for Medline Industries;
• "Distribution System Design in Support of a Mobile Drilling Fleet" by Kelly Sullivan and Timothy Matisziw
• "Identifying Fraudulent Behavior in Logistics System" by Scott Mason (a center-designated project); and
• Impact of Energy Cost on Supply Chain Design and Operation" by James Noble (a center-designated project).

The conclusion of each meeting is an awards Luncheon. This year faculty researchers and industry members were celebrated for accomplishments made throughout the year. CELDi awarded one undergraduate student and one graduate student for outstanding student achievement during the performance of CELDi sponsored research projects. Students were nominated for these awards by faculty researchers. Each student's resume and contributions to CELDi activities were reviewed by a committee. The recipients of these awards were: Steven Piedimonte, University of Missouri, for Outstanding Undergraduate Student Achievement Award, and Payam Parsa, University of Arkansas, for Outstanding Graduate Student Achievement Award.

The meeting, open to all Industry members, invited guests, and faculty and students from partnering universities was a success. Some comments from attendees:

"Allowed me to see how other companies are utilizing this resource."

"CELDi keeps me informed on some of the latest technology and the ability to incorporate it into solving logistical problems."

"CELDi gives me focused research that we can use to build better tools for analytics."

"CELDi gives me cutting edge research and a pool of potential talented interns."

"CELDi gives me a partnership that addresses our concerns, and provides professional development of our analysts."

"CELDi gives me good supply chain research, great interns and terrific new employees."

The spring 2015 meeting will be held on April 5-6, 2016, in Atlanta. 

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

About the Center for Logistics and Distribution: The center 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).