In-Person Tech Talk - The Engineering of Speed

ADD THE EVENT TO YOUR CALENDAR

Join us for an evening of networking, refreshments, and insights! The event kicks off at 5:30 PM with food, drinks, and networking, followed by our featured talk at 6:00 PM. Special thanks to Gurobi Optimization—a leading provider of mathematical optimization solvers—for generously sponsoring the venue, food, and beverages.

Title: The Engineering of Speed

Presenter: Rob Leachman, Prof. Emeritus, Dept. of IE & OR, U C Berkeley

Abstract: Examine any text or article on supply chain management and likely you will find it addresses cost reduction. While cost is of course important, there is something else that in some cases is more important: the speed of the supply chain. In situations where market prices erode quickly or market windows are fleeting, the revenue gains from speeding up the supply chain can greatly outweigh any increment in costs. In this presentation I will first talk about the economics of speed, i.e., a practical approach for placing a dollar value on the compression of time from product development to product sale. Then I will turn to examples from my consulting and research career of projects and efforts that significantly sped up supply chains, resulting in enormous economic value. Conventional paradigms and traditional tacit assumptions underlying standard approaches to supply chain management were replaced with new thinking leading to substantial speed improvement.

Bio: Rob Leachman is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California at Berkeley. In his academic career at Berkeley, he supervised 39 PhD theses concerning supply chain management in various contexts. His company Leachman & Associates LLC has performed large projects to improve supply chains worldwide. He is a two-time finalist and one-time winner of the Franz Edelman Award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, recognizing his innovations for planning and scheduling in the semiconductor industry. He was the Director of the Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Program at U C Berkeley, a twelve-year effort to benchmark performance and best practices in the global semiconductor industry, the largest interdisciplinary research program on the Berkeley campus at the time.