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A New Science of Configurable Products
| Presenter | Dr. Roy E. Marsten |
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| Bio | Roy Marsten received his Ph.D. in Operations Research from UCLA . Dr. Marsten’s expertise is combinatorial optimization, which is the study of things that are really, really complicated. He has taught at Northwestern University, MIT, the University of Arizona , and Georgia Tech . Dr. Marsten has published over 30 refereed articles in scholarly journals such as Operations Research, Management Science, Mathematical Programming, and the Informs Journal on Computing. |
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| Company |  Emcien Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia |
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| Abstract | Operations Research began during World War II as a mathematical approach to planning logistics, hunting for submarines, and disrupting supply chains. Since then the same ideas have been applied to make supply chains run smoothly, optimize refineries, schedule airlines, and design complex financial derivatives. (Yes, the ones that blew up the economy.) A new subject of study that has emerged in the last few years is product complexity.
Manufactured products have become more and more complex, with many options that allow anyone to customize the product for their own special needs. This leads to products with millions of valid configurations. What were once rather simple problems of planning have become much more difficult. Which exact configurations should we build? How do we order parts if we don’t know exactly what we are going to make? How do you measure inventory if a single number is not enough? Why are we hiding valuable information in SKU numbers? Are there hidden patterns in the way customers are buying our product? The new science of product complexity addresses these questions and many more |
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| Audience | General Audience |
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| Presentation | View Presentation - Click here |