Center for Supply Networks and Analytics

presents


“On-Demand Warehousing and Logistics”
Wednesday, October 26, 2016 – 4 to 6 p.m.


Jennifer Pazour Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abstract: On-demand business models, exemplified by prominent companies like Uber and airbnb, operate marketplaces in which a crowd of independent entities rent access to their resources.  On-demand businesses use internet-based platforms to provide wide-reach visibility into untapped resource capacity. This has the potential to increase resource visibility, utilization, accessibility, and flexibility.  A variety of on-demand warehousing and logistics companies exist for goods storage (e.g., FLEXE), and goods movement (e.g., Cargomatic, Flexport, Instacart, Deliv).   We explore the competitive landscape and characteristics of on-demand warehousing and logistics systems, as well as compare and contrast on-demand business models with traditional models. 
 
Bio: Jennifer Pazour, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).  Jen’s research and teaching interests focus on the development and use of analytical models to guide decision making for logistics and supply chain challenges.   She holds three degrees in Industrial Engineering (a B.S. from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas), and was previously on the faculty at the University of Central Florida.  
Pazour is involved in a number of programs to encourage youth to pursue engineering and logistics careers.  She serves on the executive board of the Warehousing Education and Research Council. She is a recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research, National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship, a Research Start Up grant from the Material Handling Institute, and a Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project from the National Science Foundation. 
She is always looking for challenging supply chain and logistics problems to motivate her research and incorporate into her classes.  If you have some, please contact her at pazouj@rpi.edu More information can be found at her research and teaching blog: http://jenpazour.wordpress.com/