Howdy y’all! It seems I’ve taken another long break from putting thoughts into words in this space. Unfortunately I don’t have a litany of events and whimsical anecdotes to account for my absence like I did last summer. This time around I have just been immersed in exciting mathematical challenges helping companies better their supply chain planning.
And that’s a good thing because the challenges originate with complex business models and customers seeking solutions that optimize their supply chains. Call it intellectual curiosity or a passion to advance the trade, but our team struggles to back away from a challenge or turn down an opportunity to solve the formerly unsolvable.
This quest to continuously add value comes with tradeoffs though. Time, resources and computing horsepower bound the feasible region of what can be done and by when. This too is a good thing. If we aren’t pushing the bounds and seeking new and better methods, we will be stuck in the here and now with no vision of meaningful future potential.
I like the way recent engagements have gone. We start with conversations regarding strategic flow and “here’s what last year looked like” and then take the steps to comfortably tackle the detail of every day problems. We are not satisfied with solutions that are “good enough for an average month.” The true joy is taking advanced mathematics to customers who share our passion for solving complex supply chain problems.
Sometimes this detailed approach seriously impacts project schedules and time investments but a strong commitment to exceptional results requires just that – investment. We invest our intellect and focus our knowledge and skill to accurately design and execute the mathematical
So, the customer comes first and in the end it all comes back to the core – Operations Research is still the center of the analytical universe! (This my wORld so I have the license to continue to make these grandiose claims :-))
If you want to read more about some of the work we have done for our customers, check out a few case studies by clicking the link below.
To put things in perspective, in the time I have been away from writing I have also not brewed a single batch of beer. Sad but true. And now with baseball season in full gear this is no time to be out of homebrew.
With summer fast approaching I want to close with a little beer snobbery advice – avoid the flavored beer trend. Shandy is technically not beer no matter what sort of sweet nectar you use to hide the swill lurking in the shadows. Belgian Wit, Bavarian Style Hefeweizen, good ol’ American Wheat or a classic Pale Ale seem to get the job done as the mercury rises. If you prefer a refreshing citrus option you can never go wrong with a splash of Tito’s in some fresh squeezed or Country Time lemonade!
