9809479 Storer This grant provides funding through the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) initiative for Faculty in Industry Internship. The faculty intern will conduct joint research with the Decision Sciences Group at Air Products and Chemicals Inc. Research will focus on manufacturing logistics, primarily in the areas of supply chain integration, distribution, and resource allocation. Challenging problems associated with the production and distribution of product to customers in a cost efficient manner face many firms, including Air Products. Solutions for these types of problems are central to both the financial success of Air Products and the research interests of the faculty intern. Of particular interest are problems that include complicating factors caused by a dynamic and unpredictable business environment. These problems are typically large, complex, and contain stochastic components. A primary goal of the project is to foster a long-term relationship between faculty and students of the Manufacturing Logistics Institute (MLI) at Lehigh University and the Decision Sciences group at Air Products. Working closely with Air Products, the faculty intern hopes to define long-term research issues as the basis for continuing collaboration, as well as providing some useful short-term results. Identifying collaborative research opportunities will help develop a strong working relationship with Air Products, and will provide significant educational experiences and research opportunities to the students and faculty of the Manufacturing Logistics Institute. Air Products will benefit from additional expertise in areas key to their competitive advantage. If successful, the project will ultimately lead to research results of generic interest. Advances in supply chain integration and in solving optimization problems in a dynamic and stochastic environment are anticipated.
