Speakers

Managing Risk and Opportunities in Complex Projects

Abstract: Projects is the preferred model for one-of-a-kind production. Projects may be difficult to manage due to complexity and many involved stakeholders. Stakeholders are a major source of uncertainty. Uncertainty may be both positive and create opportunities and negative giving risks. Risks and opportunities are either operational, strategic or contextual. The traditional approach to managing risk comprise identification and analysis of risks as well as response planning and control. There is a need for a shift in mindset for managing risks. Rather than regarding risks as “evil”, they should be managed because uncertainties also create opportunities. The Bermuda Risk Triangle is the intersection between operational, strategic and contextual risks. Project risk navigation is about how project leaders can navigate in this triangle to reach their objectives.Opportunities are often more or less neglected in projects. At the most, just a few are identified. A framework for managing opportunities is suggested. It builds on the project control variables: time, cost and scope of work. It contains a classification of eight opportunity types. Using this classification in dedicated workshops has shown to produce far more opportunities than usual. The framework is verified in a case study. The case is the construction of the new National Museum in Oslo, Norway. Through the framework a total of 246 opportunities have been identified representing an estimated cost reduction of about 64.2 million USD.

Biography:  Asbjørn Rolstadås is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering. His research covers topics like numerical control of machine tools, computer-aided manufacturing systems, productivity measurement and development, computer-aided production planning and control systems and project management methods and systems. He has published more than 280 papers and 20 books in these fields. Rolstadås has about 35 years of experience from education, research and consulting in project management, and he received the King’s Medal of Merit for his contribution in 2014. He has done studies of project execution of some major governmental projects, mainly within development of oil and gas in the North Sea. He has done research on risk analyses and contingency planning in cost estimates, and developed training courses in project planning and control using e-learning technology. He has been managing large national projects involving cooperation between industry and academia, and he has experience from managing complex, international research projects. He was Vice Dean for research at the Faculty of Engineering fram 2006 to 2017. He is former president of the Norwegian Academy of Technical Sciences (NTVA) and member of The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences (DKNVS),  the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) and the European Academy of Industrial Management (AIM). He serves on the editorial board of number of journals, and is the founding editor of the International Journal of Production Planning and Control. He is honorary member and past president of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing), and is the initiator of the IFIP working group WG5.7 on Production management. He is honorary member of the Norwegian Computer Society (data)

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Redesigning Manufacturing Machines, Design Tools, and Robotics for Smart Human Augmented Spatial Interfaces

Abstract: The convergence of many factors such as low-cost sensors, electronics, computing, fabrication, and more recently machine learning, aided by human interactive interfaces has created the potential to redesign our manufacturing ecosystem. I will describe three themes in our research. First is redesigning intuitive design tools and machines around humans to enable easy access to manufacturing by non-experts. I will provide examples of mixed dimensional suggestive modeling and creating objects directly in the physical world. Second, I will show construction of reconfigurable modular robots and mixed reality interactions with new forms of distributed intelligence and an open system architecture, that can give rise to vastly new forms of smart machines, robotic structures, and functions. Furthermore, because these robots and machines can be programmed and controlled with just a mobile phone, the developers of such “low-cost” robotics and machine “apps” do not need programming experiences at all. It will transform high-tech to low-tech and make it accessible to small and medium scale industries. Third, I will demonstrate new forms of location-aware collaborative intelligence and information exchange between humans-robots and machines. In addition, new soft interface wearables will free hands to work and interact at the same time, enabling augmentation. With such possibilities, our factories can be more productive and agile by using cognitively intuitive, spatially aware, and easy to program interactive interfaces that aid the human(s)-robot(s)-machine(s) to work together. Our research directions in artificial intelligence-based human augmentation technologies will have a direct impact on workforce re-skilling programs, increasing human labor capacity, factory productivity, and agility.

Biography: Karthik Ramani is the Donald W. Feddersen Professor of School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, with courtesy appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering and College of Education. He earned his B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1985, an MS from Ohio State University, in 1987, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1991, all in Mechanical Engineering. He has received many awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations. He has served in the editorial board of Elsevier Journal of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (JMD). In 2008 he was a visiting Professor at Stanford University (computer sciences), research fellow at PARC (formerly Xerox PARC). In 2016 summer he was visiting professor Oxford University Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He also serves on the Engineering Advisory sub-committee for SBIR/STTR for the NSF. In 2006 and 2007, he won the Most Cited Journal Paper award from CAD and the Research Excellence award in the College of Engineering at Purdue University. In 2009, he won the Outstanding Commercialization award from Purdue University. He was the co-founder of the world’s first commercial shape-based parts search engine (VizSeek) and more recently co-founded ZeroUI whose robotics platform product (Ziro) won the Best of Consumer Electronics Show Finalist (CES 2016). His research interests are in designing collaborative intelligence platforms, human-machine-robot interactions, spatial interfaces, deep shape learning and manufacturing productivity. He has published recently in ACM [CHI & UIST], IEEE [CVPR, ECCV, ICCV], ICLR, ICRA, Scientific Reports, and ASME JMD.

Digitalization & Cybersecurity for Trusted Next Generation Supply Chains 

Abstract: Improved real-time information quality and analysis for real-time supply chain control will increase supply chain efficiency and will result from mining value from the ever-increasing velocity, volume, and variety of available and possibly noise-corrupted data. Machine learning, reinforcement learning, and other emerging analytics tools and techniques will be used to mine this value. These data and analytics will improve supply chain visibility and demand forecast accuracy. The resulting increase of efficiency will have impact on all supply chains, no matter what their trade-offs are for total system cost, customer service level, and risk. This increase in efficiency will be heightened for supply chains that incorporate additive manufacturing, which will trade off a reduction in ton-miles due to reduced product weight with a dramatic increase in data transmission. Further improvements in supply chain efficiency will be due to reconfigurable supply chains that relocate portable, modular storage capacity (e.g., smart lockers) and production capacity (e.g., 3D printers, bioreactors), based on data-driven demand analysis. These and other trends in supply chain design and operations will be increasingly data-driven and lead to dynamicallyresilient supply chains with the advantages of both centralized supply chains (risk pooling and low capital expenditures) and decentralized supply chains (fast fulfillment). These trends point to an increasing need for enhanced supply chain cybersecurity. A formidable cybersecurity threat is the data-driven, intelligent, and adaptive adversary. Tools and techniques to mitigate this risk will be based on partially observed stochastic games, genetic algorithms, and AI-based self-training systems (e.g., AlphaGo Zero) in order to effectively deter, detect, respond to, and adapt to such adversarial attacks.

Biography: Chelsea C. White received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (UM) in 1974 in Computer, Information, and Control Engineering.  He has served on the faculties of the University of Virginia (1976 – 1990) and UM (1990 -2001).  He has served as School Chair of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (2005 -10) and holds the Schneider National Chair of Transportation and Logistics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is the former Director of the A.P. Sloan Foundation Trucking Industry Program and the former Executive Director of The Logistics Institute.  While at the University of Michigan, he was the founding Engineering Co-Director of what is now the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. He serves on the boards of directors for the Industry Studies Association and is a former member of the board of directors of the Bobby Dodd Institute, Con-way, Inc. (NYSE: CNW, 2004-2015), the Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific, ITS America (a Utilized Federal Advisory Committee), and the ITS World Congress.  He is a member of the Board of Advisors for FreightWaves, a futures and options marketplace for transportation capacity. His involvement with the IEEE includes serving as President of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) Society (1992 – 93).  He received the Norbert Wiener Award in 1999 and the Joseph G.Wohl Outstanding Career Award in 2005, both from the IEEE SMC Society, and an IEEE Third Millennium Medal. The Norbert Wiener Award is the SMC’s highest award recognizing lifetime contributions in research.  He is the recipient of the 2008 IEEE ITSS ITS Outstanding Research Award for “significant contributions in research and development in global transportation and logistic systems”.  He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of INFORMS, an INFORMS Edelman Laureate, a former member of the Executive Board of CIEADH (Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads), and the founding chair of the IEEE TAB Committee on ITS (now an IEEE Society).  He is a former member of the World Economic Forum trade facilitation council and a former liaison for the Industry Studies Association to INFORMS. Professor White is the former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Parts A and C, and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).  He has served as the ITS Series book editor for Artech House Publishing Company. He is co-author (with A.P. Sage) of the second edition of Optimum Systems Control (Prentice-Hall, 1977), co-editor (with D.E. Brown) of Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence: Integration of Problem Solving Strategies (Kluwer, 1990), and co-editor (with D.L. Belman) of Trucking in the Information Age (Ashgate, 2005).  He has published primarily in the areas of the control of finite stochastic systems and knowledge-based decision support systems.  His most recent research interests include analyzing the role and value of real-time information and enabling information technology for improved logistics and, more generally, supply chain productivity and risk mitigation, with special focus on the U.S. trucking industry. He has been a keynote speaker at a variety of international conferences and meetings.  He has made presentations at the Council on Competitiveness and the Brookings Institution, both of which were concerned with the impact of information technology on international freight distribution, security, and productivity.  He has represented ITS America by providing testimony during a roundtable discussion entitled “Reauthorization of the Federal Surface Transportation Research Program”, held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.  He has testified before the California Senate Committee on Transportation & Housing Public Hearing on ITS and before the Joint Georgia State Senate/House Future of Manufacturing Study Committee on trends & challenges in supply chain & logistics engineering.