EMIL and Intel: In Rhythm To Set The Stage For The Future Of Supply Chain Optimization; Academia And High-Tech Meet To Streamline Supply Chain Efficiencies.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 29, 2004

Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering's (ISyE) EMIL program, a master's degree program that helps the world's leading companies develop creative, global logistics solutions by grooming their supply chain executives, today announced a move that will transform how companies address supply chain management. According to Dr. John Vande Vate, EMIL Executive Director, "Intel(R) Corporation has teamed up with the EMIL program to create cutting edge supply chain modeling and simulation tools."

Intel and EMIL are teaming to support global supply chain innovation and state-of-the-art research. The two leaders will combine Intel's super-fast processors with Georgia Tech's mathematical and engineering expertise. This collaborative effort will explore the newest frontier in supply chain solutions.

"By increasing the depth of the relationship between EMIL and Intel, we are building new capabilities that will allow us to model our businesses as never before," stated Jim Kellso, Manager of Supply Network Research at Intel Corporation. "Georgia Tech excels in the engineering and mathematical expertise needed to analyze supply networks while Intel offers the advanced technology needed to make complex simulations possible."

The distributed simulation modeling approach under development with the Intel technology will enable companies to model and manage the unpredictability of their supply chains with greater ease, accuracy and speed than ever before. In this research effort, individual supply chain elements are represented via independent simulation models capable of communicating with one another, much as factories and warehouses communicate. They can then pass material to one another through transport systems that are similarly modeled as independent simulations. These simulation models, while running on different computers, communicate with one another over the Internet using High Level Architecture (HLA), a software infrastructure for support of distributed simulations.

The goal of the research is to create a means for testing diverse supply chain strategies and operational tactics under different scenarios in order to discover which strategy is likely to achieve the best performance. Eventually, the simulation methodology developed could be integrated with rough-cut analytic tools for faster analysis and decision-making.

In October 2003, the Intel(C) Innovation & Education Program granted Georgia Tech's School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) $30,000 in computer hardware, including 3.06GHz Workstation 650s with Intel Xeon(TM) Processors, for use in the school's ongoing distributed supply chain research, which is spearheaded by Dr. Leon McGinnis and Georgia Tech's Eugine C. Gwaltney Chaired Professor in Manufacturing. In tandem, EMIL's Advisory Board approved funding through the EMIL Scholars Program to support faculty research on the same topic.

"Intel has chosen to invest in EMIL because it helps us to have a world-class supply network and to take full advantage of changes in the economy and respond quickly to any and all opportunities," said Cindie Kienitz, Worldwide transportation Manager of Intel Corporation.

Intel and EMIL have a strong relationship that dates back to the program's inception in 1999. Intel executives have served on the EMIL Advisory Board and have sponsored executives as EMIL Participants since 2000.

About EMIL

One of the first schools of its type, ISyE was established in 1924 and has produced outstanding leaders in industry, government, and academia. The EMIL program was instituted in 2002 and has become the premier international supply chain master's degree program in the world. Focused on creating value for program participants and company sponsors through real-world supply chain education and solutions; EMIL helps Fortune 500 companies, and their international equivalents, develop creative new solutions to improve supply chain efficiencies by grooming their supply chain executives. For more information on EMIL and how to become a participant, please e-mail [e-mail] or visit www.emil.gatech.edu.