Stochastic Flow Analyzer (SFA) Model is the optimization tool which was developed to help company to set the right strategic solution for assigning required transportation load volumes on each freight lane to either common carriers or to private fleets in their supply chain network. The SFA model finds the strategic load assignment solution in order to minimize overall cost of the system while satisfying a number of business rules and constraints. The SFA model utilizes heuristic algorithms and mathematical model together with the column generation technique to solve this large scale optimization problem. The model has shown to save multiple million dollar in transportation cost for the company and the model is one of good examples that operations research can help solving real business problems.
Dr. Assavapokee obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004. He is currently leading an analytics group of Ph.D.s at Capital One. His group supports analytical models development for bank network management team (staffing, branch goal, and branch location network). He also managed research teams at Walmart (2010 – 2014) and Manhattan Associates (2008 – 2010). He earned a number of awards including the innovator of the year and the innovator all start team awards from Walmart Information System Division and the 2nd place in Spot Light R&D Award at Manhattan Associates. Dr. Assavapokee was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston from 2004 to 2008. Dr. Assavapokee’s expertise is in the area of applying operations research knowledge (optimization, simulation, and statistics) to solve large scale business problems such as supply chain, inventory control, transportation management, and network strategy and locations.