Princeton Optimization

At Rail’s Exciting Inflection Point with RailPulse and IoT

Following is an excerpt from Steve’s 3/31 presentation to transportation and logistics executives, hosted by Stifel’s equity research group. There are rail executives who talk about disruption because, starting around 2011, the railroads started to lose massive market share to trucking. The gap is presently widening. If rail transportation costs less and improves supply chain […]

Talking Tech with Truckers: AI and Chatbots

On April 6, Steve Sashihara returned to Road Dog Trucking Radio to discuss trucking and emerging technology. Following are excerpts of his conversation with host Mark Willis. Mark Willis: It’s great to welcome back Steve Sashihara with Princeton Consultants. Steve Sashihara: Thanks, Mark. Great to be on. Every year, we do a survey with transportation executives on what’s […]

Optimization Principal Irv Lustig Nominated for INFORMS Vice President

Princeton Consultants Optimization Principal Dr. Irv Lustig has been nominated for the position of Vice President of Marketing, Communications, and Outreach (VPMCO) for INFORMS. The election will take place this summer. The volunteer role includes serving as an advocate for INFORMS and as a trusted O.R. and Analytics subject matter expert, as well as speaking […]

Skunk Works, Startups and Sponsors: Discussing AI and Optimization Project Risk Management

In November, Steve, as a guest speaker at Gurobi Days in New York City, presented a project risk management framework. Following is a lightly edited excerpt from Q&A with practitioners in the audience. Audience Member: You said a consulting group is brought in when things are not going well. Isn’t there another situation where things […]

Year-End Thoughts About the Exhilarating World of AI and Optimization

This post is adapted from Irv’s appearance on the Alldus “AI in Action” podcast series. These are truly exciting times for advanced analytics practitioners, whether you are launching your career or continuing to develop and implement solutions. Reaping the Benefits of Improved Performance In the 1980’s when I was a grad student, I used a […]

Doing (a Lot of) Good with (Really) Good OR

At the recent INFORMS Annual Meeting, I had the great pleasure to be a judge for “Doing Good with Good OR,” https://www.informs.org/Recognizing-Excellence/INFORMS-Prizes/Doing-Good-with-Good-OR-Student-Paper-Competition, the student competition that honors projects that greatly impact society. I joined the competition committee this year and will be the co-chair with Dr. Justin Boutilier in 2023. As a global society of […]

2022 Survey Results Analysis: Digital Disruption in Freight Transportation and Supply Chain

Every year Princeton Consultants surveys executives about digital disruption and its impact on freight transportation and supply chains. In 2022, as with previous years, the largest segment of survey responders, 58 percent, were executives at transportation carriers. The other segments were: Finance, Media and Government executives, 19 percent; Shippers executives, 15 percent; and Suppliers executives, 8 percent. […]

Business Problem Framing for AI Projects: Tasks and Techniques

The AI solution development life cycle requires very different activities. INFORMS created a Job Task Analysis through surveys of practitioners for its Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) program. The result of this study defined seven performance domains for analytics practitioners, which I view as key components of the AI solution development life cycle. In the diagram below, […]

Ensuring E-Commerce Order Fulfillment through Optimization Model Review

At an e-commerce giant, customer orders are assigned throughout the day to fulfillment centers and third parties across the United States while minimizing shipment costs, observing limits on inventory, reducing split orders, and balancing workload across the fulfillment centers. The company’s data science team created an order fulfillment optimization proof of concept in Python that […]

Supply Chain Meets the Metaverse

The metaverse buzz has begun and Transportation and Logistics executives should pay attention. In fact, we think it is inevitable that the metaverse—Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)—will impact the industry in a variety of ways. The Big Four have made big bets on the metaverse. Facebook, which purchased the Oculus Company, then the […]