{"59961":{"#nid":"59961","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ants\u0027 Efficiency Inspires Supply Chain Experts","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat do ants and workers at Subway have in common?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E A method of efficiently coordinating the transfer of food. In the case of\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  ants, it\u0027s moving food to the nest. In the case of Subway workers, it\u0027s quickly\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  delivering custom-made sandwiches to hungry customers. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Both employ \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.tli.gatech.edu\/%7Ejjb\/bucket-brigades.html\u0022\u003Ebucket\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    brigades\u003C\/a\u003E. Workers hand off food one to another, much like firefighters\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    once did with buckets of water to extinguish a blaze before pumps were invented. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E It\u0027s an incredibly efficient -- yet simple -- way of moving goods, one that\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  businesses are adopting to help improve their supply chains and their bottom\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  lines. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Executives at businesses such as Subway or CVS might never have bored into\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  anthills for business lessons before they met \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/faculty-staff\/profile.php?entry=jb61\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  J. Bartholdi III\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E is director of Georgia Tech\u0027s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.tli.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ELogistics\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    Institute\u003C\/a\u003E, founded in 1992 to provide cutting-edge research in the field. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E The businesses sought out \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E, along with a former\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  graduate student, Don Eisenstein, for their insight and got a nature lesson\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  in the process. Though ant-watching may seem quirky, \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0027s\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  and Eisenstein\u0027s ideas are based on mathematics and observations of workers\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  on assembly and distribution lines, as well as the activities of social insects\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  adept at organizing themselves. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;In an ant colony, there are thousands of workers, but nobody is in\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  charge,\u0026quot;  says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E, who collects ants from around\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the world with a hand lens and tweezers, putting them into vials of alcohol. \u0026quot;There\u0027s\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  no management, no consultants, no IT department. And yet they manage to allocate\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  workers to tasks so that the overall organization supports the survival of\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the colony.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Efficient supply chains are important with the growing geographical distances\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  between production and consumption. \u0026quot;That\u0027s why the shirt I\u0027m wearing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  was sewn in Pakistan from cotton that was grown in Texas but was purchased\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  from a Target in Atlanta and at a cheaper cost than a shirt 20 years ago,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  who returns this week from South Africa, where he lectured on supply chains\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  at the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;Georgia Tech is really in the forefront of international education,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  particularly in topics like logistics, which is an international activity,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  who lectured in Panama last month. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Combining that worldview and his penchant for the offbeat, \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E coordinates \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.tli.gatech.edu\/whscience\/package-race\/2006\/2006.html\u0022\u003EGeorgia\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    Tech\u0027s annual Great International Package Delivery Race\u003C\/a\u003E. The competition\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    involves sending packages via DHL, FedEx and UPS to the far corners of the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    world to see which firm gets to each destination first -- and to study why\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n    the runners-up do not. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E But aside from globalization, businesses want to improve operations for competitive\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  reasons and to bolster profits. They want to get goods to customers at the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  right time, at the right point, in the right condition and at the lowest cost.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Wal-Mart, for example, is testing the use of radio frequency identification\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  tags in tracking the shipment of perishable items, such as fruit, with the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  aim of ensuring that when they are sold in stores, they aren\u0027t overripe and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  have to be discounted or discarded. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Transportation companies, such as Sandy Springs-based United Parcel Service,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  have moved beyond shipping and into the logistics business to boost their revenue\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  and profits. They now warehouse inventory for customers, fulfill orders and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  inspect, repackage and label merchandise. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Last month, for example, Philips Electronics hired UPS to do just that for\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  customers of its medical systems division in 50 countries. Those customers\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  can now get critical parts faster -- the same day, as opposed to the next business\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  day. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E Fixing bugs in the system \u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Bucket brigades are especially useful in labor-intensive distribution warehouses.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Drugstore giant CVS was among the first to test \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Eisenstein\u0027s idea, inspired, in part, by a species of ant, messor barbarus. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E The smallest, slowest of these ants forage out farthest, and carry seed back\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  toward the nest. Larger, faster ants wrest the seed from the smaller ants,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  toting it home. The smaller ants return to collect more seed. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;So you have exactly the bucket brigade organization in which the work\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  is passed from slower to faster workers,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  who has about 100 ants on display on bookshelves at his home in Morningside.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  (A bucket brigade simulation is available at www2.isye.gatech.edu\/~jjb\/bucket-brigades.html) \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E CVS used to put the fastest worker in the first position on the line to pick\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  merchandise to fill orders. That resulted in bottlenecks. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;He was picking faster than anybody downstream,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  who is the Manhattan Associates professor of supply chain management at Georgia\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Tech\u0027s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The fastest worker would\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  get stuck behind a slower worker and could only pick at the same speed as the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  slower worker. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E The solution: Move the fastest worker to the end of the line. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;Under bucket brigades, whenever the fastest worker completes work,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  he goes back to get more work,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u0026quot;This\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  triggers a sequence in which each worker gives up work to the faster worker\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  and walks back to get work from a slower worker. The slowest worker starts\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  another order. They are at the beginning of the chain.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Workers prefer this because it accounts for differences in ability and differences\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  in customer orders, according to \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E and Eisenstein,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  who now is a professor of operations management at the University of Chicago. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;When workers were assigned to a fixed zone in the line, they felt isolated\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  and under pressure,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u0026quot;Working in\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  bucket brigades, they felt like a team. And the punchline of this story is\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  that CVS measured a 34 percent increase in productivity, and this cost them\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  nothing to implement.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E Don\u0027t hold the mayo \u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Subway\u0027s challenge was to keep everybody busy on the line assembling sandwiches\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  that are all different and therefore require varying amounts of work. \u0026quot;The\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  most visible problem is you have the cashier at the end available, but all\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  of the waiting customers are at the start of the assembly line,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Subway tried having the last worker circle back around to the start. But\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  this required space to pass. And it guaranteed that no one could move faster\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  than the slowest worker. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;Bucket brigades turn out to be a very natural solution because it divides\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the work not based on average task times -- which are meaningless because different\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  sandwiches are being assembled -- but on how long it actually took to spread\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the mayonnaise on that last sandwich,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E So the person putting on the mayonnaise for one sandwich may not necessarily\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  be the one putting on the mayonnaise for the next sandwich. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;A bucket brigade is dynamic,\u0026quot; says Craig Tovey, professor of industrial\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  and systems engineering and computer science at Georgia Tech and a colleague\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  of \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0027s.  \u0026quot;It is constantly adjusting itself to\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the work at hand.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E Boundless curiosity \u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E, 59, is dynamic as well, constantly on the prowl\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  for ideas to solve problems. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;Like any academic, I have many things that I find fascinating that\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  I\u0027m working on that nobody else does, at least for a while,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  a Navy veteran who spent two tours of duty in and around Vietnam.  \u0026quot;It\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  takes some time for these ideas to reach maturity.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E For example, \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E and a former colleague, Loren Platzman,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  used mathematical objects of curiosity -- spacefilling curves -- to devise\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  more efficient routes for Fulton County\u0027s Meals on Wheels program, which delivers\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  hundreds of meals daily to shut-ins. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;We estimated it shortened the routes by at least 13 percent, which\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  meant they needed one fewer vehicle,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Ch3\u003E What\u0027s next on the horizon? \u003C\/h3\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E wants to figure out how cost savings can be shared\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  equitably along all of the nodes of a supply chain. Otherwise businesses might\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  not have an immediate incentive to collaborate to make improvements, figuring\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the benefits might be realized downstream in a different company. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;Those methods typically have to satisfy some notions of fairness and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  transparency,\u0026quot; \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says. \u0026quot;And they must be\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  resistant to manipulation. They must be practical.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Is there something in nature that can provide answers? \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;I hadn\u0027t thought of that before,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E. \u0026quot;Wow!\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E THE \u003Cstrong\u003EBARTHOLDI\u003C\/strong\u003E FILE \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull; Born: January 1947, San Diego \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull;  Education: Bachelor\u0027s, master\u0027s in math, Ph.D. in industrial and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  systems engineering, University of Florida. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull;  Family: Wife, Marian Burge, deputy director, Atlanta Legal Aid Society;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  son, Gabriel, 18, student, French Culinary Institute, New York. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull;  Collects: Photos of badly designed elevator panels. One of the worst\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  is in the South parking deck at Piedmont Hospital, with each floor associated\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  with no fewer than four separate buttons. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull; Also collects ants. \u0026quot;The era of big-game hunting is long gone.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  But collecting ants also has its element of danger. Some ants bite, some ants\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  sting, and some do both. So you pick them up with tweezers, being careful not\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  to crush them.\u0026quot; A favorite is the leafcutter ant, found in his backyard. \u0026quot;They\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  harvest growing vegetation, bring it back to their nests, chew it up and then\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  regurgitate it as a substrate on which to grow fungus. The fungus is the food\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  that nourishes the colony.\u0026quot; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull; In his office: Magic tricks and puzzles. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026bull; What most people don\u0027t know: As a young adult, he studied ballet and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  tap dance. \u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2006-06-18 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:03","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2006-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=bt3\u0022\u003EContact Barbara Christopher\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}