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Topic Ideas for Fritz’s lab meetings

Supply Chain/Warehouse Automation

  • Overview of current operations in warehouses
    • Functional Areas
    • Types of Operations
    • Available Automation Technologies
    • State of the Industry
  • The “Practical Science” of Supply Chains
    • The “Problem” to solve
      • Optimize: Cost, Time, Investment, …
      • Subject to: Resource Availability
      • In an environment with:
        • High Uncertainty
        • Data noise
        • Incomplete information
    • The big categories
      • Resource Allocation
      • Operations Planning
      • Task Scheduling
      • Observation, Measurement
    • The tools available
      • Queuing Theory
      • Optimization Models
      • Graph/Flow
      • Market Equilibrium Models
  • Queuing
  • Measurement
  • The Demand/Fulfillment Model
    • Nodes
    • Routes
    • Brokers
  • Enterprise/Supply Chain Planning & Information Systems
    • What is “Performance” for Supply Chain Operations
      • Impact of Modern e-commerce
      • MRP approach
      • Pull Systems
    • Challenges for Information Systems
      • Fragmentation
      • Commercial and Data Challenges
    • Trends and Technologies
      • Clouds
      • IoT
      • AI
  • E-commerce operations: From Click to Door
    • Storefront, Carts, Checkout, Payment
    • Scope of Operations: Inventory at Rest to Delivery
    • Inventory and Order Dispatching
      • Predictive Inventory Positioning
      • Drop-ship
    • Order Preparation
      • Picking
      • Packing
      • Shipping
    • Delivery
      • Parcel Networks
      • Last Mile
  • Robotics in Material Handling
    • Non-Robot automation
    • Unconventional robots
    • AMR’s (Autonomous Mobile Robots)
    • Human-Robot Collaboration
    • Use Cases
      • Order Picking
      • Movement and Routing
  • The Information Structure of Supply Chains
    • Complexity of trade operations
    • 5 Layers of functionality: Assets, Movement, Operations, Transactions, Business
    • 5 Scopes of control: Sensor/Actuator, Machine, Cell, Facility, Supply Chain

Engineering Processes/R&D in Industry

  • Acceleration of Product Cycles
    • Traditional Plan-Execute-Test
    • What changes
      • The impact of uncertainty
        • “Irreversible Decisions”
        • Organizational response time
      • The need for organizational learning
    • Go-To-Market Speed
      • The OODA Loop
      • Cadences
      • Communication
      • Agile Methodologies
        • Outside of Software
  • Product Development Organizations
    • Roles in Product Development
      • Why: The needs that justify the investment
      • What: The product to build, technologies to use, …
      • How: The activities to perform
      • When: The timeline and resources to use
    • Organizational Structures
      • Functional Departments
      • Project/Business/Division Organizations
        • Toyota
      • Matrix
      • Networks
    • Integration in Corporate Processes
      • Planning & Budgeting
      • The Talent Market
  • Beyond Products
    • Product Portfolios
    • Technology Platforms
    • Role of “Research” in R&D

Software Technologies

  • The evolution of “Software Products”
    • OS Centered Systems
    • The emergence of SaaS
    • Clouds, Browsers and Phones
    • Federated Systems
  • The essentials of modern software systems
    • Multi-layer systems: DB, Backend, Frontend, CDN
    • De-facto Distribution: API’s, Services
    • Cross-Cutting aspects: Identity, Security, Observability, Provisioning
    • AI
  • Careers in Software
    • The “Y”
    • Disciplines
      • Design
        • Product Definition
        • User Experience
        • Specialist SMEs
        • Architecture
      • Development
        • BackEnd
        • FrontEnd
      • Testing & Deployment
        • QA
        • Operations
      • Enablement
        • Program Management
        • DevOps
        • Training
    • Levels
      • Early Career
        • Engineer
        • Sr. Engineer
      • IC
        • Staff
        • Architect
        • Principal/Fellow
      • Management
        • Team Leader
        • Manager (Team of Teams)
        • Director
        • VP
        • CTO
        • CIO