For more information contact:
Barbara Christopher, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Contact Barbara Christopher bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu
404.385.3102

Researching Temperature Sensitive Supply Chains

Atlanta (December 8, 2008) — The Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL) collaborates with researchers world-wide to measure and document the variability of temperature within cartons along international supply chains. In November, lead researchers Professor John Bartholdi, SCL Executive Director Don Ratliff, SCL Managing Director Harvey Donaldson, and PhD student Alejandro MacCawley traveled to Mendoza, Argentina to meet with the faculty of the National University of Cuyo and the other members of the Wine Supply Chain Council regarding global research opportunities in the wine supply chain.

Left to right: PhD student Alejandro MacCawley, Professor John Bartholdi, SCL Executive Director Don Ratliff,and SCL Managing Director Harvey Donaldson

Professor Bartholdi says about the Wine Supply Chain Council, "we will work with the wineries, carriers, and distributors, all along the supply chain to improve the care and efficiency with which the product is handled."

Colleagues from around the world, from major wine-producing regions to centers of consumption, will aid in data gathering by inserting temperature recording devices, "Thermochrons," in cartons of wine at points of production. The full effects of seasonality are observed as the product is tracked through wineries, shipping lanes, importers, distributors, and the final customer. While others have conducted similar studies, this effort spearheaded by SCL is unique in scale, scope, and duration.

Collaborators of the Wine Supply Chain Council include the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute; the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Melbourne Australia; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile of Santiago, Chile; the Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) of Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa; and the newest member, The National University of Cuyo of Mendoza, Argentina.

At the meeting in November in Mendoza, Argentina, in addition to welcoming the National University of Cuyo to the team, highlights included meetings with the Minister of Production, Technology, and Innovation, and the President of the National Institute of Vitiviniculture, with managers of COVIAR and of Bodegas de Argentina, and with directors of logistics at leading wineries.

As their processes stabilize, Bartholdi and Ratliff plan on including markets in Japan, the UK, Singapore, and wine producers in Italy, France and Spain. In addition to broadening its work by adding new members, the SCL led team will also look at the transportation of fresh fruit and fish.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, Georgia Tech's more than 19,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and African-American engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.