Bradley University Wins Cat Logistics’ Demand Strategy Engine Competition

Students from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. devised a new forecasting methodology, winning a one-year competition hosted by Cat Logistics’ Research & Innovation group. The competition pitted university teams from around the globe against each other to find a better method of forecasting a sub-set of slow moving parts. Bradley’s team lead by Dr. Chris Nikolopoulos and Dr. Ross Fink, received the championship trophy on June 21 at the Country Club of Peoria.

The competition was the initiative of Tony Grichnik, Lead Innovator of Cat Logistics’ Research & Innovation team. Tony’s team was in the process of researching the challenge of forecasting slow moving, high margin parts. Due to the highly infrequent demand on these parts, the inventory management proves to be extremely difficult. The Research & Innovation team partnered with three universities to address this complex project: Bradley University in Peoria, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Brunel University in London.

As part of the three-day competition finale, each university team presented their solutions to Cat Logistics’ Research & Innovation team and the other competitors. The ideas shared during these sessions may lead to improved future forecasting methods. While visiting the area, the three schools toured Caterpillar facilities and research centers in East Peoria, Mossville, and Morton. The students were able to see different facets of Caterpillar, from research to production to distribution.