The FINANCIAL — After nearly four years as a provider of academic training in business and law, Georgian American University (GAU) is extending its teaching and research activities to include a new program in transportation and logistics management this autumn.
The GAU Logistics Management Institute (LMI) will be headed up by lead faculty members Giorgi Doborjginidze, PhD and Giorigi Eristavi, MPA. Dr. Doborjginidze has over seven years of experience in logistics management and received his doctorate in engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. Mr. Eristavi has more than three years of experience in tactical and strategic logistics, and holds a masters degree in public administration and certified logistics from Old Dominion University in Virginia, USA.
The term logistics refers to the planning, organizing, and supplying of materials, goods, and personnel – especially operations involving a lot of people or equipment. The intelligent management of logistics has always been a decisive factor in achieving competitive advantages in virtually every field imaginable. As prominent American logistics scholar Michael Hugos has pointed out: “Alexander the Great’s army was able to achieve its brilliant success because it managed its supply chain so well.” Indeed, thoughtful logistics management today is vital to designing and implementing economically viable solutions to practically every task or challenge modern corporations, governments, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must face.
Not only must contemporary for-profit and not-for-profit managers have the ability to understand the way things are, but they must also have the ability to see things as they could be. Therefore, GAU’s purpose in creating a Logistics Management Institute is to help prepare and encourage LMI professionals to exercise their full creative powers; learn to take calculated risks; and develop new ways of thinking about the future. Accordingly, a professional education in logistics provides support not only for the specific development of new technologies, but also for inventive new models of management in general.
The explicit goals and objectives of the LMI are three-fold: to develop a broad logistical culture based on cutting-edge technical, economic, and managerial knowledge; to promote the use of indispensable logistics tools and methods among a wide range of specialized activities; and to train students and practicing managers in advanced approaches to the field of logistics. In terms of GAU’s target audiences for this new program are the cargo and passenger transportation industries, airport and seaport management, import and export firms, manufacturing, retail and distribution companies, government personnel, and NGOs. For that reason, GAU administrators are currently seeking to put together an advisory board of leaders in each of these fields to help us establish a council of affiliates. We are also working on collaborating with leading U.S. and European logistics schools to establish academic exchange programs for our students and faculty.
In Georgia today, the long-term forecasts for expanded supply chain management is intensifying throughout all sectors of the economy. Balancing cost, effectiveness, and risk is a great challenge for all types of management – including the procurement, supply, maintenance, transportation, deployment, and distribution of goods and services. Whether it is a military operation or civilian delivery service, robust logistics support is called for in every discipline. For example, in 2006 alone, cargo container shipments in the Port of Poti increased by 46 percent. Rising investment, production, and freight volumes all require sound analysis and the creative exploration of new alternatives to meet these challenges. Rightly trained logistics managers are essential for streamlining the complex activities to ensure that essential materials and services arrive on time and in proper condition to accomplish their missions.
Due to its advantageous location in the Euro-Asian transportation corridor, Georgia is right at the heart of East-West trade and development. As such, we require not only leading-edge logistical support but also a top education centre in logistics to meet the increasing need for those that depend on this vital link for their livelihoods. Complex organizations are, by their very nature, unwieldy – and at times more energy must be devoted to navigating the labyrinth of emerging technologies and regulations than to analyzing or actually achieving results.
Each new innovation a company introduces creates a ripple effect throughout the entire enterprise that requires changes in manufacturing, pricing, marketing, service training, and so forth. What’s more, many large corporations appear to be much better at adding new products and services than they are at trimming back the complications. Those international firms that have managed to significantly abridge these processes – companies like ConAgra Foods in North America, Zurich Financial Services, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – have done so by creating modern logistical mechanisms for coping with complex roadblocks in product structures and distribution processes.
Initial course offerings in the LMI at GAU will include transportation economics, supply chain management, distribution management, transportation law, and customs clearance. (Clearing shipments through foreign customs can be a highly error-prone and time-consuming process. However, with proper training in logistical optimization, swift and exact clearance of shipments can be achieved for the benefit of all concerned.)
Looking ahead, some other capabilities and logistical practices we will be looking to study and research are: policy and regulatory guidance, technology assessments, business case and costs analyses, asset tracking, system architecture and design, prototype development, test and evaluation support, and inventory performance. These are, of course, early days. And depending on whom we get to join us in an advisory capacity – or as partners in joint education-industry ventures – there are virtually no limits to what the LMI at GAU can achieve in the future. When it comes to logistics, not even the sky’s the limit to what we can do.
by Dr. Peter Chiaramonte
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Georgian American University
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