Market & applicationsTransportationGlobal logistics visualization & training

Education and training in logistics has not kept pace with the requirements of industry and the military. As global business becomes more real-time, dynamic, and collaborative, our educational tools must reflect this new reality. Today, logisticians must be experienced in the use of new visualization and information technologies that enable real-time communication to control the transformation of raw materials to finished product. In short, logisticians must be able to function effectively and efficiently in a Web-enabled environment in which collaboration is a dominant mode of task execution.

In the business environment, new Web-enabled information architectures with universal open standards are enabling organizations to cope with the complexity inherent in global logistics and supply chains through a range of strategies that involve collaboration and teaming. New material handling and tracking requirements, especially in the wake of 9/11, and new logistics practices such as collaborative forecasting and planning demand not only technical skills, but also the ability to effectively communicate with logistics partners worldwide. Logisticians must master the ability to work collaboratively with strangers halfway around the world separated by distance, language, culture, and time zones.

By combining state-of-the-art 3D visualization with an innovative architecture for collaboration, a simulation-based training environment will help meet the demand for a next generation of logistics personnel with the multidisciplinary competencies and technical skills needed to meet the challenge of global business. Our 3D environment and tool set will accomplish the following:

• Create a new collaborative educational and training environment that is more aligned with the current best practices of global logistics.
• Generate faster training through hands-on experience with new logistics technologies, and practices, including information and communications technologies and collaborative learning platforms.
• Provide customized learning opportunities through a modular and step-wise program approach.
• Integrate industry standards into the training program to shorten the learning curve as students transition to the work environment.
• Accelerate adoption of the virtual learning environment and its tools by students through easy Internet portal access and modular structure.

In short, the next generation of logistics education must be geared towards hands-on and collaborative learning where students experience for themselves the complexities and nuances of working virtually with global team members to manage and coordinate the flows of materials, information and money across global supply chains.