{"684852":{"#nid":"684852","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Defense by Katja Meuche ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle: Placing the Right Product at the Right Location: Studies on Inventory Placement\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDate\u003C\/strong\u003E: September 26th, 2025\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETime\u003C\/strong\u003E: 1:00 pm \u2013 3:00 pm (EST)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELocation\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u0026nbsp;GTMI 114\u0026nbsp;and Zoom: \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGTMI 114 is located on the first floor in the MARC\/Callaway Building at\u0026nbsp;813 Ferst Drive, N.W., Atlanta, GA 30332-0560.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUpon entering the building on the main entrance off Ferst St., turn right, 114 is the first door to the right past the large TV monitor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKatja Meuche\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIndustrial Engineering PhD Candidate\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EH. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E1 Dr. Benoit Montreuil (ISYE, Georgia Tech) (Advisor)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E2 Dr. Mathieu Dahan (ISYE, Georgia Tech) (Advisor)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E3 Dr. David Goldsman (ISYE, Georgia Tech)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E4 Dr. Xin Chen (ISYE, Georgia Tech)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E5 Dr. Cristiana Lara (Amazon)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E6 Dr. Kevin Dalmeijer (ISYE, Georgia Tech)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis thesis addresses challenges in omnichannel retail inventory placement. As customers increasingly expect faster delivery and retailers want to offer a broad product portfolio, placing the right product at the right location at the right time proves to be operationally complex and costly.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo control complexity and achieve efficiency in the fulfillment\u0026nbsp;network, retailers, like Amazon, regionalized their operations in the US. This process involved defining areas, assigning fulfillment centers accordingly, and aiming to meet customer demands using the inventory of\u0026nbsp;the fulfillment centers within each area.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe benefits of the approach are shorter delivery times and reduced truck usage due to shorter delivery distances as long as the right inventory is placed in each area.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn chapter 1, we develop a framework for profit-maximizing inventory decentralization when delivery time expectations impact sales conversion by extending Newsvendor theory and analyzing 42,000 products. The large-scale empirical study results in guidelines for the profit-maximizing decentralization level based on demand and gross profit margin to support practitioners in network design.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChapters 2 and 3 explore how dynamic customer substitution behavior can be incorporated into inventory placement models for storage-constrained regionalized fulfillment networks and what benefits substitution-aware inventory placement yields for the retailer. First, we propose six alternative inventory placement models accounting for demand uncertainty. We design a simulation-based model selection methodology to identify the inventory placement model which most accurately captures substitution behavior across products and delivery times.\u0026nbsp;By running 5,566 experiments, we identify that the inventory placement model prioritizing fulfillment of the originally demanded product and using integer fulfillment variables best approximates dynamic substitution decisions with superior consistency and 1.91% average cost prediction accuracy. Building on the findings from the previous chapter, our last chapter shows that while average savings of substitution-aware inventory placement are modest (0.73%), product groups with medium substitutability, moderate demand variability, and low-to-medium demand correlation achieve exceptional savings of 10-24%.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPlacing the Right Product at the Right Location: Studies on Inventory Placement\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Placing the Right Product at the Right Location: Studies on Inventory Placement"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2025-09-15 13:41:52","changed_gmt":"2025-09-15 13:42:41","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2025-09-26T13:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2025-09-26T15:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2025-09-26T15:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2025-09-26 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2025-09-26 19:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2025-09-26 19:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"GTMI 114 ","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}