LABORATORY FOR EXTENDED ENTERPRISES AT PURDUE (LEEAP)

The Laboratory for Extended Enterprises at Purdue (LEEAP) is an interdisciplinary research group focusing on the design and management of extended enterprises and associated supply chain networks. Much of the Laboratory’s research is driven by the need to understand the effects of the recent developments in information technology, especially those related to the Internet, in designing better supply chains and managing them more effectively. This involves novel mechanisms of collaboration and competition between firms and groups of firms, as well as a holistic view of the entire supply chain from raw materials to the delivery of goods to the final consumer. The faculty and students involved in LEEAP are currently working on a number of projects aimed at developing a better understanding of the potential value of collaboration and information sharing in these systems, as well as different ways in which to exploit the information sharing capabilities of the new information technology to improve the effectiveness of the extended enterprise. LEEAP currently involves eight faculty members, Professors Ananth Iyer (Management), Joseph Pekny (Chemical Engineering), Mark Lawley, Jennifer Ryan and Reha Uzsoy (Industrial Engineering), Paul Preckel (Agricultural Economics) who support approximately 15 graduate students, and is funded at a level of approximately $1.5 million. Partnering with CIPAC allows LEEAP faculty to apply their skills and expertise to problems in a new industrial domain while profiting from interactions with CIPAC’s industrial partners.

COMPUTER-INTEGRATED PROCESS OPERATIONS CONSORTIUM (CIPAC)

CIPAC is a consortium of industrial sponsors brought together by the need to investigate integrated approaches to process operations management in order to improve the safety, efficiency, quality, flexibility, responsiveness and the overall competitive posture of the batch and continuous process industry. The underlying theme of CIPAC in addressing these issues is twofold integration the integration of operations tasks and the integration on solution technologies. Task integration involves addressing process monitoring, regulatory control, fault diagnosis, optimization and supervisory control, scheduling and planning in a unified framework. Solution integration involves the synthesis of an effective solution strategy from different techniques such as knowledge based systems, neural networks, mathematical programming, and statistical methods. The faculty consists of four faculty members in the department of chemical engineering, Professors Gary Blau, Vankat Venkatasubramanian, Rex Reklaitis and Joseph Pekny, who jointly sponsor research by 16 graduate students funded by NSF and CIPAC member companies. The consortium has been active over a period of ten years, making significant strides toward meeting these goals. CIPAC faculty and CIPAC member companies are looking forward to the synergism to be gained by working with the LEEAP faculty and their industrial sponsors in a more diverse set of application environments.