The Use of Strategic Gaming and Simulation Modeling to Assist in Policy Decisions in Central and South America
Loren Cobb and Michael A. Gonzalez, Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies
The NationLab Seminar is a successful strategic gaming laboratory that serves Latin American countries in leadership training for government officials and experienced executives who aspire to the highest levels of government. NationLab seminars are intense week-long role-playing that play 1-15 years into the future of the host country, requiring participants to engage in short, medium and long range strategic planning, and implement structural reforms in government, all the while addressing opposition demands, organized crime, endemic corruption and short-term crises ranging from pandemic influenza to natural disasters to foreign financial emergencies. The seminar is driven by the decisions and actions of all the players, rather than by a script or event list. NationLab adjudication is assisted by a sophisticated dynamic simulation model of the socio-economic conditions prevalent in the host country. The consequences of the each day's decisions and actions, good or bad, determine the conditions faced by the players in all succeeding days of the seminar. To date, NationLab has been executed in Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The Honduran government has requested a seminar to take place in the near future.
Michael A. Gonzalez was appointed to the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) in October of 2006. Prior to joining the center, he served ten years combined as a defense contractor with Computer Sciences Corporation, and Northrop Grumman/Information Technology at US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Panama, and Miami, Florida, respectively. Gonzalez was a key player in the development of the command’s Theater Strategy for Cooperative Peacetime Engagement. Also, he was the Co-Director and Director, respectively, for Exercise and Simulation Support Group in command post exercises in Peacekeeping Operations in Central, South America and the Caribbean; and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercises in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. A retired US Army officer, his military background is primarily associated with the U.S. Army Foreign Area officer specialty. Since 1998, Gonzalez has participated in the development and implementation of the NationLab and RegionLab strategic seminars. His academic credentials include a Masters Degree in International Relations and a PhD in Political Science.
Loren Cobb received a PhD in mathematical sociology from Cornell University. For fifteen years he was a professor of bio-statistics and applied mathematics at the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of New Mexico Medical Center, working as a research consultant in the areas of medicine and public health. As a consultant specializing in the modeling and simulation of third-world societies, he has worked for the U.S. Joint Staff, the British and Swedish Ministries of Defense, and U.S. Southern Command. He is the author of numerous simulation models for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Operations, including two that were written specifically for U.S. Southern Command, and another for a joint project of Sweden and the USA to build a state-of-the-art command center for civil/military peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. In recent years he has designed and facilitated the NationLab series of seminars and exercises and the RegionLab exercise in international negotiations. Cobb is the author of three books, including Mathematical Frontiers of the Social and Policy Sciences, and holds a patent for his commercial software algorithms. In 2004 he was awarded the gold medal of the Bolivian School of High National Studies, for his work in developing the NationLab approach to Bolivian national strategies against corruption, poverty and organized crime.
Tuesday, July 10
11:40am-12:30pm
Package Flow Technologies at UPS
Jack Levis, Director of Package Process Management, UPS
UPS delivers more than 13 million packages daily through its vast delivery network. Package Flow Technologies is part of a process redesign that optimizes the last mile of that network. This award-winning suite of tools is designed to improve customer service and provide greater internal efficiency through optimization, simplification of work and training. This will allow UPS to improve customer service, offer new products and reduce the mileage driven by all of its delivery trucks by more than 100 million miles each year. The talk will explain this breakthrough technology in its current state as well as future plans. It will focus on the challenges encountered in its development and deployment and highlight how operations research was integrated into the process from the beginning.
Jack Levis, Project Portfolio Manager at UPS, is responsible for providing operational technology solutions. The projects that his group manages have reengineered current systems in an effort to streamline processes and maximize productivity. Under his direction, UPS has completed integration of multiple operations systems, requiring extensive system engineering and usability provisions. These systems ultimately synchronize the flow of data throughout UPS, allowing the seamless movement of goods, funds and information. Levis has been the business owner, process designer and project manager for UPS's award winning Package Flow Technology suite of systems. That suite of tools and process redesign has been a breakthrough change for UPS.
Levis' current role is a natural progression from his prior positions. Since joining UPS in 1976, as a package sorter, he has worked as a manager in multiple operations, an engineering section manager and region transportation planner. In his position as region planning manager, Levis was responsible for the redesign of the Pacific Region transportation plan, resulting in UPS savings of over $30 million per year. He earned his BA in psychology from California State University Northridge, and also holds a Master's Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.
Michael A. Gonzalez was appointed to the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) in October of 2006. Prior to joining the center, he served ten years combined as a defense contractor with Computer Sciences Corporation, and Northrop Grumman/Information Technology at US Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) Panama, and Miami, Florida, respectively. Gonzalez was a key player in the development of the command’s Theater Strategy for Cooperative Peacetime Engagement. Also, he was the Co-Director and Director, respectively, for Exercise and Simulation Support Group in command post exercises in Peacekeeping Operations in Central, South America and the Caribbean; and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercises in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and El Salvador. A retired US Army officer, his military background is primarily associated with the U.S. Army Foreign Area officer specialty. Since 1998, Gonzalez has participated in the development and implementation of the NationLab and RegionLab strategic seminars. His academic credentials include a Masters Degree in International Relations and a PhD in Political Science.
Loren Cobb received a PhD in mathematical sociology from Cornell University. For fifteen years he was a professor of bio-statistics and applied mathematics at the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of New Mexico Medical Center, working as a research consultant in the areas of medicine and public health. As a consultant specializing in the modeling and simulation of third-world societies, he has worked for the U.S. Joint Staff, the British and Swedish Ministries of Defense, and U.S. Southern Command. He is the author of numerous simulation models for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Operations, including two that were written specifically for U.S. Southern Command, and another for a joint project of Sweden and the USA to build a state-of-the-art command center for civil/military peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. In recent years he has designed and facilitated the NationLab series of seminars and exercises and the RegionLab exercise in international negotiations. Cobb is the author of three books, including Mathematical Frontiers of the Social and Policy Sciences, and holds a patent for his commercial software algorithms. In 2004 he was awarded the gold medal of the Bolivian School of High National Studies, for his work in developing the NationLab approach to Bolivian national strategies against corruption, poverty and organized crime.
Jack Levis, Project Portfolio Manager at UPS, is responsible for providing operational technology solutions. The projects that his group manages have reengineered current systems in an effort to streamline processes and maximize productivity. Under his direction, UPS has completed integration of multiple operations systems, requiring extensive system engineering and usability provisions. These systems ultimately synchronize the flow of data throughout UPS, allowing the seamless movement of goods, funds and information. Levis has been the business owner, process designer and project manager for UPS's award winning Package Flow Technology suite of systems. That suite of tools and process redesign has been a breakthrough change for UPS. 