The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) has announced the opening of a Trade-Chain Innovation and Productivity (TIP) Center in San Jose, Costa Rica. The TIP Center is designed to teach graduate students and company executives how to improve supply chains and logistics in order to get products to market faster and more efficiently. In addition, the TIP Center will serve as a research center in those fields according to ISyE’s Don Ratliff, executive director of Tech’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute.

New Center

This new Costa Rican Center, funded by a private donor, will be housed in a building shared by the Costa Rican Chamber of Industries. It will have three full-time employees initially. There will be a constant exchange of students and staff between the center and Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus. "It gives Georgia Tech students a chance to go there and for their students to come here, an interchange of faculty, all those kinds of things," said Dr. Ratliff.

Leader in Logistics

ISyE already has a center in Singapore, the Logistics Institute Asia-Pacific. “The Costa Rican program will be different in that it will have a stronger focus on improving foreign trade,” said Dr. Ratliff. “Corporate supply chains and logistics have become complex, highly technical fields. The United States has long been a leader in supply chain management, with companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot concentrating on it heavily.”  

Future TIP Centers

Tech is also considering opening other centers, starting in Panama and Chile, said Dr. Ratliff. "The plan is to have a network of these centers around the world starting with Latin America," he said. “Transferring that knowledge and experience to other countries will benefit all trading partners, including the U.S.”