Coca-Cola Enterprises Recognized for Operations Research

Coca-Cola Enterprises is named one of five finalists in an international competition that singles out the best project by an organization. Every year, the Franz Edelman competition recognizes outstanding examples of Operations Research (O.R.)-based projects that have transformed companies, entire industries and people's lives. Coca-Cola Enterprises is being considered for the award for the success of a distribution optimization project, wherein the bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products responded to the growth of its fleet, which increased from 13,000 vehicles in 1986 to approximately 54,000 today. Coca-Cola Enterprises applied operations research to improve the scheduling of its trucks and implemented a route optimization model, the result of cooperation between the company, the software maker ORTEC, and Tilburg University, a Dutch university. The impact includes annual cost savings of $45 million. The reduction in miles driven has also resulted in reduced consumption of fossil fuels and less pollution.

The additional 2007 Franz Edelman finalists are:

1. The U.S. Coast Guard for maximizing aircraft availability by managing aircraft maintenance throughput at the U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft Repair and Supply Center

2. Hewlett-Packard for procurement risk management

3. DaimlerChrysler and J.D. Power for PIN incentive planning system: A decision support system for planning automobile manufacturers' pricing and promotions

4. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for operations research answers to cancer therapeutics

The winner of the Franz Edelman competition will be announced at a special awards banquet during The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Conference on O.R. Practice in Vancouver from April 29-May 1.