CASE STUDIES & RESEARCH 

Case Studies

  • Traceability: The Hidden Key to True Sustainability (January 2026, published)
  • Meteoric Rise of HKK in Vietnam and the Way Forward 

Scholarly Papers

  • AI in Fashion and Luxury Retail 
  • AI in Manufacturing 
  • AI in Fulfilment 
  • AI in Traceability 
  • AI in Sales and Operations  

Data Collection and Literature Reviews

  • Competition in the Fulfillment Industry 
  • Multi-Homing in Fulfillment Services 
  • Addressable Market in Online Fulfillment 
  • E-Commerce Retailers’ Investments in Logistics and Innovation 
  • Evolution of Fulfillment Fees and Costs 
  • Data Collection project on U.S. Based Fulfillment Providers  
  • AI LLM project

2025 DSO 549 Research Projects – Spring 2025 (Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma)

  • GXO Boomerang Process
  • Maersk Maersk Consulting
  • Smart City Philippines Smart City Philippines
  • Metro Inc. Furniture and Home Décor Export
  • Home Batteries Home Batteries
  • Click Ship Click Ship

2024 DSO 549 Research Projects- Spring 2024 (Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma)

  • Energinseng.  The startup struggles to establish itself in Amazon’s competitive mushroom coffee market, dominated by top brands with significant resources, making it hard to compete and gain visibility due to limited budget and resources.
  • Crowd Create.  The software development company faces challenges in acquiring clients and expanding in Enterprise Web Development and App Development. To succeed, it will apply Lean Six Sigma methodologies to eliminate inefficiencies, streamline marketing, partner with competing firms, and ensure high-quality service. The goal is to enhance competitiveness, improve client acquisition, and achieve sustainable growth.
  • DataLake.PH. Introducing Starlink into the Asian market is challenging due to regional characteristics, regulatory complexities, and existing competition. SpaceX must navigate diverse regulations, understand local demands, and establish effective distribution channels. Success hinges on addressing these challenges through regulatory compliance, market adaptation, strategic partnerships, and a streamlined supply chain to ensure a smooth entry and strong presence in Asia’s growing satellite internet sector.
  •   Hella.herbivore. In the competitive e-commerce landscape, our challenge is to establish a strong market presence for vegan products in Las Vegas. To thrive, we must address differentiation, customer engagement, and logistical efficiency. Crafting a strategic plan to optimize the online shopping experience and distinguish our offerings is essential to becoming a leader in the regional vegan e-commerce market.
  •  DTS. The current process for approving military transactions, involving over 2 million personnel, often causes delays due to the need for multiple authorizations. This can slow reaction times and create bottlenecks. My goal is to streamline and optimize this process, making it more cost-effective and efficient for the Department of Defense’s multimillion-dollar expenditures.
  • NNR Logistics (A) Develop a system to improve visibility of total landed costs at each supply chain stage for Air/Ocean Import and Export. This aims to boost transparency in expense and SG&A cost management, providing detailed cost insights for better financial decisions and customer satisfaction.
  •  NNR Logistics (B). Develop a centralized system for managing customer service complaints to enhance issue identification, data analysis, and service quality across all branches. This project aims to improve communication, data sharing, and trend analysis, ultimately boosting customer satisfaction and experience.
  •   NNR Logistics (C). Develop a scalable system for CO2 emissions data collection and reporting, focusing on data integrity and market understanding. Integrate data from various transportation modes and supply chain stages into a centralized database, resolving discrepancies and understanding customer needs. Aim to reduce dependency on Japan HQ, third-party sources, and manual calculations, ensuring accurate emissions reporting and customer alignment.
  •  UpPower Electric Cars. Develop a supply chain strategy to streamline the manufacturing, storage, and distribution of electric vehicles in the Philippines, aiming to reduce delivery time by 30%, costs by 20%, and defects by 40%, while maintaining high quality and customer satisfaction above 90% within 12 months. This will involve optimizing logistics, implementing Just-In-Time inventory management, and strengthening supplier partnerships.
  • XPEDEL (A) Xpdel faces challenges with the inbound shipments of a major e-commerce customer due to incomplete documentation. Missing details like counts, SKUs per pallet, and barcode labels make the process manual time-consuming. Improving upstream supply chain processes is crucial for continued success.
  •   XPEDEL (B). LTL shipping is essential for 3PLs serving e-commerce customers, requiring proper packaging and accurate data on weight and dimensions to optimize costs. Xpdel’s current manual shipping processes and lack of integrated shipment data hinder efficiency. Improving these processes is crucial for future success.
  •   XPEDEL (C). To measure productivity and performance, it’s crucial for FC operators to track the time associates spend on various tasks. Defining process codes integrated into scanning is a common practice. Currently, Xpdel lacks a method to track associates’ time outside of picking and packing functions. Developing a plan to improve tracking processes is necessary. 
  • Midwest-based contract manufacturer producing beverages like energy drinks, juices, and hard seltzers. We’ve identified issues in production schedule attainment, capacity utilization, on-time delivery, and quality, impacting operational efficiency. The project aims to address these by understanding production variability and refining our rough-cut capacity planning to improve schedule adherence, resource optimization, delivery timeliness, and quality standards.
  • 2022    Z2 Comics Research Project (DSO 549): Shifting printing/shipping location closer to North America.  
  •  2022    Adaptive Research Project (DSO 549): Review the information and material flows within the primary production value stream. 
  •  2022    CBIS/Total Terminals International, LLC Research Project (DSO 549): RTG Operational Process. Resolve import delivery processes causing several 
    inefficiencies within operations due to a high number of unproductive RTG moves per each delivery transaction.  
  •  2022    Stance Research Project (DSO 549): DMAIC Project. Reducing capital invested (WIP) by reducing lead time to maximize operating capital and drive investment into other higher return opportunities for Future Stitch. 
  •  2022    NNR Global Logistics, USA Research Project (DSO 549): Investigate, analyze and optimize NNR’s import process to afford more bandwidth for customer-centric activities. 
  •  2022    BridgePort Research Project (DSO 549): Identifying and resolving warehouse problems but remain profitable. 
  •  2022    USC Keck School of Medicine Research Project (DSO 549): Identify gaps in workflows, streamline processes, help with communication, and identify training needs for the support staff.  
  •  June 2020 – June 2021    Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Improve JPL’s end to end (E2E) supply chain process 
  •  2020    Maersk/Performance Team
  •  2020    Advatix 
  •  2020    Maersk/Damco 
  •  2020    rPlanetEarth: Improve our core processes; optimize processes by analyzing data and making recommendations for continuous improvement.
  •  2020    FedEx Healthcare: How can FedEx Healthcare play in the HomeHealth space to make customers’/patients’ home health experience easier and cost proficiency?  
  •  2020    Dependable Hawaiian Express DHX: Providing a better experience for customers 
  •  2020    Tacori Jewelry  
  •  2015- 2018    Port Solution Research –Exploring the system, capacity, and environmental impacts at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles:  
        • Port Solution: Overall analysis  
        • Port Solution: Model analysis 
        • Port Solution: Clean Ait 3.0- CO2 Analysis
        • Port Modeling Simulations
  •  2015- 2019    Cancer Research Project – Harmonization of Clinical Research Keck Medical 
  •  2018- 2019    GlassPoint Solar – Low Carbon Fuel Standard Market Supply Chain Analysis    
  •  2019 – Present    Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Lean Application  
  •  2018    Sempra Energy 
  •  2018    Constant Northrop Grumman Requirement Date & Supplier Data Management System – to identify issues and improve overall workflow processes and management. 
  •  2018    Red Rocker Candy – Identify issues and improve overall workflow processes and management. 
  •  2018    Bloomin’ Brands – The goal is to identify the issue and create a framework to solve the challenges with their perfect order fill rate metric.  This is causing huge overnight costs, expedited freight, and loss in sales. 
  •  2018    CR&A – Identify issues and improve overall workflow processes and management. 
  •  2018    Dallas International Airport Research – Balancing growth in passenger and freight traffic along with the need to reduce and manage the carbon footprint. They must also achieve other green considerations and noise abatement. All this needs to be done in a cost optimization model. 
  •  2015-2016    Customs and Border Protection (CBP)  
  •  2015-2016    United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Feasibility Study 
  •  2015-2016    United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Impact analysis Study
  •  2015-2016    United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Design of last mile network  
  •  2016    Kaizen Retreat – CISO USC Hospital 
  •  2016    Shipping Study, California Steel 
  •  2016    The Future of Supply Chain in the Cloud Market Research Study  
  •  2016    City of LA – Emergency Services; Post Disaster Services 2 
  •  2016    UNFPA – Network Design using Drone for last mile in Africa (Ghana) 
  •  2016    SoCal Gas MSGSC Partnership