Join us in welcoming Erick Jones, an assistant professor from the University of Texas-Arlington, as he discusses tariffs, policy and supply chain. Alums and friends of the program are always welcome.
Tariffs, Climate and Trade Policy, and Supply Chains: A Lithium Supply Chain Optimization Case Study
Trade, tariffs and industrial policy have dominated recent headlines and have caused havoc for supply chain planners. Supply chains have traditionally focused on costs (e.g., acquisition and transportation), reliability, and delivery times.However, due to the pandemic, increasing trade barriers, and novel climate and trade policies traditional supply chain models and metrics like Just-In-Time no longer suffice. Modern supply chains, in addition to considering traditional supply chain metrics, must also balance risk (e.g., geopolitical, climate,technological), sustainability, and workforce availability. Climate and Trade Policy, a category of novel national level policies that consider trade and climate impacts concurrently to manage various risks, complicate supply chain planning further. Yet, supply chains must account for these complexities especially if their supply chains include critical minerals like lithium which are essential for emerging energy technologies that are driving economic growth and meeting increasing energy demands for emerging technologies like AI powered by energy hungry data centers. This presentation contextualizes international trade, energy, and emissions patterns that inform Climate and Trade Policy,introduces a mathematical optimization framework to explore critical mineral supply chains using the global lithium supply chain as an example, and discusses how supply chain models, economic models that include climate and trade policies, and energy system models must be integrated to provide more impactful insights for decision makers navigating a higher climate risk and more restrictive trade environment.
Erick C. Jones Jr., an assistant professor of Industrial,Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington,combines analytics and prototyping to develop (or improve) technological systems and accompanying decision-making tools, so organizations can allocate their limited resources to maximize desired outcomes sustainably, efficiently,and resiliently. His lab focuses on three major areas: 1) Energy Systems and Technology; 2) Buildings, Transportation, and Infrastructure; 3) Critical Supply Chains; with ancillary work in Operations Management, Logistics, RFID,and Health. The lab specializes in Mathematical Optimization, Simulation, AI /Machine Learning, and specialized analytics (GIS, LCA, TEA). They work with interdisciplinary teams to develop prototype systems informed by mechanical,electrical, and chemical experiments. Jones has a Chemical Engineering undergraduate degree and Petroleum Engineering minor from Texas A&M University, an Operations Research and Industrial Engineering doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In between degrees, he worked in the oil and gas and engineering design industries. He is a native Texan who has traveled the 6 habitable continents with only a backpack.
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