I started NextOpt (next number and optimization) in 2017 and our mission is: providing advanced, yet affordable, analytics for all. One of the major challenges for retailers is being able to access and interpret analytics for management. Sadly, many of them cannot afford analytics services for decision making and that makes them even more hesitant about the value-add of using new tools. I would like to fill this gap by providing analytics tools based on my research at an affordable cost. This has been my consistent goal from the start and will be for the foreseeable future.

Based on our experience in the logistics and defense industry, we will expand the domain; wherever prediction and optimization are needed is our target, especially where the gap is apparent.

Ongoing projects:

[1] Reliability prediction to optimize repair part inventory (battleship, airplane, tank)
Client: Republic of Korea Armed Forces
Talk on this topic at StanCon, 2020.

[2] Operating analytics web service; forecasts demand, optimizes inventory Client: small business / Budget: TBD

[3] Forklift repair policy optimization based on engine reliability
Client – LogisAll (Pallet Rental Company; $500m Yearly Rev.)

Completed Projects:
Client – LogisAll (Pallet Rental Company; $500m Yearly Rev.)

  • [1] Exogenous Feature Engineering, Model selection, Approximate model (May-Aug 2020) Budget: $45,000 Result: improvement in terms of accuracy (40% less error on average) and speed (10 times faster).
  • [2] Self-developed Hierarchical Seasonal Model (Mar-Jun 2019) Budget: $45,000 Result: improvement in terms of accuracy (30% less error on average).
  • [3] Auto-forecasting for Pallet Rental Company Using Stan Model (May-Aug 2018) Budget: $25,000 Result: automated the entire forecasting process with higher accuracy.

Grants:

National IT Industry Promotion Agency, 2018 ($85k).
National Research Foundation of Korea, $5,000/year

  • Simulation-based collection policy optimization for pallet rental company, 2019
  • Raw material price prediction web service module, 2018
  • Demand forecasting and optimization software for small businesses, 2017