JD.com Showcases Big‑Data‑Driven Supply Chain at INFORMS Annual Conference

Recently, the world’s largest and most influential academic conference in operations research and management science – the INFORMS Annual Meeting – was held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Over 6,200 experts, top scholars, and industry leaders from universities worldwide gathered to exchange research and discuss the future of the field. JD.com’s Chief Supply‑Chain Scientist, Professor Shen Zuojun (also a distinguished professor at Tsinghua University and a tenured professor at UC Berkeley), together with twelve JD data scientists and collaborating professors from the University of Illinois and Boston College, delivered a keynote presentation, showcasing JD’s capabilities in supply‑chain optimization and business analytics.

During the four‑day conference, which featured more than 4,200 academic sessions, JD’s dedicated session highlighted Professor Shen’s talk titled “Big‑Data‑Driven JD Supply Chain.” The presentation introduced JD’s advanced techniques in demand forecasting, supplier management, inventory control, order fulfillment, and logistics distribution, earning praise from over 100 distinguished guests, including members of the US National Academy of Engineering.

JD data scientists, together with Professor Chen Xin from the University of Illinois and Professor Wei Yehua from Boston College, delivered a five‑part academic lecture titled “JD Supply Chain Management,” covering sales forecasting, inventory layout, replenishment and allocation balance, order fulfillment flexibility, and offline‑to‑online fulfillment optimization.

In addition to the presentations, JD set up an exhibition booth in the conference hall, where hundreds of scholars and students visited to learn about JD’s latest supply‑chain developments, discuss academic collaborations, and submit job applications. Prominent professors from top US universities engaged in technical discussions with JD scientists, and more than 100 North‑American PhD graduates submitted resumes, some of which were interviewed on site. Attendees praised JD’s intelligent decision‑support system, efficient logistics, and innovative offline store experiences.

During the conference, JD also organized a social dinner that attracted hundreds of professors, researchers, logistics experts, and big‑data scientists. The event quickly filled up, fostering lively discussions on technology, logistics, and JD’s commitment to innovation, and highlighting the company’s contributions to algorithmic research and supply‑chain advancements.

Each conference participant received a T‑shirt bearing the INFORMS and JD logos, symbolizing JD’s warm engagement with the academic community.

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INFORMS (the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) is an international organization covering operations research, management science, and business analytics. Its annual meeting, held each November for four days, is the largest global gathering in the field, featuring academic talks, posters, exhibitions, site visits, and recruitment fairs that advance frontier research and its applications across decision optimization, supply‑chain management, artificial intelligence, computing, information science, marketing, production, energy economics, logistics, healthcare, and transportation.

Compared with previous years, this edition emphasized multidisciplinary theoretical breakthroughs, tighter industry‑academia collaboration in e‑commerce and intelligent supply chains, and deeper exploration of emerging technologies such as blockchain and quantum computing, especially their potential in supply‑chain management.

Chinese scholars and industry experts contributed numerous high‑quality presentations, playing an increasingly important role on the INFORMS platform, which also received strong support from Chinese enterprises including JD.com.