Chances are you’ve touched something today that came from Georgia-Pacific. With about 35,000 employees, many popular consumer brands, and more than 180 locations around the world – it is nearly impossible not to interact with a GP product on a regular basis. Despite the incredible success, Georgia-Pacific knows that in today’s business landscape, past success does not indicate future stability.

Innovation is the key to staying ahead of today’s near-constant industry disruption, and Georgia-Pacific believes the way to innovate on a large scale is to bring together a diverse range of perspectives and skills.

“The challenge is to transform ourselves from being a very successful 20^th Century manufacturing business, to a 21^st Century knowledge-based company,” says Georgia-Pacific President and CEO Christian Fischer.

To accomplish this great task, Georgia-Pacific recently announced an ambitious project  for the supply chain industry, the Georgia-Pacific Point A Center for Supply Chain Innovation.

“The vision for Point A at Georgia-Pacific,” says Georgia-Pacific Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer Kevin Heath, “is to bring together leading industries, global companies, start-ups, academic institutions, as well as industry disruptors into an ecosystem where they can bring not only collaboration, but solutions into the center.”

In announcing the Point A Center, Georgia-Pacific engaged with the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics in order to fully embrace supply chain innovation

As a community partner, The Center of Innovation acted as a guide to the supply chain industry in the State and was able to connect Georgia-Pacific to a wide range of the supply chain industry in Georgia.

In June of 2017 the Center of Innovation for Logistics  introduced Georgia-Pacific to some of the biggest players in the Georgia supply chain industry including the Metro Atlanta Chamber, whose #SupplyChainCity initiative seeks to educate industry in Atlanta to the transformation from a traditional industrial hub to a technical and digital hub. The Center of Innovation also introduced Georgia-Pacific to Georgia Tech’s Greg King, whose connections to the Tech Square innovation centers gave Georgia-Pacific an introduction to some of the industry’s top disruptors. The COI also connected the team at Georgia-Pacific to Logistics specialists on the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team.

Speaking about the Center of Innovation for Logistics’ role in the project, Associate Director Sandy Lake says, “We brought our statewide network to the table, and we were able to provide a direct connection to the full supply chain ecosystem.”

The arrival of Georgia-Pacific’s Point A Innovation Center is a huge win for the State of Georgia.

For Center of Innovation for Logistics Director Matt Markham, Point A is another feather in the cap of the country’s top state for business.

“Georgia is the number one state to do business in large part because of our supply chain. Having an innovation center that will allow us to maintain that competitive advantage will only make us a more attractive place to do business.”

For those that want to be a part of an organization that’s committed to solving tomorrow’s supply chain problems today, look no further than the Point A Center for Supply Chain Innovation.

From the Georgia Department of Economic Development