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Shawn Charchan | Technical Director of Energy Solutions Adam Evans | Principal Operations Research Analyst Take a deep dive into energy innovation and transformation. CANAers Lauren Dimberg and Kassie McRostie plumb the depths with Adam Evans and Shawn Charchan and talk about the military’s operational energy roadmap and what excites them about the future. Kassie McRostie (KM): How did you become involved with the Department of the Navy Advanced Energy Research Toolkit (DON AERT) project? Shawn Charchan (SC): I’ve been privileged to work next to some amazing analysts and the DON energy director is a supportive and trusting client. All I had to do was listen to all of them and this project emerged naturally. Adam Evans was the thought leader here. Adam Evans (AE): It’s been a winding road for me, from Army sustainment studies to Marine logistics-over-the-shore (LOTS), finally to the DON energy client’s initial interest in Navy tanker sufficiency. We wanted to look at the problem in a different way, and he was happy to support that. Lauren Dimberg (LD): What is the DON AERT project and how did it come about? SC: DON AERT is a 50/50 split between building tools and performing analysis to support client questions. It is simply the next stage in a decade-old relationship. AE: The genesis of AERT lies in the recent energy transformation we see in developments like electric vehicles, solar and wind farms, and advanced battery tech like the power wall. We recognized that the military needs to think differently about the potential of the technology and develop ways to incorporate energy considerations in combat, beyond the fuel-delivery paradigm of traditional energy analysis. KM: How important is DON AERT to the advancement of energy efficiency? SC: Efficiency is a term that I am unabashedly opinionated about. When I think about efficiency, I frame it through the lens of being able to more effectively put “steel on target” as our client says. It is a bonus if we reduce environmental impacts, but we are talking about warfare here. AE: In the early days of the energy efficiency movement, it appeared that efficiency could handicap the mission, so military professionals exhibited skepticism over the prospects of real energy change. Recent developments in energy technology, however, are starting to show that energy efficiency and improved mission performance are becoming more correlated. DON AERT can evidence that correlation, giving power to the importance of energy efficiency. LD: What does the future look like for DON AERT? SC: Our government sponsor for this effort is an intellectual powerhouse and very driven. He has contributed to CANA, being viewed as a thought leader within the larger Operational Energy community. The future of AERT is that CANA will continue to build our tools and will not only serve as a thought leader, but will have a set of tools that enable us to provide the most well-developed energy models the Navy or the other services have. KM: What role has AI played in the Operational Energy community and DON AERT? SC: We have quite a way to go before we incorporate AI. It can enable us to generate novel ways of using emergent energy-related technologies to operate in new ways. Look up alpha go move 37. To get there we have to be pragmatic and practical, though. We will get there, but these things take time. LD: What are the energy innovations you’re most excited about? What do you think is going to be a game-changer? SC: What a great question! How does near-field and far-field wireless power transmission affect a destroyer with a cluster of unmanned air, surface, and subsurface systems? Should power be used for directed energy weapons or Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR)? Where precisely in the Philippine archipelago should a geothermal energy plant be placed? AE: Coordinated drone operations facilitating logistics, communications hub operations, and smart ISR mapping, not to mention coordinated fires. While the nature of war will remain with us, unmanned systems are changing its conduct. I wonder what humans’ role in managing and coordinating these AI-informed drone swarms will be in the future? Energy advances brought us to this point. KM: What are the main obstacles the military forces face in using emergent OE technologies? SC: That’s an easy one to answer: the valley of death, as they say in the acquisition community. Getting from research of a technology to a product being delivered to the fielded forces is always very challenging. AE: Acquisition is a tough challenge. My personal challenge in this field has always stemmed from data availability. Notional or surrogate data is great to a point, but eventually, you need real representative data to proceed with a study. The military has always been quick with ideas and funding, but slow to back that up with the effort and effective guidance needed to collect, clean, and make relevant data available. #operationalenergy #logistics #EABO #sustainment #logistics #logisticsovertheshore #electricenergy #hydrogenenergy #innovation #technology #navy You can reach Shawn Charchan, Technical Director of Energy Solutions, at scharchan@canallc.com or on Linkedin. You can reach Adam Evans, Principal Operations Research Analyst, at aevans@canallc.com or on Linkedin.

Several of CANA’s key Principal Operations Research Analysts will give presentations at the upcoming 83rd Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium taking place in Alexandria, Virginia June 22nd through 25th. Learn more about the Symposium here. #mors #event #symposium #conference #education

CANA is a proud sponsor and participant in the upcoming Paralyzed Veterans Golf Open (PVGO) taking place on May 18th at The Golf Club at Lansdowne in Lansdowne, Virginia. All proceeds go to support the Operation Paving Access for Veterans Employment (PAVE) program. So far this year’s tournament has raised over $400,000 for Operation Paving Access for Veterans Employment (PAVE) program, which has worked with over 500 employers to help more than 600 veterans find work. The event has raised over $2.6 million since 2008. More info here. #golf #community #veterans #charity #pvgo #outreach #event #WaltDeGrange #CANAFoundation

CANA LLC wins Marine Corps Research and Innovative Technical Analysis (RITA) Professional Services contract with Northrop Grumman. CANA is part of a team assembled by Northrop Grumman, which has been awarded a competitively bid, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, and multiple award contracts from the Marine Corps Combat. #contract #RITA #MarineCorps

Have you ever wondered how that ‘thing’ that you purchased (whether on-line or in a store) gets to you – a place where you can touch, feel and use it? Have you ever wondered about the complex network of suppliers, distributors, stockers, and customer service organizations that are involved in this seemingly automatic transaction? Do you think about ‘what if’ something happened in the world (e.g. an earthquake in Japan, a tsunami in China, a labor strike in California, a cyber attack on a retail database) and how it might impact our domestic and global economies? At CANA we think about these things. Global supply chains are complex. Running a business, whatever business sector you’re in, no matter how small or big, puts you into contact with a global supply chain. This is inevitable in today’s environment. Understanding your supplier and supply chain risk has moved from interesting to critical – their performance can directly impact your ability to deliver. And face it, we are all motivated to deliver on time, at the right location, in the right form – whether we are delivering products or services. CANA professionals – spanning a range of logistics operations and analytics expertise – think of supply chain risk in simple terms – terms that you’ve typically heard, read about, and maybe even use. Risk is a function of the likelihood of an event occurring, the impact of the event if it happens, and any ‘down stream’ effects on the related supplier and supply chain network. Our differentiator is how we use our expertise and analytics to identify potential risk events, assess the impact of events, and determine mitigation actions that will actually work. Engage us to let us help you improve your supply chain risk awareness and planning capabilities. CANA is leading a working group at next week’s Military Operations Research Society’s (MORS) special meeting on How Risk Assessments Inform National Security Decision Making (we’re leading working group 3, so join us there!). Our working group will focus on socializing and developing analytic methods to assess your supply chain risk (i.e. considering identification, impact, mitigation) whether your organizational mission falls within the Federal or commercial sector. You can register at the MORS site (best way) or let us assist you. Either way, let us know that you’re attending so that we can help customize the working group content toward your needs. If you can’t attend, no worries! Let us know where you’re interested, and we will help assess and improve how you think of and plan for risks across your supply chain. If you haven’t considered the impact of your supply chain on your organizational performance, what are you waiting for? #supplychain #mors #risk #operations #planning

When it comes to ocean shipping, planning for major weather events within your advanced planning systems is critical to ensure on-time delivery. CANA’s Walt DeGrange will be presenting on this topic “Avoiding Tropical Cyclones in Automated Naval Logistics Planning” during next week’s Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) Annual Meeting. If you’ll be there, stop by his presentation on Wednesday, November 12th, at 12:45. Abstract: ”The US Navy’s Combat Logistics Force (CLF) provides at-sea resupply to US and allied vessels throughout the world. The CLF scheduling system anticipates demand and schedules 45 days in advance to meet demand. Tropical cyclones (TCs) frequently disrupt these plans, requiring diversions, and inefficient steaming speeds. We evaluate the impact of using TC forecasts in operational planning, and the best lead time and geographic extent of severe weather to use in optimizing CLF operational planning.” The research in this presentation was completed in collaboration with Capt Steven Lantz, USMC while CDR Walt DeGrange, USN (retred) was a military instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School. #weather #supplychain #impact #logistics #shipping #navy #cyclones #travel

Imagine an author putting the finishing touches on her latest book while sitting at the back table in a local coffee shop and sipping on an espresso. For many, this is the traditional picture of a virtual worker. However, two major changes are occurring that can allow entire companies to go virtual: technology simplifying communication and workers becoming more independent. Technology now allows modern information workers to perform their tasks from anywhere. Provide an internet connection and laptop and you have a fully functioning worker. The business world is struggling to keep up with this model. As when developing countries completely skipped traditional wired telecommunications and moved directly to a cellular network, new companies can be more agile in adopting a virtual work environment. The benefits for both the company and the workforce are many. First and foremost, there is a reduction in the cost of doing business. The infrastructure overhead is greatly reduced. Instead of the traditional building with cubicles and offices, the workforce is distributed. Having employees spread throughout the country can also be an advantage. Employee locations can overlap with client or partner locations and reduce the travel costs. An infographic from Under Cover Recruiter, http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/new-workstyle-infographic/, focuses on the differences between traditional and new work styles. Workers in the new work environment have a level of independence that up until now has only been enjoyed by the solo creatives. Individuals are given more control over their work conditions which often results in geographically dispersed workforces. Workers can work flexible hours from a variety of different locations. Creatives typing away in the back of a coffeehouse is always a popular visual. Although this is a viable option, there are many different ways to work remotely. Workers may choose to work from home. A well-setup office at home can provide a productive environment. Another option is a coworking facility. These were originally designed for teleworkers, small companies, and as innovation incubators for startups but are perfect for a virtual company. These facilities provide conference rooms, private call areas, comfortable chairs and desks, and office supplies for a fraction of the cost of a full brick and mortar office. The infographic from Deskmag (‘Deskmag | The Coworking Magazine’, 2014) highlights the advantages of cowork locations. Is the virtual company concept just a passing fad? Only time will tell; however with the reduced cost of operations, it is hard to see them going away anytime soon. The Under Cover Recruiter, blog. The New Workstyle. http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/new-workstyle-infographic/ Deskmag | The Coworking Magazine. (2014, July 11). deskman. Where would you like to work every day? Retrieved from www.deskmag.com #virtualcompany #homeoffice #remote #connection #smallcompany #workenvironment

When I first joined CANA, right out of college, it was a bit overwhelming. Transitioning from attending classes and completing homework assignments to attending meetings and completing Jira tasks was a deceptively big change. Although college taught me in theory about programming and software development, I didn’t have much firsthand experience and wasn’t familiar with the technologies being used at CANA. Luckily, CANA had a training schedule ready for me to get me acquainted with the development process and the technology I would have to use. During this training process, I learned JavaScript and TypeScript. In addition, I completed the official Appian training course from their website. Appian is a Marine Corps approved platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that provides the capability for enterprise application development in a cloud environment. I have found this training to be especially helpful, since Appian is mainly what I work with every day, and I haven’t used TypeScript or JavaScript yet. However, I didn’t feel like I had a real grasp on the concepts until I put them into practice. I gained this experience working on real bugs and features for the Integrated Materiel Analysis Toolset (IMAT) system which is designed to replace the Marine Corps’ legacy war reserve. I started with pair programming. Two senior programmers helped work me through some small bug fixes and taught me how they usually approach these issues. There were some differences between how they approached development and what was taught in the official Appian training. In particular, they taught me how to use the hidden Appian lambda functions, which weren’t mentioned in the official training. This training and the experience of working on actual software systems, with paying clients, has been effective in making me much more confident and knowledgeable in the development of software. Besides the training, another challenge was working from home. However, this wasn’t actually a big change for me. In college, I had to work from home during my last semester due to COVID restrictions. In addition, I had experience working from home from my internship with the startup, Northland Creative Wonders. However, with the startup, I occasionally met with my boss in person. At CANA I never meet anyone in person, as a result I must rely more on Zoom meetings and chats to keep in contact with coworkers. I think the biggest challenge of working from home is keeping a schedule. If I was working in an office, the manager would tell everyone when it was time to attend a meeting or do other activities, but when you work remotely, you need to keep track of these things yourself, and it can be easy to get engrossed in a task and not notice what time it is. I have dealt with this challenge by setting up alarms that notify me when it is time to start a new task or join a meeting. I’ve enjoyed working at CANA so far and think this is a great start to my professional career. My favorite things so far have been the friendly company culture, the kind people, and the ability to work from home. My fellow programmers have been very nice and helpful to me during my time working at CANA. They have given me helpful tips and feedback on how to do the best work I can and have assisted me when I was struggling with hard tasks. Although I didn’t get to go last year, I look forward to meeting everyone in person at the next offsite. My advice to a new developer joining the company is this: make sure to manage your time well, try your best to become very familiar with the new technologies we use, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are stuck. Tristan Rentsch is a Software Developer at CANA LLC. For more information or to reach out to Tristan email him at trentsch@canallc.com

Here are some interesting facts, statistics, and other oddities about Friday the 13th: Paraskavedekatriaphobia: It is the fear of Friday the 13th. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina, upwards of 21 million people in the US are impacted by this fear. The Thirteen Club: An elite group of men in New York City founded in 1882 with the intent to repair the number’s reputation by Captain William Fowler, who fought in 13 Civil War battles. With its membership including other notable figures, like Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt, the club met every 13th of the month, at 13 after the hour, in groups of 13. They set out to debunk what they viewed as other irrational fears—like opening an umbrella inside or breaking mirrors—by acting them out at every meeting. Plane crashes: Plenty of plane crashes have taken place on Friday the 13th. Few have been more horrific than the October 1972 crash of Uruguayan Flight 571. Lottery: In a study conducted it was found that the number 13 is the unluckiest ball in lottery draws since it was drawn a total of 120 times since 1994. Or maybe that just means it is bound to be a lucky hit soon, but statistically speaking it’s not. Stock market: According to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal, stock prices fall on Friday the 13th more often than on any other day. The Last Supper: According to Christian tradition, there were 13 people present at the Last Supper, and Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Stock market crashes: The stock market crash of 1929, which led to the Great Depression, occurred on Friday the 13th. Famous birthdays: Many famous people were born on Friday the 13th, including actors Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, novelist Samuel Beckett, and former President of Cuba Fidel Castro. Horror movies: The Friday the 13th movie franchise has grossed over $465 million worldwide. However that pales in comparison to the amount of licensed merchandise that the franchise as a whole has raked in since the first movie hit the silver screens in May of 1980. Weddings: According to a study conducted by The Knot, nearly 3% of couples choose to get married on Friday the 13th. Car accidents: A study conducted by the British Medical Journal found that there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents on Friday the 13th. Natural disasters: According to a study conducted by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics, there are fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft on Friday the 13th. However, there is a significant increase in hospital admissions due to accidents. Tattoos: A study conducted by the online tattoo marketplace Inkluded found that tattoos booked on Friday the 13th are often cheaper than those booked on other days of the year. So, if you are looking to get inked maybe this Friday is your best bang for the buck, but let us hope there don’t turn out to be any tattoo nightmares. Have a spooktacular, safe, happy, and fun Friday the 13th everyone! For more interesting statistics and analytics follow CANA on instagram, X (twitter), facebook, linkedIn, or on our website at CANALLC.com 🎃 #fridaythe13th #statistics #analytics #canallc #teamcana #lottery #stockmarket #oddities #facts #canaconnection

Cherish Joostberns | Principal Communications Analyst & Resource Manager Employees of a certain age might remember “Meetings, Bloody Meetings” - a 1976 corporate training film starring John Cleese about a man dreaming he’s on trial for holding disorganized and terrible meetings. As corporate training films go, it is - improbably - a Monty Python-esque “classic”. And for all of us that ever watched annual training films, we know that’s an accomplishment! We’ve included the link to the original here, for anyone looking for a Halloween trick or treat! With CANA being a remote company across multiple time zones, we think we’ve put a pin in running tight, productive meetings. When we have the opportunity to travel and meet the team, clients, and peers, we know it’s a big deal. Face-to-face events allow for learning and out-of-the-box thinking in a way a Zoom meeting or boardroom cannot. Conferences, so many conferences, will have their own sets of headaches - weak wifi, disappointing pastries, bad microphones, or even empty seats - but they are almost always a net positive in who comes to the table and what CANA gets out of every one of them. We know we’ve crossed paths with many of you! In the past few months, CANA attended a number of live events so we could engage in, and promote, electric mobility ideas, initiatives, and opportunities. We’ve met a lot of people, shook a lot of hands, and shared a lot of passion. First stop this August was Newport News, Virginia, for the Association of Marine Corps Logisticians (AMCL) Symposium. A great many of the CANA team were there, by way of first-hand Marine Corps and Navy logistics experience and their current CANA roles. Rob Cranston, CANA President; Jesse Kemp, Principal Program Manager; Tommy Kline, Principal Logistics IT Integrator; Terry Hagen, Principal Logistics Analyst; Jerome Dixon, Senior Operations Research Analyst, and Greg Lewis, Principal Logistics Analyst, among others, were panelists, moderators, and audience members for sessions like “Making 21st Century Logisticians”; “The Fully Burdened Cost of Energy”; and “Advanced Manufacturing”. These are the topics that continue to push issues of energy resiliency, security, diversification, and innovation to the forefront. Several members of CANA flew to Hawaii in late summer for the Operational Energy Logistics Symposium, to include Greg Lewis and CANA’s Technical Director of Energy Solutions, Shawn Charchan. Of note, the symposium was a public introduction of the Advanced Operational Energy Toolkit (AERT), an ongoing effort CANA is establishing within the energy analytics community to research and explore energy systems and emergent energy-related technologies. It will enable users to understand how this emergent tech will enable future forces to use energy as a battlefield enabler and operate in new and novel ways. Will Berry, CANA Principal Program Manager and lead for CANA Electric Mobility Initiatives, also attended the Tactical EV Expo in San Diego. Will met with an array of commercial vendors and federal and military stakeholders interested in developing an already available electric and hydrogen tactical transportation solutions. It was a perfect opportunity to share the continued progress of CANA’s partner, the SoCal Tech Bridge, and the eTHOR prototype partnership. SoCal Tech Bridge Director Ben Cohen was on hand as well, speaking about the challenges and opportunities in bringing electrification to the battlespace. CANA wrapped up the government’s fiscal year in late September at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar Air Show. When people stopped looking up, they checked out the ingenuity on hand at the Air Show’s Tech & Innovation Expo, where CANAers Will Berry, Chris Cichy, Principal AI Analyst, and Shawn Charchan were gathered with partners like AWS and DANNAR LLC to bring the eTHOR prototype and electric energy excitement to literally hundreds of thousands of visitors. Elements of eTHOR have already been involved in real-world missions, and that continued validation of its relevance is always exciting to share. If you attended any of these events, or would like to connect with anyone who attended, we would love to hear from you! Let’s keep the coffee hot, the pastries plentiful, and the conversation going! #electricmobility #tacticalvehicles #logistics #marinecorps #navy #operationalenergy #eTHOR #energysystems #electricvehicles #electrictechnology #sustainability #installationresilience If you’d like to contact Cherish Joostberns, Principal Communications Analyst & Resource Manager, you can reach Cherish at cjoostberns@canallc.com

We’re excited to share details with you about WS2, CANA’s Warehouse Software & Services offering. We developed WS2 with the intent to create a complete and customizable warehouse solution Powered by CANA Analytics, and I believe we’ve succeeded! CANA’s WS2 starts with an expert, full-scope warehouse assessment to fully understand our client’s physical processes and operating procedures. We then configure our cloud-based software based on our client’s priorities. From here, we provide a variety of services including those that help our clients improve their warehousing planning, operations, and management, and to support data integration and analysis. Our approach to full integration is relationship-based - we want our clients to fully realize the benefits of our WS2 software & services as soon as possible and for the long term. Our first WS2 implementation was for an emergency incident response department with responsibility for warehousing, order management, and customer fulfillment of supplies and equipment within the state of Alaska. This project started in the peak of COVID and is now winding down into a successful maintenance mode. As we all know, that pandemic time period was marked by a number of global unknowns and some serious supply chain and logistics challenges; I believe it allowed us to illustrate how effectively WS2 can integrate into, and improve upon, an emergency response warehouse operation. The primary impetus behind the WS2 success is the CANA team - warehouse specialists, software developers, and operations research analysts - who work directly with our clients and behind the scenes to build a seamless product with services that ensure each successful client implementation and integration! We’ve gathered those team members together in this CANA newsletter to tell their story. As we continue to bring this solution into other commercial spaces, we welcome you to forward this edition to anyone seeking a warehouse management solution - either to help refocus and improve warehousing processes or implementing a warehouse management software. We will be happy to reach out and provide a demonstration. As always, we wish you a safe and wonderful summer. Best, Norm Q&A with CANA WS2 Lead, Cliff Carpenter As a Principal Logistics Analyst, what is your role in the development of WS2? WS2 means “Warehouse Software & Services.” CANA provides clients with services that help them prepare to effectively use warehouse software to manage their operation and decide how to use the data created by warehouse management software to shape business decisions. As an experienced warehouse manager, I was able to work with our talented team of developers to prepare our software for the commercial market and work with our client base to choose the right services for their needs. What makes WS2 different from other products on the market? First, it’s the CANA people. The commercial market is filled with warehouse software products that small businesses, in particular, buy and struggle to implement. CANA is about seeing a client run a successful warehouse - this may or may not mean that we sell them software, it may mean helping them effectively use a software product they already purchased. Secondly, the CANA Warehouse Management System (WMS) represents the best aspects of modern warehousing software including a unique module for inventory control and quality assurance. Finally, CANA WMS has specific features to service warehouses that issue and recover kits (medical kits that go on an ambulance or individual kits that are issued to wildland firefighters, for example). Typical eCommerce software does not anticipate inventory coming back to the warehouse except in the case of customer returns. Who is WS2's target audience and how does it cater to each individual client? Our charter is specific to State warehouse clients (particularly emergency response) and small and mid-cap commercial eCommerce and service delivery clients. CANA uses a front end analysis (FEA) to evaluate each client's specific needs. The range of needs is very wide and CANA is committed to offering only what a client needs to be successful. What do you see as some of the more significant challenges in warehouse management today? Economically staffing a warehouse with a competent labor force at an hourly wage that is profitable is the hardest problem for a warehouse to solve. WMS is the bridge to this solution, allowing a team to execute the essential functions of receive, putaway, pick, pack, and ship with very limited training while generating the data needed to assess performance indicators and make adjustments. Did you learn anything unexpected while creating WS2? Market planning, sales and revenue forecasting, partnership with a software development team, and interaction with analytics professionals for the purpose of data modeling are all 100% new to me. I'm an experienced operations manager for large warehouse organizations, so before joining CANA, I was a customer of all these CANA core competencies. Every day has been a learning experience for me since joining CANA two years ago. Unexpected? Clients know the result they want without knowing what they need to get the desired result; I didn't expect that. Everyday HEROes: CANA Implements WS2 in Alaska During the height of the COVID pandemic, the state of Alaska’s Health Emergency Response Operations (HERO) team in Anchorage was tasked with providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other critical medical and emergency supplies to many facilities across the state. This critical customer base included healthcare facilities, hospitals, preschools, schools, nursing homes, food service industries, first responders, and more. The HERO team’s usual processes and workflows were all manual: orders were filled out on a paper form and faxed to the warehouse, and spreadsheets were used to manage everything from inventory quantities, order fulfillments, and basic reporting. Once the warehouse clients faxed their orders to the warehouse, they had no visibility of order delivery. This often resulted in HERO personnel spending significant amounts of time fielding calls for more information about items ordered. The HERO team realized there should be a better way; a global pandemic confirmed it. With high demands for PPE, Alaska HERO realized software was needed to automate warehouse operations and streamline processes. They also required visibility into product distribution across the various regions of Alaska to properly report how the PPE was distributed across the various metropolitan and rural areas. This was necessary to ensure equitable and prioritized access to all citizens. The warehouse director was also responsible for reporting accurate data to the state and this took a substantial amount of time. Alaska HERO knew they would benefit from warehouse management software, and they knew it had to be a highly customizable solution to fit the unique needs of their organization. When Alaska HERO called, CANA was ready with an answer. Front End Assessment and WS2 Customization CANA’s first course of action was to conduct an on-site assessment at the Alaska HERO site, traveling from Pennsylvania, Georgia, and California to meet at the Anchorage facility. The team included CANA’s Cliff Carpenter, WS2 Lead; Dan Sterrett, Principal Software Developer; and Kurt Eades, Principal Information Systems Security Manager. First person views aided their ability to meet the needs of Alaska HERO and later afforded meaningful opportunities to provide onsite training on the software and warehouse best practices. Once at the warehouse, the CANA team observed the processes and workflows of the HERO operation to understand its strengths and weaknesses and to assemble a thorough list of unique software, hardware, and storage requirements. The next step was to consolidate all of the data from the HERO spreadsheets, such as customer accounts, products, and historical data. This information was then loaded into the Warehouse Management System (WMS), the software component of WS2, through an Extract Transform and Load (ETL) process and then customized to specific HERO business rules and requirements. Testing, Evaluation & Implementation During several of CANA’s onsite visits, the team conducted physical inventories of the HERO equipment. The intent was to determine exact inventories and locations, and to establish the data points HERO desired in the new WS2. Some inventory iterations were virtual, with the CANA team creating a digital warehouse twin that exactly mirrored the Alaska HERO site. Using this, the team had unlimited means to identify key areas of interest, correct problems, and improve efficiencies. Kurt Eades played a unique role in this aspect of WS2 integration. When not directly on-site in Alaska, Kurt was able to physically and repeatedly test the optimized warehouse layout and software integration. He achieved this by creating a mock up of the HERO warehouse assets and processes at his home office in Georgia, complete with layout of inventory, scanning and tracking capabilities, warehouse processes, and appropriate hardware and software. The attention to detail included the labeling of barcodes on the smallest trackable items within parts kits to generating comprehensive reports, and enabled CANA to test and evaluate the eventual optimal warehouse in Alaska without disrupting operations. Back in Pennsylvania, Dan Sterrett evaluated the information gathered at the on-site assessment and worked diligently to develop an eCommerce platform to handle customer orders. Within the CANA WS2, Dan customized the software to meet the unique needs of Alaska HERO, improving the workers’ ability to manage inventory; facilitate picking, packing and shipping processes; and providing visibility to customers by including notification options from order placement to when the items were shipped. Dan noted, “[s]preadsheets can only do so much. Every business or organization needs software that is designed for their particular use case...especially when it comes to warehouse management. Powered by CANA Analytics is what enables us to take HERO’s available data points, integrate the client’s key performance indicators and priorities, and then provide a rich analysis of what it all means; it’s what makes WS2 unique.” Completion CANA wrapped up the Alaska HERO WS2 project with a final site visit to complete the revised layout of the physical warehouse and to confirm final implementation and approval of the WS2 product. WS2’s cloud-based nature ensures updates over time will be prompt and not cause extra friction to the Alaska HERO team. The product’s flexibility will allow CANA to adapt WS2 to HERO’s evolving needs, from future applications like SMART facilities to renewable energy alternatives and autonomy. The CANA team remains fully available to troubleshoot any issues that might arise, continuing the superior level of commitment CANA has towards its clients. The Alaska HERO warehouse team was particularly pleased with the in-person, hands-on experience, as well as the continued touch points over time. Cliff Carpenter observed, “[i]t's been a pleasure working with our partners at the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. A lot was asked of that team during the COVID response and it has been very rewarding to be a part of them accomplishing their mission of delivering testing equipment, supplies, personal protective equipment to the people of Alaska, and helping with the regular mission of the Health Emergency Response Operations (HERO).” CANA looks forward to continued opportunities across the country. The Team WS2 Lead Mr. Cliff Carpenter, CANA Principal Logistics Analyst, serves as the CANA WS2 Lead. His 20+ years of experience as a Marine Corps logistician, and several years at Chewy and Amazon have, according to Cliff, “...helped [him] understand the scope of large operations, the criticality of mission planning, and how all elements of operations are intertwined - nothing can be planned in a vacuum. Five years as an eCommerce operations and senior operations manager taught [Cliff] about the pace of change in a commercial operation and that every dime counts in the commercial world, as well as the business imperatives of Safety and Quality planning as fundamental to an organization's success.” Software Development Mr. Dan Sterrett is the lead developer for the CANA Warehouse Software & Services (WS2) and a CANA Principal Software Developer. His 17+ years of experience in software development, with 9 years at CANA working on a variety of commercial and government applications, made him an ideal choice to be a key member of the Alaska HERO project. Throughout Dan’s career, he has developed both web and mobile applications and developed a breadth and depth of skills in many programming languages, frameworks, and methodologies. Dan’s level of expertise and knowledge was precisely what was required to tackle this project. Implementation and Testing Mr. Kurt Eades’ role as Principal Information Systems Security Manager requires Kurt to work across a wide breadth of CANA projects. His technical knowledge of information systems, coupled with decades of Marine Corps explosive ordnance disposal and commercial logistics experience, give him an unique insight into creating intuitive, imminently reliable, and repeatable systems. Kurt is a firm believer in ensuring that what looks good in theory works in reality. During his time on Alaska HERO, Kurt verified that, “every idea [was] looked into and tested, and then tossed out or incorporated for the betterment of the project…” Visit the CANA WS2 Warehouse Software & Services™ website for more information. #CANAWS2 #AlaskaHEROproject #logistics #softwaredevelopment #warehousemanagement #poweredbycanaanalytics #ecommerce #warehousing #supplychain #emergencymanagement #warehousesoftware #shipping #inventorymanagement #tracking Join us on the CANA CONNECTION PODCAST The CANA Connection offers insights from the team CANA experts into analytics, logistics, supply chain operations, big data, and more. Check out some of our recent sessions. https://www.canallc.com/podcast Let's Talk About Warehouse Management Solutions with Cliff Carpenter In this episode of the CANA Connection Podcast our Host Rob Cranston President and COO of CANA, talks with Principal Logistics Analyst, and fellow CANA'er Cliff Carpenter about Warehouse Management Solutions. Cliff brings a ton of experience, knowledge, and insight to warehouse management from his time in the United States Marines and his work at Chewy and Amazon. So, join in as Rob and Cliff have a conversation about the four main areas most warehouses should take into consideration and the ecosystem life on an item in a warehouse in this part 1 of our sessions on WMS. [Connect] Team CANA Spotlight: MORS and Being a MORS Fellow with Renee Carlucci & Norm Reitter In this special CANA Connection Spotlight episode we talk with Principal Operations Research Analyst, Renee Carlucci and CANA's Chief Operating Officer, Norm Reitter about MORS (Military Operations Research Society) and what it means to be a MORS Fellow. So, join us as we delve in and showcase more about what it means to be Powered by CANA Analytics®. [Connect] The CANA Connection Podcast is available on your favorite podcast platforms. Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify! The CANA Connection Newsletter July 2023 © CANA LLC. All rights reserved

A video presentation of the blog post is available here: https://youtu.be/B_VgGOicr4U Quantum computers are vastly different from classical digital computers. The first question you might ask is, “what is a quantum computer?”, and the second, “why do we need them?” Joe Moreno, Director of Development at CANA Advisors, answers these questions in his complex, yet accessible (and fascinating) post on quantum computers. The fundamentals of quantum mechanics go back to the end of the 19th century with theoretical physicist Max Planck. In the intervening years, minds such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger contributed to the quantum field. The idea of using quantum particles to store and process information was proposed by physicist Richard Feynman in 1981, and now companies such as IBM operate dozens of actual quantum computing systems. The quantum computing field has not yet scratched the surface of what is possible, but the groundwork has been laid. Let’s take a look by discovering the differences between classical digital computers and quantum computers. Processing Digital computers process data in series. Data is processed, sequentially, through a central processing unit (CPU). Even in a computer with multiple CPUs, they still need to explicitly coordinate operations. Quantum computers process data in parallel. This is how the universe actually works. There is no single central place in the universe that processes the laws of physics. If we think of our body as a computer, our brain would be the processor. Yet our brain doesn’t need to explicitly coordinate many of our body’s activities. For example, if I take a bite out of an apple, swallow it, and then drop dead (resulting in no more brain activity), the apple would continue to digest in my stomach, at least for a little while, because that activity happens in parallel with other bodily functions. Performance Digital computer performance increases by a factor of two for each bit added (2n). A computer that can process eight bits is twice as powerful as a computer that can process seven bits. Quantum computer performance increases exponentially for each bit added (2ⁿ) due to its parallel nature. This means a quantum computer that can process 64 bits can be thought of as 2⁶⁴ (a 20 digit number) in terms of how much information it can store and process. Behavior Digital computers use simulation to solve problems. We write computer programs that store variables and execute algorithms to simulate what we observe in the real world. For example, if we want to simulate the interaction between the coronavirus and a candidate COVID-19 vaccine, we’d take the parameters that describe both, assign them to variables in a computer program, and write algorithms to simulate the interactions. The better our algorithm, the better our results. However, this only works on a small scale because there are too many variables and interactions to consider on the scale of a human. Quantum computers use imitation to solve problems. A good example of this is a lab rat. Before we give a candidate vaccine to a human, we test it on a lab rat. In this scenario, we can think of the lab rat as a computer that is imitating how the human body works. Information Digital computers store information in classical bits. A bit can only be a zero or one. Keep in mind that computer science, much like political science, is a human-created science, so we have defined the conditions and rules. Computer scientists have defined a bit to explicitly be a zero or a one. Quantum computers store information in quantum bits (qubits). A qubit can be a zero or one or somewhere in between zero and one, or negative, or a complex number. To wrap your head around how a qubit can be in many different states, consider using a coin to represent the state. Let’s say heads is one and tails is zero. What state is the coin in when we flip it and it’s spinning through the air? Is it heads? Is it tails? Is it both? Is it neither? A qubit is represented as a ket (vector) which distinguishes them from classical bits. A zero qubit is represented as: A one qubit is represented as: Logic Digital computers perform operations using logic gates governed by Boolean algebra (AND, OR, NOT, XOR, etc.). By performing operations on multiple bits, at the same time, we can produce meaningful information. Quantum computers perform operations using quantum logic gates (X, Y, Z, CNOT, Hadamard, etc.) governed by linear algebra (matrix algebra). These quantum logic gates are somewhat different from digital logic gates. For example, the Hadamard gate is used to quantumly entangle subatomic particles in a quantum computer and then put the particles into a state of superposition to process information. Borrowing from my earlier example of flipping a coin, we can think of superposition, in an overly simplified way, as when the coin is flipping through the air. Storage Digital computers store bits using voltage and charge. This is done inside “chips” (integrated circuits) made up mostly of transistors. A transistor is simply a switch that can be turned on (one) and off (zero) without moving atoms -- transistors only move electrons. Quantum computers store information in qubits using particle spin. Quantum particles have different properties such as mass, charge, and spin. When a particle is in a state of superposition we can think of it as spinning, much like flipping a coin. When we measure (read) the coin’s state after flipping it, it has only one of two outcomes, heads or tails. Similarly, quantum particles end up in only one of two states when we measure them called spin up or spin down. We can think of spin up as when its axis is pointing up (north), which we call zero, and we can think of spin down as when its axis is pointing down (south), which we call one. Architecture Digital computers use a von Neumann model with a CPU, ALU (arithmetic logic unit), and memory to store instructions and data. Physically, bits are stored in transistors at room temperature. Quantum computers store and process data using quantum error correction (this is what makes a quantum computer a quantum computer). Quantum error correction protects the qubits (electrons, photons, nuclei, etc.) from outside interference. The biggest source of interference is heat. Physically, qubits are stored at less than 1 Kelvin (about 0.015 Kelvin) to remove any thermal noise that could disturb them. The requirement to maintain a temperature of less than -457.87 degrees Fahrenheit presents its own set of operational challenges. Output Digital computers are deterministic. The exact same inputs, into the exact same algorithms, always yields the exact same outputs. Quantum computers are probabilistic. Repetition of the same inputs yields probabilistic outputs. This is a realistic model of how the universe works. If we flip a coin 10,000 times, we’d expect the sum of heads and the sum of tails to total 10,000 with about a 50/50 split. However, it’s entirely possible that the coin could land on its side (edge). Quantum computers can better represent real-world probabilities. Reversibility Digital computers’ logic gates are not all reversible. If I show you the outputs from a digital computer, and tell you which operation is performed that yielded those outputs, you may still not have enough information to figure out the inputs. Quantum computers’ logic gates are all reversible. If I show you the outputs from an operation, and tell you the operation that was performed, you could always determine all of the inputs. So much so that if you took these outputs and put them through the same operation, as inputs, your new outputs would match the original inputs in the first step. Current State of Quantum Computing Before 2020, researchers viewed quantum computing as primarily a scientific endeavor with relatively little immediate bearing on the commercial viability of quantum computing. However, that has quickly changed with multiple companies entering the quantum computing market. Amazon currently has a web service where anyone can run quantum computing tasks on a variety of quantum computers. The ability to decode complex cryptographic challenges, process enormous amounts of data quickly, and simulate atomic and subatomic behavior in a controlled environment is likely just the tip of the quantum wave to come. #quantumcomputing #CANAAdvisors #joemoreno Joe Moreno Joe Moreno is a Director of Development at CANA Advisors. You can follow him at joemoreno.com or contact via email jmoreno@canallc.com.