Neel Arvind Desai
Education Path Work Skills Contact Résumé
Neel Arvind Desai
Supply chain analyst · Logistics packaging engineer

I find the story inside supply-chain data — then build the tool that fixes it.

I run supplier packaging and material flow at a high-volume Volvo Group truck plant, and I build the tools that keep the data honest — label verification, station audits, shipping-notice checks. My PhD research asks where artificial intelligence actually changes supply chains; the plant floor is where I test the answer.

Get in touch LinkedIn ↗

Education & certifications

Mechanical engineer → engineering manager → supply-chain researcher
Doctorate
PhD, Business — Supply Chain Management with AI
University of the Cumberlands, Williamsburg, KY · in progress
Northeastern University
Master's
MS, Engineering Management
Northeastern University, Boston · GPA 3.78/4.0
University of California, Berkeley
Exchange program
Graduate Certificate, Entrepreneurship
University of California, Berkeley · GPA 3.4/4.0
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
Bachelor's
B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering
SRM Institute of Science & Technology, Chennai, India · GPA 3.0/4.0
Certified: Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) HarvardX Leadership

Berkeley taught me to treat every bottleneck as a business problem — it's why I build tools like the ASN Validator instead of filing tickets.

The path so far
now → the beginning · tap an era to expand
Logistics Packaging Engineer
  • Run PFEP and line-side material flow for the cab line — part presentation, space, and kitting at beginning-of-line — so an operator reaches for the part instead of hunting for it.
  • Built the digital twin of my area: it reconciles what the system says is on the floor against what is actually there. Offline shortages fell from 15% to 10%.
  • Own inbound supplier compliance — packaging, labeling, ASN/EDI — from finding the non-conformance to driving the corrective action and the chargeback that pays for it.
  • Read the plant's EDI/ASN traffic daily and catch shortages, mismatches, and receiving errors while they're still in the file, not on the dock.
  • Built the finance cases for two warehouse technology investments — an AI vision compliance audit and an autonomous drone inventory program — quantifying chargeback recovery, ghost-inventory recovery, and labor redirection.
MS, Engineering / Industrial Management
Sep 2021 — Aug 2023 · GPA 3.78/4.0

Product development, lean design, operations research, business model design.

Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship
Venture Co-op, Product Development · Jul — Dec 2022
  • Five Scrum sprints on a temperature-controlled bottle: requirements, suppliers, schedule, test feedback.
  • SolidWorks + Ansys; translated CFD and physical test data into design changes.
Lead Lab Manager · Jan — Oct 2023
  • Ran the makerspace: 3D printers, hand tools, power tools.
  • Wrote the OSHA-aligned safety protocols, SOPs, and training modules students actually used.
  • Built an IoT-based inventory tracking system for lab stock; out-of-stock incidents down ~10%.
  • Budget planning and financial analysis for the inventory and space renovation project.
Program Manager — Institute for Experiential Robotics · Oct 2023 — May 2025
  • QR-based equipment tracking workflow on Microsoft automation tools; made shared-lab utilization measurable.
  • DFA analysis for a drone test cage — safety and facility compliance.
  • Design changes on an underwater submersible; research build cost down 7%.
  • Cost analysis for research hardware builds, feeding sourcing decisions.
robotics.northeastern.edu

Rebuilt the Institute's existing public site and ran it: the research taxonomy (5 application areas × 11 robotics areas, filterable), the lab and equipment directory, and the news, seminar, and faculty-spotlight pipelines. Partner-facing pages for NSF, DARPA, NASA, DoD, ONR, Amazon Robotics, and MathWorks.

Founded as DOT; later renamed IoTmatic Hub. The product was DASH — Direct Automatic Shelf Helper.

Founder & Product Designer
  • DASH — a smart-shelf weighing device capturing real-time, shelf-level inventory data.
  • MVP shipped; 8 early adopters signed in the first 3 months.
  • Deployed with ITC across remote retail sites, replacing routine field-rep visits.
  • Owned it end to end: hardware iteration, enterprise sales, paid deployments, pricing.
UC Berkeley — Graduate Certificate, Entrepreneurship · Jan — Jun 2020
GPA 3.4/4.0
CoronAI — Google Developer Student Clubs Solution Challenge 2020, winning team

A chest band using electro-impedance sensors and image processing to flag COVID-affected lungs without a CT scan — so doctors and nurses could monitor lung function without close contact.

CoronAI — Google Developer Student Clubs Solution Challenge 2020, winning team — posterWatch on YouTube ↗
Project BLEND

A shoulder-mounted device for blind and low-vision users: a camera and image-processing model identify nearby objects and speak the object, its distance, and which way to move to avoid a collision.

BTech, Mechanical Engineering
GPA 3.0/4.0 · SRM Innovation & Incubation Center
Praxair (Linde) — System Design Engineer, internship · Nov — Dec 2019
  • Led installation of vacuum-jacketed insulated cryogenic pipeline; heat loss cut 65%, finished 4 days early.
  • FMEA on the pipeline install; fixes extended insulation lifecycle.
Cryogenic pipeline insulation work at Praxair, MumbaiLinde logo
Built, shipped, in use

Problems I couldn't leave alone

the first three run at Mack Trucks daily
ASN Validator app UI
Volvo Group — Mack Trucks · Python + Tkinter
The ASN Validator
⌄

Suppliers send shipping notices in three EDI dialects, and a bad one quietly costs money — a missing label, a pack count that will not reconcile, a quantity nobody catches until receiving. So I wrote a desktop tool that reads every segment in plain English, fixes what it can safely fix, explains what it cannot, and writes the report that goes back to the supplier. It runs as a one-click executable on the team's machines.

3
formats: DESADV,
X12 856, Volvo XML
323
real production ASNs
in the test corpus
ASN Validator —□✕
ASN Validator
X12 856 & EDIFACT DESADV D07A  ·  every segment checked, in plain English
Folder: C:\Users\neel\Desktop\ASN Browse Validate Folder Files... ● Watching Report...
6
files
3
correct
1
need a look
2
have errors
FileResult
10448327.txtERRORS
ASN_304118_X12_856.ediOK
MVO_ASN_VOLXML.xmlOK
ASN_30551744_original.ediNEEDS A LOOK
ASN_30551744_corrected.ediOK
DELFOR_forecast.ediERRORS
10448327.txt
EDIFACT_DESADV  ·  Has errors  ·  2 error(s), 0 note(s)
Diagnosis Segment Check Corrected ASN Full Report
Correct Needs a look Error
SegmentStatusValueWhat it means / issue
▽ Pack sequence 2 — part 11204417
Number of packagesOK1
Quantity per packageOK16
Handling-unit typeOKS = simplified packone box is the handling unit
Package label serial(s)OK0000310455 (1 label)
Despatched quantityOK161 pack × 16 = 16 ✓
▽ Pack sequence 3 — part 11204632
Number of packagesOK4
Package label serial(s)ERROR0000310887 … (3 labels)4 packages declared but only 3 labels — one HU label is missing
Despatched quantityERROR64Σ(packages × qty/pack) = 48 ≠ 64 — packs don't reconcile
Part numberCHECK11204632XXXXlooks like a placeholder — confirm against the order
The despatched quantity is never changed — only packs, serials, and segment counts.
The actual interface, recreated — built in Python + Tkinter, distributed as a one-click .exe to the team
Plain English, not EDI

Every segment of every pack sequence, spelled out — "S = simplified pack," not PAC+1+S. Nothing hidden: a missing segment shows up as a red row.

Corrections you can trust

Auto-fixes pack counts, splits CPS loops, recounts trailers. The despatched quantity is never touched, invented serials are flagged, and a fix that makes things worse rolls itself back.

Watches the folder

Drop an ASN in and it's validated within seconds, logged to CSV, and sorted into _passed / _failed — no babysitting.

Supplier-ready reports

One click builds an executive summary, error frequencies, and corrective actions — as emailable text and polished HTML, split per supplier when a batch spans several.

AI vision box classification
Volvo Group — Mack Trucks · Python + OpenCV
Teaching a camera to audit boxes
⌄

A Python and OpenCV pipeline reads packaging barcodes in batches and cross-checks them against the packaging instruction and the shipping notice, while a vision model I trained myself classifies box types on the receiving line. I taught it to say "unclassified" rather than guess, which is the part that makes it worth trusting. Audit effort moves off sampling and onto the exceptions that actually matter.

I trained the camera's classification model myself — showing it every box family, tuning confidence thresholds, and teaching it to say "unclassified" instead of guessing.

▶ Watch my camera-training walkthrough
AI vision box classification
Supplier compliance Power BI dashboard
Volvo Group — Mack Trucks · Power BI
Dashboards people actually use
⌄
Supplier Compliance Dashboard — Power BI Part Packaging Information Dashboard — Power BI

Five spreadsheets, five versions of the truth. I replaced manual compliance tracking with Power BI dashboards for supplier compliance and part-packaging data, so quality, receiving and materials now argue about what to do rather than about whose number is right.

DASH smart-shelf prototype
IoTmatic Hub · Founder · 2019—2022
DASH, the shelf that weighs itself
⌄

My startup's smart-shelf device read real-time inventory from load cells under the products, replacing field-rep visits for clients like ITC across remote retail locations. Three years of hardware, enterprise sales and everything in between — and where I first learned that inventory data is only worth what the physical shelf agrees with.

▶ Watch the demo
DASH smart-shelf device with companion dashboard app
TnG prototype with team
Sherman Center venture co-op · SolidWorks + ANSYS · 2022
TnG — hot coffee at the summit
⌄

A bottle for hikers that heats or cools its contents with a Peltier element and an onboard battery. On a venture co-op with Northeastern's Sherman Center, I designed the concepts in SolidWorks, validated them with thermal and CFD analysis, and ran five sprints of prototyping to a 10 degrees Celsius drop on the first proof of concept.

TnG team with prototype Peltier test bench Peltier module on bottle prototype Water-bath thermal experiment CFD analysis in the lab
SpiceMate loaded rack prototype
Northeastern · RFID + load cells · 2023
SpiceMate — a pantry that keeps count
⌄
SpiceMate loaded rack prototype Hex-grid CAD renders 3D-printed hex container prototype Smart rack system board Early concept sketches

A smart spice-storage system: modular hex-grid containers that sense their own contents with load cells and RFID, track freshness, and reorder when supply runs low. From hand sketches and brand identity through CAD to a working prototype.

Core skills

What I bring to the table

Packaging & product protection

Making sure the part arrives as designed.

Supplier packaging Labeling Transport durability Receiving readiness Packaging standards Prototype builds
CAD, analysis & documentation

From concept geometry to build-ready drawings.

SolidWorks AutoCAD ANSYS / CFD SimScale DFA / DFM 2D/3D documentation Material selection
Manufacturing & quality

Finding the root cause, then making it stick.

Root-cause analysis CAPA FMEA / DFMEA DMAIC CMM inspection Audit readiness Lean Six Sigma
Operations & data

Turning messy operational data into decisions.

ASN / EDI resolution Supplier compliance Material flow Python Power BI Excel Process mapping
Say hello
neel8636@gmail.com
LinkedIn ↗ Résumé (PDF) ↓ Macungie, PA · +1 (781) 824-1614