Taking over for Page Siplon at the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics in Savannah, Jannine Miller has some hefty shoes to fill. No problem – the transportation and logistics specialist from Atlanta has impressive chops of her own.
A graduate of Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, she holds master’s degrees in both public administration and business administration and has held various transportation and logistics-related positions in both public and private sectors in the state. Among those are senior transportation planner for the Atlanta Regional Commission, policy and programs consultant for the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority, transportation policy advisor to Gov. Sonny Perdue, executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and, most recently, senior manager of finance for The Home Depot.
In 2011, she was recognized by Georgia Trend Magazine as a “Top 40 under 40 Best and Brightest.”
Miller will divide her time between the Georgia Department of Economic Development in Atlanta, which oversees the innovations centers, and the Logistics Center, located on the campus of
Georgia Tech Savannah.
She recently sat down with the Savannah Morning News to discuss her new role and the importance of logistics to the state’s economy.
Q. As someone who has spent her career in Atlanta, what are your first impressions of Savannah’s business climate?
“Savannah is such an amazing place for so many reasons, but the biggest to me is how strong it is in industry, with the ports, manufacturing and all the logistics here. Business really is paramount. That said, right next door to the ports and other industry is all the history of the state of Georgia and the culture and heritage — the juxtaposition is really so phenomenal.”
Q. Georgia is home to the fourth largest and fastest-growing port in the country as well as the world’s busiest airport and fifth-largest cargo hub in Atlanta. All of this puts our state at a distinct advantage for logistics. What do we need to do to keep that advantage and continue to grow?
“First of all, I wouldn’t change anything that’s working – and we’re doing a lot of things right. One of our biggest advantages is the way our ports are set up and managed. All of the ports on the West Coast —and many ports on the East Coast as well —are what are known as landlord ports. They are owned by the government but operated by private companies.
“That can mean, as is the case in the large West Coast ports, operations walled off into 13 different terminals. On the surface transportation side of things, that completely undermines efficiency. They get it done — they wouldn’t have the volume they do in LA/Long Beach if they weren’t able to work around it.
“But it’s such an advantage for us. In customer service, we’re able to provide a single point of contact. We have onsite rail, warehouse availability, continuous berthing. If we continue what we’re doing with customer service and business orientation and responsiveness, we’ll be great.”
Q. How does that mesh with the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project?
“Now, we’re going to have a deeper harbor. And while the big ships are already coming here through the Suez Canal, I think we’ll see a gradual ramping up as those ships are able to move into port with far fewer tidal restrictions. And what we’re doing, like we always have in Georgia, is getting ourselves ready with the capacity ahead of time. Garden City Terminal at the port of Savannah moved more than 3 million containers last year, but we have the capacity to double that, which is really key. Also, we have to make sure on the surface side that we have all of our infrastructure and our logistics services ready to provide everything shippers will need, including road and rail. Planning and anticipating need is something Georgia does well.”
Q. What kind of planning is the state doing going forward and how does that tie in with what’s happening across the country?
First, as a country, I think we’re benefitting from our own good decisions decades ago with the interstate system and we see what’s in the realm of the possible. If we do provide efficient, ample capacity, our economy booms. In Georgia particularly, we did a really good job in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s investing in our transportation infrastructure. We positioned ourselves for growth, it came and our economy boomed.
As a result, we have all this activity in freight movement and people dedicated to logistics planning and we’re ready for that next investment that will bring us to then next level. The great thing is that we have already done a lot of work at the state level, in large part due to Gov. Perdue and Gov. Deal, the state legislature and the DOT, working together in unprecedented collaboration.
They put together a plan that was all about economic development — a plan based on targeting infrastructure investments to the right improvements, the kind that will provide a return in jobs and GDP growth.
Q. Logistics has certainly become a buzzword, especially in Georgia. How important is logistics to the economic health of the state?
“We say ‘Georgia means business.’ Well, logistics is at the heart of every business. You can’t get the supplies to create products without good inbound logistics and, when you have created a product, you have to get it to market fast. We just know how to do that in Georgia and it’s a real strength.
“Just look at the Center of Innovation for Logistics. The whole notion of innovation centers came from my predecessor, Page Siplon, who saw all these opportunities between folks who had logistical challenges they needed to overcome and folks who had solutions to those challenges. “He wanted a way to make those connections. And, of course, the popularity and growth of the annual logistics summit — where people from all over come to connect and exchange ideas — speaks volumes about the importance of logistics.”
Q. What do you see as the state’s biggest logistics challenges going forward?
“We certainly have challenges and I think the biggest is workforce — getting those ready-to-work people at our logistics firms with the right set of skills is critical. Once again, we’re fortunate in Georgia to have the Quick Start program that targets training to workforce needs, even down to the company level.
“Workforce training cuts across every level, from learning to drive a forklift to developing strategies for best practices in a constantly evolving industry and we have to be ready to meet those challenges.”
Q. What about infrastructure and finding the means to fund needed improvements?
“That’s also a huge challenge, especially for Georgia, which is different from other states in that are limited in how we fund infrastructure. Other states, for example, can use their major transportation tax — the gas tax — to fund rail if they so choose. We can’t do that because of our constitutional constraints.
“What that has done has spurred private investment, which is good. But the question of whether Georgia is investing differently or less than other states is a difficult one to answer because each state has different infrastructure needs. But what we can say is that we’re set up for good decisions based on the comprehensive freight and logistics plan that prioritizes our transportation funding needs.
“Another factor in funding is that Georgia relies more heavily than most states on federal funding. We’re a very fiscally conservative state; we have a drive for efficiency and rarely overfund things. That’s how we keep our gas taxes low.”
“But, with every project that involves federal dollars, the permitting and red tape is so much more complicated and takes much longer.”
Q. The Logistics Summit is coming up at the end of this month. What’s the summit going to focus on this year?
“As always, there will be plenty of opportunities for networking, connecting with current business partners, building repoire with new potential customers and learning about what’s new in the industry. We’ll also hear from a growth and expansion panel — those companies that have found Georgia to be the best place to do business, including Caesarstone, which is growing just south of Savannah.
We’re excited this year to have Craig Menear, the CEO of Home Depot, as our keynote speaker. As head of the world’s largest home improvement specialty retail, he has led the execution of one of the most dramatic supply chain transformations in retail history. We’ll also focus this year on three important topics: e-commerce, perishables and intermodal.
“It’s going to be a great two days.”