Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast

Elizabeth Grimes: Here's the problem.

Santa's operation defies logic One night,
billions of deliveries, zero defects.

So what if just maybe Santa is an
industrial and systems engineer?

For this special holiday episode of
Problem Solved, we asked IISE members

and volunteers to send us their take on
how Santa might use ISE tools to pull off

the world's most impressive supply chain.

And to wrap it all up, you'll hear
a special story from IISE CEO, Don

Greene, about the Christmas Eve when
Santa himself called IISE for help.

So settle in, grab some cocoa and
let's hear what they had to say.

Ali Anderson: My name.

Is Ali Anderson.

I'm an industrial and systems
engineer, and I work at the

Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

As a senior improvement consultant,
I think that Santa has to be an

industrial engineer and that there
is no question that he has industrial

and systems engineering training.

I think we have a plethora of evidence,
but I'll highlight a few specific points.

We know that he loves to track his data.

He makes a list and checks
it twice and surely there are

charts and graphs included.

I'd love to see them.

I'd love to see the distributions of
boys and girls wanting baby dolls and

Nerf guns and everything in between.

There's also clearly some quality
management in terms of defect rates

coming off that ELF production line.

Effectively, Santa is the executive in a
manufacturing organization with his elfs.

They produce such high quality toys that
we know Santa has quality checks in place.

We even have evidence that Buddy the
Elf was a toy tester back in the day.

I also think there's some
beautiful examples of systems

thinking from Santa's work.

He makes sure that his international
one night only delivery runs

smoothly without any bottlenecks.

He also is excellent at capacity planning.

So when a hot new toy comes on
the scene late in the year, he has

the ability to adjust production
to meet the shifting demand.

Since his work is so cyclical, I'm
certain Santa has developed standard

work, so he doesn't just have to rely
on his memory for what steps to check

before takeoff on Christmas Eve.

Finally, and I don't have any
specific evidence to this point,

but I do believe it to be true.

Santa's sleigh is so reliable and
long lasting that surely it was

developed with the Toyota production
system and produced by Toyota.

So those are my thoughts on why
I believe Santa is an industrial.

Merry Christmas.

Gordon Quach: Hi everyone.

My name is Gordon Quach.

I'm a Virginia Tech alumni for
industrial and systems engineering,

and here's what I've been thinking.

Santa Claus might actually be the greatest
industrial and systems engineer who's

ever lived, and I'm not talking about the
beer giving him that lies professor vibe.

Let's start out with the obvious.

Logistics.

Santa Claus runs a global delivery
operation that makes Amazon Prime,

looks like a lemonade stand.

We're talking about visiting
hundreds of millions of homes in a

single night with the perfect route
optimization every single time zone.

He's essentially solved the
traveling salesman problem on an

impossible scale in near real time.

While accounting for variables like
chimney accessibility, cooking quality

by household, and who's actually asleep.

The sleigh's dashboard might have
the analytics that would make any

supply chain manager weep with joy,
but here's how it really gets good.

The inventory management.

Santa operates with the most extreme
seasonal demand spike imaginable.

51 weeks of production, one night of
distribution, and then zero inventory

carrying costs after December 25th.

That's just in time delivery.

Taking to the logical extreme,
no warehouse fees in January.

No oversaw clearance sales.

It is beautiful.

Now, here's my favorite part though.

The facility layout, the North
Pole workshop has to be a

masterpiece of process design.

I'm imagining assembly lines organized
by toy complexity, strategic placement

of hot cocoa stations to maximize or
in fact minimize fatigue express lanes

for the last minute letter request.

And of course, Mrs. Clause
running a spot check inspection

through critical control points.

So next time someone asks me about
the pinnacle of industrial and systems

engineering excellence, of course I
might go to the Toyota or the Amazons,

but now I'm pointing to a North Pole.

Santa's not checking his list twice.

He's optimizing it.

Kristine Dungo: Hi, my name is Kristine
Dungo, ergonomics engineer at Cintas

Corporation and President-Elect
for the Applied Ergonomic Society.

Here's my take on Santa.

Santa is the ultimate
industrial and systems engineer.

Let's first start off with Santa
being the president and CEO of

Santa's workshop, bringing joy
to children all across the world.

His main headquarters is his
workshop located at the North Pole.

With the continuous growth of the
world's population, Santa realized

that he had to expand his business
by incorporating distribution centers

and workshops all over the globe.

So how does he do that?

Every year, Santa Secures multiple
contracts with old and new

department stores, toy stores, and
other companies that provide the

goods and services for children.

These stores and companies
are contracted to be his local

distribution centers and workshops.

Mrs. Claus meets regularly with these
stores to ensure they'll be fully

stocked with trending toys, gadgets,
and other items throughout the year.

Santa tasks his elves to
travel all over the world.

To observe the children on a
regular basis, the elves submit

naughty or nice ratings into a
risk analysis or scorecard program.

Once December 1st hits.

That program will identify if a child has
been naughty or nice, that child's rating.

Along with a list of action items will be
sent over to the child's loved ones such

as parents, guardians, and others who have
significant impact on that child's future.

These loved ones are the final evaluators
for that child and what they will

receive per Santa's action items.

The loved ones have the month of December
to complete their action items, which

include shopping for presents at approved
stores, either in person or online.

Presents must be wrapped
or placed in a bag or box.

Now S may be delivered and placed
under the tree or designated

spot earlier than December 25th.

Only if a loved one is dressed
as Santa to make that delivery.

Once it hits 12:00 AM December 25th,
the loved ones will start the process

of adding presents under the tree or
designated gift area to enhance the

experience of Santa's visit for the
children, parents and loved ones must

eat any cookies or drink any milk left
out, and they must add innovative ways

to showcase that Santa made his visit.

During the festivities, elves are
sent out all across the world to

document all the good tidings and
joy brought during the holidays.

Letters and observations are reviewed
at main headquarters with Santa Claus,

Mrs. Claus, and all the elves to
forecast for the next coming year.

Happy holidays everyone.

Madeline Shoot:
Ergonomists Madeline Shoot.

It's that time of year again, folks.

Customers are lining up in person
and online to get gifts for their

friends and loved ones while in the
background, somewhere much, much colder.

Santa and his team of elves
are working around the clock

preparing for this holiday season.

Santa's Christmas workshop might be the
best example of smooth, efficient, and

injury-free operations on the globe.

Starting off from raw
materials all the way to.

Finished packaged goods that
are seamlessly delivered

right under your tree.

Sounds like Amazon has got
some serious competition.

You might be surprised to find out
that Santa has absolutely no reported

injuries for the last 500 years.

You might also be wondering
what changed 500 years ago.

Well, Santa originally was using
these red light bulbs to illuminate

the workplace since Rudolph kept
getting made fun of for his red nose.

Santa thought maybe this would help.

This ended up creating a lot
of eye strain for the elves.

It was taking them long.

Her to do precision tasks and they weren't
going to make the deadline for Christmas.

Santa started to get really nervous, so
he extended their shifts, gave them more

breaks, but that didn't seem to help.

Unfortunately, Alfred, he pricked
his finger while sewing a teddy bear

and had to take a couple days off.

Santa, didn't want anyone else getting
hurt, so in a panic, he paused operations

and reached out to Lefty Evergreen, the
North Pole's operations manager to figure

out exactly what had happened, and it
turns out it was the lighting all along.

The next season, Santa ensured
that his workplace was up

to ISO lighting standards.

Since then, Santa has continued
to review his ergonomics program

every year, looking for ways to
improve safety and productivity.

He designed workbenches and
assembly lines to fit the

anthropometrics of his workforce.

The elves, of course.

Fun fact, did you know that elves are
typically anywhere from two feet to

four feet tall and that represents
the fifth percentile female and

98th percentile male, respectively.

Santa had to think of creative ways.

Design these workshops and to
accommodate the elves, ensuring heavy

objects are kept off the floor and
in the ideal reach zone for them.

The elves receive yearly ergonomics
training at the start of every season.

Mrs. Claus helped out with the Title
12 Days of Safety Ergonomics Edition.

At the end of the day, Santa's
operation is proof that when you

invest in ergonomics, whether it's
lighting, workstation design, or

just giving everybody the right
tools, you unlock smoother workflows,

safer teams, and a whole lot more.

Holiday magic.

That's exactly how he manages to
deliver joy around the world in a single

night with zero recordable injuries.

Laura Albert: This is a
recording by Laura Albert.

Santa manages a global logistics network
that flawlessly delivers billions

of personalized products in a single
24 hour window, all while operating

from a facility at the North Pole.

This is not magic.

This is an outstanding application of
industrial and systems engineering.

Let's start with the naughty or nice list.

Santa is making a list and checking
it twice, which is a reflection

of his commitment to redundancy
and IE principles on his design.

He evaluates.

Every person's naughty or nice score
on a regular basis using data that

he collects continuously from sensors
throughout the world, then a team of elves

performs a final manual cross-reference
against the most current surveillance

data just before the sleight launch
to maintain decision integrity and

ensure a near perfect accuracy rate.

The entire process is responsibly governed
by an Elvin data science team to ensure

perfect accuracy as well as privacy.

The delivery route itself is the
single most complex traveling

salesman problem ever conceived.

It's not just cities, it's every
individual dwelling on the planet.

Factoring in time zone synchronization,
and a strict service level agreement that

guarantees delivery before you wake up.

Santa uses advanced operations
research algorithms.

To route his sleigh by considering
distances, chimney diameters, weather

passing, just streams and critically
milk and cookie eating, which

determines the least time consuming
way to consume fuel for the journey.

And he has always eaten the
cookies that I leave out for him.

Santa has an unwavering commitment to
continuous improvement in the off season.

He refines the entire process.

After the big night Santa, his
elves and his reindeer conduct

a rigorous postmortem analysis.

What were the choke points?

Were there safety issues?

Was the cookie consumption rate optimized?

This systematic review of performance
ensures that every year the process

is refined, optimized, and ready
to scale for the following year.

Ashley Benedict

Ashley Benedict: when it comes to
industrial engineering, Santa Claus,

Jack Skellington, and the Grinch.

Each lead operations that would
impress any systems analyst,

but for very different reasons.

Let's start with Santa Claus.

He is the undisputed master
of large scale logistics.

Imagine his operation, billions
of products, one night global

distribution, zero defect rate.

Except when the toy is the
hot commodity for that year.

His production system runs on just
in time efficiency, fueled by Elvin

labor and predictive analytics
that make even Amazon look basic.

The North Pole Workshop
integrates manufacturing, quality

assurance, workforce morale,
and transportation networks.

All optimized by centuries of PDSA
cycles in industrial engineering terms.

Santas is Six Sigma with a Twinkle Jack
Skellington ruler of Halloween Town

brings creative process engineering.

His strength lies in project management
and design thinking constantly

reinventing holiday experiences.

Jack thrives on innovation
cycles and concept testing.

However, his downfall comes from poor
requirement gathering as seen when his

Christmas takeover spirals into chaos.

Brilliant visionary, but not
always process compliant.

Then there's the Grinch, the
ultimate efficiency expert in

resource scarcity, with no budget,
no team, and one loyal dog.

He engineered a stealth operation
that rivaled Santa's logistics.

Reverse distribution
every chimney, zero noise.

His system emphasized minimal resources,
perfect timing, and adaptive strategy.

Yet like many disruptive innovators,
he underestimated human factors such

as a heart size calibration reset,
and that really changed its purpose.

So who's the better industrial engineer?

I mean, Santa wins in
scale, Jack in innovation.

And the Grinch and lean processes.

But overall, the best industrial
engineer is Santa Claus.

He optimizes the world's happiest
supply chain, balancing production

flow, worker satisfaction, and global
delivery, all with milk and cookies as

his continuous improvement incentive.

Don Greene: Hi everyone.

I'm Don Green, CEO of the Institute
of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Now, Santa might not hold an
official ISE degree, but trust me,

he understands a lot about what we
do and how he came to know so much

is quite a story I'd like to share.

What happened a few
years back here at IISE.

We call this story, Santa
goes lean in a good way.

It seems that up at the North
Pole, Santa was facing what you

might call a Holly Jolly Crisis.

The toy line was behind schedule.

The sleigh route was in chaos,
and the elves were arguing

over work assignments again.

Mrs. Claus, who by the way, is an
industrial engineering graduate from

University of Alaska, where she was a
proud member of the reindeer marching

band, stepped in and said, dear, maybe
it's time to call in the experts.

What about the Institute of
Industrial and Systems Engineers?

Great ideas, shouted Santa.

They can show us how to make
things better around here.

And that's when my phone rang.

It was Santa himself.

And let me tell you when the
big guy calls you, answer.

After hearing about his challenges,
I knew that IISE had just what he

needed to turn his organization around.

Within Days, Santa and the Elves were
attending one of IISE's training courses,

virtually, of course, on Lean Six Sigma.

Santa even earned his green belt.

Woo hoo.

Though he was a little disappointed
to learn that it wasn't a real

belt to go with his red suit.

Oh.

The elves went back to the workshop and
reorganized using a cellular layout,

clustering toy assembly, quality checks,
and wrapping in tight efficient stations.

Productivity soared, and they
even turned their daily candy

cane break into a Kaizen event.

Santa's team downloaded case studies
from ISE Magazine learning how engineers

around the world optimize factories Then.

Inspired by an article in IISE
transactions, Santa tackled the North

Pole supply chain problem, reindeer
feed, toy parts, and hot chocolate

mix were always running low, so he
implemented a just in time inventory

system ensuring that everything
arrived right when it was needed.

The elves and the reindeer were thrilled.

Of course, the biggest challenge
was the Christmas Eve route.

In previous years, Santa had relied mostly
on holiday magic and gut instinct, but

this time he called in his top Elf analyst
to develop a traveling Santa algorithm

powered by Advanced Sleight Analytics.

By combining real-time weather
data, chimney diameter factors, and

global time zones, they developed a
simulation modeled route that reduced

total flight distance by 18.7%.

Dasher and dancer reported record
low hoof fatigue and the North Pole

Department of Transportation and
gave them a five star safety rating.

Meanwhile, Santa's design
team took on another project.

Ergonomic sleigh redesign.

They replaced his old seat with a
high support posture friendly model.

Santa was much more
comfortable and less fatigued.

Reports from the field confirmed an 80%
increase in ho, ho, ho frequency per hour.

After the big night, Santa
gathered everyone together

for a post-Christmas review.

Mrs. Claus brought sugar
cookies labeled PDSA.

Plan, do snack adjust.

Team, Santa said, we cut lead
times improved quality and reduced

sleight turnaround time by 22%.

Thanks to IISE, we've made Christmas
a model of continuous improvement.

So if you like to this example of
applying ISE principles, don't miss

the 2026 IISE annual conference.

Our featured keynote speaker will be
none other than Santa Claus himself.

His presentation will be titled,
delivering Joy, the ISE Way, a case Study

in Global Logistics and Reindeer Power.

And who knows if we're lucky, he
might even share the secret formula

for zero defect gift wrapping.

Happy Holidays from
all of us here at IISE.

Elizabeth Grimes: A huge thank
you to all of our IISE members

and volunteers for sharing their
ISE spin on Santa's operations.

If you'd like to leave your thoughts, find
us on social media and leave us a comment

from all of us at Problem Solved in IISE.

Happy Holidays.