Decision Science: The Systems Behind Billion-Dollar Site Selection with Ramya Gowda

When companies decide where to build, expand, or relocate, that single decision shapes everything that follows - hiring, productivity, supply chains, cost, and long-term risk.

But how do organizations actually make those decisions?

In this episode of Problem Solved, we sit down with Ramya Gowda, Managing Director at Newmark, where she leads strategic consulting in site selection, location strategy, and labor analytics. Ramya helps global corporations evaluate potential locations and make some of the most consequential decisions in their organizations.

Using industrial and systems engineering principles, Ramya and her team apply decision science, data modeling, and systems thinking to compare locations across hundreds of factors, from workforce availability and infrastructure to logistics networks, environments, and long-term resilience.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• How companies evaluate potential locations for manufacturing plants, offices, and data centers
• Why site selection is really an upstream systems decision that affects everything downstream
• How decision models translate complex data into board-ready recommendations
• Why relationships with communities and economic development organizations matter
• The skills industrial engineers need to work in location strategy and consulting

Ramya also shares how industrial and systems engineering prepares professionals to solve complex problems across industries—not just in manufacturing.

Read some of Ramay's articles:
https://www.areadevelopment.com/corporate-site-selection-factors/q1-2026/the-geography-of-packaging-why-location-strategy-matters-more-than-ever.shtml

https://www.areadevelopment.com/corporate-site-selection-factors/q3-2025/the-site-selection-corporate-checklist.shtml

https://www.areadevelopment.com/manufacturing-industrial/q2-2025/get-your-mega-site-project-ready.shtml

Learn more about The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE)
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Problem Solved Executive Producer: Elizabeth Grimes
Interested in contributing to the podcast or sponsoring an episode? Email egrimes@iise.org