This event is open to all U-M students, faculty, and staff.

Title:
Location Modeling and Why it Still Matters

Abstract:
Facility location modeling has been a traditional area of study in industrial engineering and operations research for decades. In this lunch-and-learn seminar, I will outline some of the key problems the area has addressed and why they remain critical in today’s era of extensive e-commerce. I will also touch on some of my own recent research in this area including supplier sourcing decisions at Ford, drug shortages, and emergency preparedness.

Bio:
My research focuses on supply chain network design in general and facility location models in particular. I also study problems in health care operations and funding and financing higher education. I am a past-president
of INFORMS, and am the former chair of the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. I am a past editor-in-chief of both Transportation Science and IISE Transactions, the flagship journal of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Michigan I was a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. I served as the chair of the IEMS department for six years.