In Operations and Manufacturing Management, research focuses on real-world supply chain management problems faced by managers in manufacturing and service corporations. Professionals in this field develop mathematical models that help analyze these problems and provide insight into complex scenarios.

The Boeing Center for Technology, Information, and Manufacturing a collaboration between industry and academe focused on technology and its impact on the management of operations, contributes to this research and enriches teaching and learning activities.

"Faculty members emphasize the use of modeling techniques to understand manufacturing and service environments in areas of research ranging from supply chain management, operations strategy, and revenue management to supply contracts and effective uses of information technology for process reengineering." Panos Kouvelis The Emerson Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management and Director of the Boeing Center

• Supply chain coordination
• Vendor managed inventory practices
• Collaborative forecasting
• Sourcing contracts
• Dynamic pricing and revenue management
• Information distortion and "bullwhip" effects
• Information technology uses for improved supply chain performance

Additional research efforts have looked at both classic issues and emerging topics including:

• Production planning, scheduling, and inventory control
• Assembly-line design and facility layout
• Warehousing and material handling
• Quality management and inspection
• Time-based competition and mass customization
• marketing/manufacturing interfaces

The Operations and Manufacturing Management group focuses its research efforts using quantitative models and analysis to address issues dealing with real-life problems in industry and service organizations. Doctoral students benefit from the close collaboration that exists in both teaching and research at Olin.

"My faculty advisor was really wonderful in helping me with my research. I came to him with a dozen ideas that interested me and he not only helped me prioritize them in terms of which topics would be most fruitful, but he also helped me identify which were more likely to get published." Julie Niederhoff, PhD OMM 2007 Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management Syracuse University

Faculty research has appeared in a variety of leading journals including:

• Management Science
• Operations Research
• Manufacturing and Service Operations Management
• IIE Transactions
• European Journal of Operational Research
• Naval Research Logistics
• Production and Operations Management
• International Journal of Production Research
• Decision Sciences

See OMM Working Papers