Pushing the Frontier of Supply Chain Management

My research focuses on solving challenging real-world supply chain control problems in collaboration with organizations at the leading edge of supply chain management. It involves the development, analysis and implementation of mathematical optimization models allowing to design or improve control systems for:

• Physical Flows - What type of product should be sent from what origin to what destination at each point in time, using what transportation mode?
• Trading Interfaces - What prices and other contract terms should be used at each point in time with each supply-chain partner, including the end consumer?

I have worked on numerous projects with various partners including Amazon, Dell, Décathlon, Zara, The World Bank and the Government of Zambia. My work has been implemented in software run by several leading global corporations, yielding substantial benefits.

Control of Physical Flows

2010 - Inventory Management of a Fast-Fashion Retail Network (with Felipe Caro), Operations Research, 58 (2) (featured article) [paper download] [related statement by the Inditex Group]. Press Coverage: CFO Magazine, April 2008; Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies, February 2008; Le Figaro, November 2007 (in french); Boston Herald, October 2007; Information Week, October 2007; Chain Store Age, December 2007; Senken Shimbun, December 2007 (in japanese); MIT Sloan News, December 2006

2010 - Zara Uses Operations Research to Reengineer its Global Distribution Process (with Felipe Caro, Miguel Díaz, Javier García, Marcos Montes, José Manuel Corredoira, José Antonio Ramos and Juan Correa), Interfaces, 40 (1) [paper download]. This paper was a Finalist in the 2009 Franz Edelman Competition of INFORMS.

2010 - Implementing Supply Routing Optimization in a Make-To-Order Manufacturing Network (with John Foreman, Julie Alspaugh, Fernando Lopez, Charles Dubois, Rohit Bhatnagar and Chee-Chong Teo), Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 12 (4) [paper download]. Press Coverage: Information Week, August 2008

2010 - To Wave Or Not To Wave? Order Release Policies for Warehouses with an Automated Sorter (with Théophane Weber), Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 12 (4) [paper download] [technical appendix].

2007 - Dynamic Assortment with Demand Learning for Seasonal Consumer Goods (with Felipe Caro), Management Science, 53 (2) [paper download]. An earlier version of this paper was a Finalist in the 2004 Student Paper Competition of the INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society.

2001 - A Simple and Effective Component Procurement Policy for Stochastic Assembly Systems (with Lawrence M. Wein), Queueing Systems Theory and Applications, 38 (2) [paper download]. An earlier version of this paper won the Second Prize of the 1998 Student Paper Competition of the INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society.

Control of Trading Interfaces

2011 - Clearance Pricing Optimization at Zara (with Felipe Caro), submitted to Operations Research [paper download] [related statement by the Inditex Group]. An earlier version of this paper was a Finalist in the 2010 Pricing and Revenue Management Practice Competition of INFORMS.

2007 - Temporary and Permanent Buyout Prices in Online Auctions (with Shobhit Gupta), Management Science, 53 (5) [paper download] [technical appendix]

2006 - Dynamic Mechanism Design for Online Commerce, Operations Research, 54 (2) [paper download].

2005 - A Smart Market for Industrial Procurement with Capacity Constraints (with Lawrence M. Wein), Management Science, 51 (1) [paper download] [technical appendix]. An earlier version of this paper won the First Prize of the 2000 Student Paper Competition of the INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society.