In my opinion, being accountable is one of the most positive personality and leadership traits. When important things need to get done, you and/or your team state with confidence, “I own that. We will review what needs to get done and provide an update next week. We will achieve the end of month target.” When things don’t go as planned, you and/or your team state, “My bad. This should have been done by X date, but I missed that mark. I apologize and would like to discuss an alternative date. I assure you that we’ll meet the adjusted time line.” When a direct report misses a date…
Operations Research
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Most Topular Stories
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Lack Of Accountability – A Credibility Killer
The Operations Blog8 May 2012 | 5:13 am -
“For S/He’s a Jolly Good [INFORMS] Fellow!”
Michael Trick's Operations Research Blog7 May 2012 | 1:31 pmFurther to INFORMS recognitions, now is the time to nominate people for INFORMS Fellow. I was on the board when plans for the Fellow’s program got underway and I, like many, was a little leery. Way back in the early 1950s, the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) started a Fellow’s program that led almost immediately to the creation of The Institute for Management Science (TIMS) by those who were not selected as Fellows (this is an oversimplification, and I wasn’t there: how old do you think I am!). I know of many organizations ripped apart by arguments… -
Data Journalism
ThinkOR - Think Operations Research27 Apr 2012 | 6:46 pmI've recently started following the Guardian's Data Blog, but I was a little disappointed with their recent article on grammar schools inthe UK. My understanding is that grammar schools are a subset of schools in the UK that supposedly offer entry on a meritocratic basis and deliver higher quality education. Depending on your political leanings you either believe that grammar schools re-enforce the class division in the UK by giving entry disproportionately to the already higher class and then giving them a better education or you believe that grammar schools enable class mobility by… -
Federal van pools: a case of too many constraints
Punk Rock Operations Research15 May 2012 | 8:17 amMy husband works for the Federal government. He takes a van pool to and from his work on most days (he has a 120 mile commute round trip). The van pools are a great deal. If someone rides in a van pool, they commit to riding a certain number of days per quarter. They pay a membership fee and are reimbursed for saving gas. In response to fraud, two significant changes were made to the van pool contracts: Van riders have to ride the van at least 50% of the working days each month (instead of each quarter). The van needs to be more than 50% full (not including the driver) at least 80% of the… -
New President of MIT is its Provost
RENeW16 May 2012 | 10:36 amCongrats to the new President of MIT!According to the MIT News Office:L. Rafael Reif, a distinguished electrical engineer whose seven-year tenure as MIT's provost has helped MIT maintain its appetite for bold action as well as its firm financial footing, has been selected as the 17th president of the Institute.Reif, 61, was elected to the post this morning by a vote of the MIT Corporation. He will assume the MIT presidency on July 2, 2012.As the Institute's chief academic officer since 2005, Reif led the design and implementation of the strategy that allowed MIT to weather the global…
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Michael Trick's Operations Research Blog
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“For S/He’s a Jolly Good [INFORMS] Fellow!”
7 May 2012 | 1:31 pmFurther to INFORMS recognitions, now is the time to nominate people for INFORMS Fellow. I was on the board when plans for the Fellow’s program got underway and I, like many, was a little leery. Way back in the early 1950s, the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) started a Fellow’s program that led almost immediately to the creation of The Institute for Management Science (TIMS) by those who were not selected as Fellows (this is an oversimplification, and I wasn’t there: how old do you think I am!). I know of many organizations ripped apart by arguments… -
Kimball Medal Call for Nominations
7 May 2012 | 11:00 amI’m chairing this year’s Kimball Medal Committee. Here is the call for nominations: The George E. Kimball Medal is awarded by INFORMS for recognition of distinguished service to the Institute and to the profession of operations research and the management sciences. The committee for this year’s award is Michael Trick (Chair), Robin Keller, and Steve Robinson. If you would like to nominate someone (including yourself) please send an email with the name of your nominee along with a brief justification to Michael Trick (trick@cmu.edu) by July 31 for review in August. -
Sports with a vague Operations Research connection
4 May 2012 | 2:20 pmIt is pretty clear that academic administration and blogging are perfect substitutes, at least in regard to time, if not satisfaction. After having an easy period earlier in the year when I racked up a dozen blog posts, administrative needs sucked up all my time, leading to the buildup of dust-bunnies at Ye Olde Blog. But it is the end of term, so perhaps I can get things cleaned out. Let me point out two recent sports-oriented items. First is a fascinating dynamic map from Slate showing the winning of sports championships in the four major US sports (football, baseball, hockey, and… -
NSF Program Directors
12 Mar 2012 | 3:56 pmI see from the INFORMS eNews that NSF is looking for new Program Directors for both Operations Research and Manufacturing Enterprise Systems/Service Enterprise Systems. Needless to say, these are critical positions for the operations research community. And, reading Robert Sloan’s article about his stint in computing theory at NSF, it sounds like a fun job! Here is the announcement: Russell Barton and Michael Fu, currently completing their terms at the National Science Foundation, would like you to consider serving at NSF in one of their roles – either as Program Director… -
Summer Time Travel Plans
12 Mar 2012 | 3:44 pmAs I sit in a jet-lagged haze in a Beijing hotel,thoughts naturally turn to …. more travel! The opportunity to travel all around the world is a great bonus of academia. And while I think I have taken this bonus to extremes (I am not sure academics should really be at the highest tiers of frequent fliers), it is nice to visit new places, see new sights, and meet new people. In operations research, we have a tremendous number of conferences all around the world. It is clear from things like the INFORMS Conference Calendar that a suitably enthusiastic, and financed, researcher could…
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ThinkOR - Think Operations Research
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Data Journalism
27 Apr 2012 | 6:46 pmI've recently started following the Guardian's Data Blog, but I was a little disappointed with their recent article on grammar schools inthe UK. My understanding is that grammar schools are a subset of schools in the UK that supposedly offer entry on a meritocratic basis and deliver higher quality education. Depending on your political leanings you either believe that grammar schools re-enforce the class division in the UK by giving entry disproportionately to the already higher class and then giving them a better education or you believe that grammar schools enable class mobility by… -
PW 1000 W (Picture is Worth of 1000 Words)
14 Apr 2012 | 1:36 pmFew inspirational pictures to stimulate your imagination.1) 2) 3) -
My Jealous Supermarket II
29 Mar 2012 | 3:11 pmLast week I wrote the Figure It Out article that was published to the Capgemini Consulting UK Operational Research team blog, My Jealous Supermarket.I encourage to click through and read the article. To summarise, my supermarket is targeting me with discount coupons in order to maintain my loyalty which it mistakenly thinks it is losing because I am a travelling consultant and have shopped very little lately.Anyhow, after returning from a week in the north of England followed by a weekend in Florence followed by another week in the north, it was immensely satisfying to see the "Spend £30,… -
Numbers in 2011 - from More or Less podcast
13 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmOne of my favourite podcasts is BBC's More or Less. At the start of 2012, they did a series on Numbers in 2011. I know it's a little late in sharing this, but here we go - enjoy.I'm sharing with you a selection of the numbers from the 30min podcast. They are somewhat UK centric, but still worthwhile sharing.Listen to the whole podcast here.80%: developed world's debt to GDP ratio1.37: cost of petro in GBP on 9 May 2011 (highest in 2011), due to duty, value added tax (20%) & exchange rate (weaker GBP against USD)1%: BBALIBOR (interest to be paid in 3 months time) 10 Nov 2011 crossed 1%,… -
School uniforms in developing countries: An unnecessary evil? - High-level test
3 Jan 2012 | 5:07 pmEarlier I wrote a post about the requirement for school uniforms in developing countries and how I saw this as a potentially offensive injustice. I completed the first step by forming my hypothesis, "The unnecessary requirement for school uniforms in developing countries puts undue financial stress on families already struggling to afford basic necessities and/or tuition, and potentially even excludes some children from attendance." Now I am looking to test that hypothesis quickly at a high level. I want to do some research to gain reasonable assurance that the hypothesis is correct before I…
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Punk Rock Operations Research
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Federal van pools: a case of too many constraints
15 May 2012 | 8:17 amMy husband works for the Federal government. He takes a van pool to and from his work on most days (he has a 120 mile commute round trip). The van pools are a great deal. If someone rides in a van pool, they commit to riding a certain number of days per quarter. They pay a membership fee and are reimbursed for saving gas. In response to fraud, two significant changes were made to the van pool contracts: Van riders have to ride the van at least 50% of the working days each month (instead of each quarter). The van needs to be more than 50% full (not including the driver) at least 80% of the… -
fitting three car seats in a Honda Civic: an exercise in decision-making under uncertainty
11 May 2012 | 7:43 amI recently blogged about how much gas money I saved from buying a Honda Civic rather than an SUV. I received a lot of nice feedback on that post (thank you readers!). The most common response I received was, “How did you fit three car seats in a Civic?!?“ I’m going to answer that question today. The short answer: it wasn’t easy. Both my husband and I drive Honda Civics. We could easily fit two car seats in our Civics. The problem was when we were expecting child #3, we didn’t think it could happen. Here are the challenges: (1) We clearly could not add our baby… -
stochastic processes exam question: find the size of a zombie population during an outbreak
8 May 2012 | 12:41 pmHere is a question from my stochastic processes exam that I gave this morning: Question: There is a zombie outbreak in Richmond. The zombie population can be modeled as a linear growth birth death process. Each zombie independently reproduces at a rate of λ = 2/hour and is killed by resourceful Virginians at a rate of μ = 0.5/hour. If the population started with a pack of two zombies, find the average size of the zombie population after 24 hours. Answer: The average size of the population can be modeled using a linear growth birth death process. Let Ei denote the expected size of the… -
is London ready for the Olympics? A post on passport check queues at Heathrow
4 May 2012 | 10:30 amI hate waiting in line, even for a minute. This post expands upon a great post in The Operations Room blog on passport/immigration waiting times at Heathrow. The queues to clear passport control at Heathrow have become quite political (see this article). The reason is that the UK have increased security (read: slower server service rates) and are anticipating a large number of new passengers when they host the Olympics this summer (read: larger customers arrival rate). I had the misfortune to travel to and from London via Heathrow in mid-April. (London was a pleasure, the queue at Heathrow… -
google docs are a great teaching tool
4 May 2012 | 7:19 amIt’s the end of a long, brutal semester for me. I’m due for another teaching with technology post (see others here). This time I’m blogging about how wonderful and versatile google docs is for classroom teaching. I started to use google docs two years ago when a student put together a shared google spreadsheet for a multiobjective decision analysis project that we were performing as a class. It was a fantastic way to collaborate. It’s worth noting that there are several ways to share a document in google docs: you can share the document with certain users, anyone with…
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RENeW
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New President of MIT is its Provost
16 May 2012 | 10:36 amCongrats to the new President of MIT!According to the MIT News Office:L. Rafael Reif, a distinguished electrical engineer whose seven-year tenure as MIT's provost has helped MIT maintain its appetite for bold action as well as its firm financial footing, has been selected as the 17th president of the Institute.Reif, 61, was elected to the post this morning by a vote of the MIT Corporation. He will assume the MIT presidency on July 2, 2012.As the Institute's chief academic officer since 2005, Reif led the design and implementation of the strategy that allowed MIT to weather the global… -
Remembering Professor John M. Quigley of UC Berkeley
16 May 2012 | 9:21 amThe sad news reached me during a time when we celebrate many college graduations and other milestones.John M. Quigley, a renowned urban economist and regional scientist, passed away last Saturday, May 12, 2012.The news reached me via David E. Boyce, both an INFORMS Fellow and an RSAI Fellow.The Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley issued a statement on his passing, and Ed Glaeser of Harvard University wrote the following column for Bloomberg on Quigley's outstanding contributions to the understanding of housing and its pricing, "An Economist Who Changed the… -
Happy Mother's Day with a Bouquet of Flowers
13 May 2012 | 7:46 amThe gorgeous bouquet of pink roses above was delivered by Fedex and came from one of my nieces in Rhode Island -- thank you!I thought it fitting to share the photo of the beautiful flowers to thank all of the women who have supported one another as mothers. I also wanted to thank all the faculty moms, who have nurtured generations of students.Thanks to all the great mothers out there -- where would civilizations be without you?May your hard work, dedication, and selflessness in all of your endeavors give you great pride and satisfaction and may your children make you proud.Happy Mother's Day… -
The Isenberg Graduation Was Fabulous as Were the Shoes that They Wore
12 May 2012 | 11:39 amIn my previous post, I wrote about the graduate ceremonies at UMass Amherst that took place yesterday and posted a lot of photos.This morning, I was back at the Mullins Center to take part, with over 1,000 of our graduating seniors, in the Isenberg School of Management 2012 ceremonies. Even Gene Isenberg, after whom our business school is named, was in attendance and sat in the front row.I enjoy the special Isenberg graduation that takes place every May and this year was no exception.The attendance was spectacular and I could not resist taking also some photos of the shoes that the graduates… -
Photos from the Spectacular UMass Amherst Graduate Ceremonies
11 May 2012 | 4:49 pmThe day could not have been more perfect with the sun shining, flowering trees blooming, and with gentle breezes.Families and friends traveled from across the globe to celebrate with those who received the PhDs and Masters degrees at the Mullins Center at UMass Amherst today. I very much enjoyed hearing our Chancellor's wonderful speech as well as the speech of the honorary degree recipient -- Mark E. Russell of Raytheon who spoke of persistence in one's endeavors and in doing great, sustained work so that you earn trust. I also very much appreciated him highlighting the…
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OR at Work
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What does it take to win a Super Bowl?
25 Apr 2012 | 1:48 pmThe scene: April 16th, Regency Hyatt Grand Ballroom in Huntington Beach, California. INFORMS President Terry Harrison walks towards the podium on the stage and says: “And now the moment of truth. Srinivas, may I have the judges’ decision please? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage to receive the first place 2012 Franz Edelman Award for outstanding achievement in Operations Research, the team representing……..TNT Express". At table 23 there is excitement and cheers. We did it! We won the Franz Edelman Award 2012! Winning the Franz Edelman award really is… -
On Eggs and Baskets
11 Mar 2012 | 10:24 amReading the papers the last couple of weeks, the reported rise of investments in both the chemical and the oil & gas industry caught my attention. The top 20 European chemical companies had doubled their investments from 1.5% of total revenue in 2008 to more than 3.1% in 2011, which is about €5 billon. The oil & gas industry also displays an increase of investments driven by the race for new production wells. Petrobras is investing a stunning $225 billion in exploration of new oil fields over the period 2011-2015, making it one of the world’s biggest corporate investment… -
A Billion in Need
5 Feb 2012 | 1:31 pmA red cup makes the difference between life and starvation for one billion people every day. One of every seven people on earth suffers from chronic hunger, every 10 seconds a child dies of hunger. These are horrifying facts, which become even worse when we realize that there is enough food and technology available to feed everybody. Last November I was in Rome, at the head office of the World Food Program (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. My visit coincided with the 50th anniversary celebration of WFP. I listened to… -
Losing weight fact based
4 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amMade any New Year resolutions this year? What’s your #1 on the list? I bet it is losing weight. In the Netherlands it is the number one resolution for 2012 and I expect in many other countries as well. Research from ING Banking & Insurance indicates that about 80% of the Dutch have made New Year resolutions this year. By equating the fulfillment of a resolution to an economic value ING was even able to calculate that on average the Dutch would give €450 to keep their resolution, resulting in a total economic value of €4.5 billion in the Netherlands alone. Given the economic crisis… -
Optimizing the Human Resource Supply Chain
30 Dec 2011 | 1:34 pmReading the various outlooks for the coming year, I came across the Manpower Employment Outlook for 2012. Interesting statement from the report is that although employers are more inclined to hire new personnel there continues to be uncertainty about the market, so they are reluctant to make the investment in a permanent hire. At the same time employers also have trouble filling vacancies for specialist jobs like technicians, sales people, skilled trade workers and engineers, as indicated by another report from the same agency. This makes balancing the demand and supply of human resources a…
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The Operations Blog
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How To Manage Technical Support Tickets Like A Rock Star
15 May 2012 | 5:42 amThe secret to managing technical support or production support cases/tickets like a Rock Star is to think beyond just support. Here’s what I mean… If you are leading a technical, production support department, only focusing on problems, post “go live” is reactive and does not paint the entire customer experience picture. Instead, you should gain visibility into all product issues and all tickets, including those found during testing or found during projects. You should understand the volume and causes, and then identify trends across ticket sources. This allows you to move… -
Lack Of Accountability – A Credibility Killer
8 May 2012 | 5:13 amIn my opinion, being accountable is one of the most positive personality and leadership traits. When important things need to get done, you and/or your team state with confidence, “I own that. We will review what needs to get done and provide an update next week. We will achieve the end of month target.” When things don’t go as planned, you and/or your team state, “My bad. This should have been done by X date, but I missed that mark. I apologize and would like to discuss an alternative date. I assure you that we’ll meet the adjusted time line.” When a direct report misses a date… -
Show Them The Way – It’s Not Just The SLA
4 May 2012 | 5:17 amIt’s not all about the SLAs….. When we consider options to improve the customer experience, discussions often lead to complex process improvements or expensive tool enhancements, but there is something we can all do that is relatively easy and almost free – keep our customers well informed during the problem solving progress. There are three major components to the act of keeping a customer well informed: Acknowledge that work has begun on their problem Share the problem solving activities Set and follow through on time frame expectations Based on feedback I have received in customer… -
How Do You Know When To Pick Your Battles?
8 Apr 2012 | 12:03 pmLately, I have found myself uttering the phrases “we need to pick our battles” often followed by “there are bigger fish to fry” at least once per week- enough to notice it and write a blog post about it. When running a complex business operation, there will always be problems to solve and coworkers that you disagree with, but if you take action on every problem and confront every disagreement, you will actually lessen not increase progress. Strategically, picking your battles will increase your leadership effectiveness. How do you know which battles to fight? Ask yourself this set of… -
Experience The Pain To Drive Organizational Gain
17 Mar 2012 | 7:59 amI recently read the Harvard Business Review article, “Tipping Point Leadership”, which talked about Police Chief Bill Bratton, and how he transformed New York from the city with the highest crime rate to the city with the lowest crime rate through a series of very effective changes. Bratton used tipping point leadership techniques to make this happen, which included aligning resources with the most important changes, silencing naysayers and mobilizing strategic and respected players in the change activities. However, the technique that stood out the most to me was this: “To make a…
