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Manufacturing and service operations management
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Manufacturing and service operations management

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

双月刊

1523-4614

Manufacturing and service operations management/Journal Manufacturing and service operations managementEI
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    Operations Management Research: Relevance and Impact

    Swaminathan, Jayashankar M.
    1-7页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: A fundamental issue faced by operations management researcher relates to striking the right balance between rigor and relevance in their work. Another important aspect of operations management research relates to influencing and positively impacting businesses and society at large. We constantly struggle to achieve these objectives. Methodology/results: This MSOM Fellow forum article discusses key opportunities for increasing the relevance and impact of Operations Management research. In particular, it highlights two major areas: technology enabled operations and society and operations where unique opportunities exist for the field to make lasting contributions to business and society. Managerial implications: It concludes with a menu of approaches to enhance practical impact of our research.
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    OM Forum-Asset-Level Perspectives on the Clean Energy Transition

    Secomandi, Nicola
    8-20页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition : The clean energy transition is an important component of the net zero transformation, which aims at averting potentially disastrous climate change related to excessive global warming by practically eliminating new global greenhouse gas emissions within 2050. The resulting move toward decarbonized energy systems is projected to encompass massive investments in assets that employ technologies with low environmental impact, some of which are innovative or yet unproven or even undeveloped, an area known as CleanTech. The typical analyses that are informing the dialogue on this process in practice provide insights into decarbonization paths at the technology level. In contrast, managers need to make decisions about assets. Methodology/results : Taking an asset-level view of the clean energy transition that complements its technology outlook, this essay provides a concise entry point into this topic based on both the practitioner literature and personal reflections, highlighting CleanTech innovations and related operational considerations in carbon capture, use, and storage; sustainable fuels; hydrogen; electricity; and concomitant government support activities. Managerial implications : Further, this work advocates for potential CleanTech research or teaching pursuits, especially ones aimed at directly supporting managerial decision making, for which it provides an example from the literature.
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    An Integrated Approach to Improving Itinerary Completion in Coordinated Care Networks

    Liu, YiqiuShi, PengyiHelm, Jonathan E.Oyen, Mark P. Van...
    21-39页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: Coordinated care network (CCN) is a burgeoning paradigm where patients' diagnosis and treatment plans are developed based on collaboration between multiple, colocated medical specialties to holistically address patients' health needs. A primary performance metric for CCNs is how quickly patients can complete their itinerary of appointments at multiple medical services in the network. Rapid completion is critical to care delivery but also presents a major operational challenge. Because information about a patient's condition and treatment options evolves over the course of the itinerary, care paths are not known a priori. Thus, appointments (except for the first one) cannot be reserved in advance, which may result in significant delays if capacity is not allocated properly. Methodology/results: We study capacity allocation for the patient's first (root) appointment as the primary operational lever to achieve rapid itinerary completion in CCNs. We develop a novel queueing-based analytical framework to optimize this root appointment allocation, maximizing the proportion of patients completing care by prespecified deadlines. Our framework accounts for the complex interactions among all patients in the network through the blocking process, which contrasts with conventional siloed planning. We provide an exact characterization of the itinerary time and develop a meanfield approximation with convergence guarantees that permits tractable solutions for large-scale network problems. In a simulation case study of Mayo Clinic, our solution improves on-time completion from 60% under the current plan to more than 93%. Managerial implications: We demonstrate that root appointment allocation is a multifaceted problem and that ignoring any of those facets can lead to poor performance. Simultaneously accounting for all of these complexities makes manual template design or traditional optimization methods inadequate, highlighting the significance of our integrated approach.
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    Telehealth in Acute Care: Pay Parity and Patient Access

    Cakici, Ozden EnginMills, Alex F.
    40-58页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: In response to the increased use of telehealth to replace traditional office visits with a physician, several U.S. states have recently adopted telehealth pay-parity policies. Such policies state that payers must reimburse healthcare providers for telehealth services at the same rate that would apply if those services had been provided in a traditional office setting. But health policy researchers have pointed out that telehealth may not be as effective as a traditional office visit for acute care. Specifically, telehealth is associated with increased probability of a subsequent office visit (a "duplicate visit"). We examine whether telehealth pay-parity policies are effective at improving access to acute care, and under what conditions. Methodology/results: We use a three-stage gametheoretic model to study the impact of telehealth pay parity. In the first stage, the payer sets a reimbursement policy for telehealth visits. In the second stage, a healthcare provider commits a portion of its capacity to telehealth, and in the third stage, patients arrive and choose between telehealth and office visits according to an equilibrium queueing network. We find structural results for the equilibria and characterize the equilibria in closed-form. When the chance of a duplicate visit is moderate (neither too high nor too low), pay parity leads providers to allocate too much capacity to telehealth, resulting in lower overall patient access than could be otherwise achieved. We characterize a reimbursement level that avoids this misalignment and maximizes patient access, which we show is less than parity. Managerial implications: The literature shows that patients receiving acute care via telehealth may be more likely to require a duplicate, in-person visit to resolve their health concern. In the fee-for-service environment that is common in the United States for acute care, duplicate visits resulting from telehealth lead to an incentive alignment problem because they generate extra work and provider revenue, without any corresponding increase in patient access. Legislating pay parity for telehealth can lead to providers committing more capacity to telehealth, which may not always be good. However, there is good news in that all parties (payers, providers, and patients) would be better off if duplicate visits could be decreased. Policy makers should understand these implications before enacting policies that affect reimbursements for telehealth.
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    Multichannel Healthcare: Impact of Asynchronous Telemedicine Adoption on Patient Flow

    Tushe, SokolSingh, DiwasDing, HaoYeung, Howa...
    59-74页
    查看更多>>摘要：physicians diagnose patients and prescribe treatment in-person or through asynchronous telemedicine (AT), a widely adopted yet relatively under-explored form of telemedicine. In collaboration with physicians at the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA), we examine the impact of introducing an AT channel on the existing in-person channel and on overall system performance. Methodology/results: VHA implemented AT at select clinics in the state of Georgia in 2012. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the introduction of the AT channel led to a sorting process whereby more complex patients were seen in the in-person channel. AT implementation led to a 20% increase in recommended visit time and an 8.5% increase in required clinical resources for in-person consultations. In addition, the adoption of AT resulted in higher throughput-more patients seen by the specialists per month across both channels. Using a fixed-effects model we find a reduction in average wait time for in-person referrals (37.5%), and for the most common medically necessary procedure (43%) despite an increase in the total number of consultations at the specialist clinic. We attribute the improved efficiency to early patient triage, better match between patient needs and treatment modality, and reduction of setup and switching costs in physicians' workflow. Managerial implications: This paper contributes to our understanding of a rapidly expanding form of healthcare delivery: multichannel healthcare with in-person and AT channels. Our results suggest that healthcare managers and physicians can adopt AT to improve overall system efficiency. At the same time, they should take into account the additional impact of AT on the in-person channel when making capacity decisions and developing guidance on patient referrals.
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    Emergency Care Efficiency vs. Quality: Uncovering Hidden Consequences of Fast-Track Routing Decisions

    Hao, ShuaiSun, ZhankunXu, Yuqian
    75-93页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: This work aims to examine the role of emergency department (ED) operational status related to congestion in fast-track (FT) routing decisions and the subsequent effects on patient outcomes. Methodology/results: In this paper, we utilize a two-year data set from two hospital EDs in Alberta, Canada, and adopt an instrumental variable approach to examine the effects of FT routing decisions on patient outcomes. Based on the empirical findings, we utilize a data-calibrated simulation to compare the performance of different routing policies. First, our study reveals that FT routing decisions are not purely clinically driven, and ED operational status is also associated with FT routing decisions. Second, being routed to FT can improve ED efficiency by reducing the average length of stay and left without being seen rates. However, this efficiency improvement comes at the cost of potential quality decline. In particular, being routed to the FT leads to an 8.2% increase in the 48-hour revisit rate for the high-complexity group and a 2.3% increase for the medium-complexity group. Third, we delve into the mechanisms behind observed patient outcomes and find that physicians in the FT area may prioritize expediting patient flow by simplifying patient diagnosis and treatment procedures. Consequently, the quality of care may be compromised for high- and medium-complexity patients. Finally, our simulation findings highlight the importance of selecting the "right" patients to be routed to the FT unit. To this end, the complexity-based classification method and dynamic routing policies emerge as promising avenues. Managerial implications: Our findings call for immediate attention from healthcare practitioners to carefully balance the trade-off between emergency care efficiency and quality, emphasizing the necessity of selecting the right patients for routing.
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    Green Disposable Packaging and Communication: The Implications of Bring-Your-Own-Container

    Peng, YunlongGao, FeiChen, Jian
    94-113页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: A growing number of firms are encouraging consumers to participate in "bring-your-own-container" (BYOC) behavior in which consumers bring their own reusable packaging to purchase and consume products, thus reducing single-use packaging waste. In this paper, we study the environmental implications of a firm's BYOC implementation when considering its disposable packaging choice and communication strategy. Methodology/results: We build a stylized model to study a firm's joint decisions on BYOC, disposable packaging choice, and communication and their implications on the environment. Our main results follow. First, allowing BYOC reduces the firm's incentive to make fraudulent green claims about its disposable product packaging; however, BYOC implementation may harm the overall environment while improving the firm's profit, thereby creating a new form of greenwashing. Second, the adoption of third-party certification for green disposable packaging is an effective remedy to mitigate the negative environmental impact of BYOC. In addition, the environmental implications of adopting third-party certification (either voluntarily or because of government mandates) depend on the relationship between the environmental qualities of green disposable packaging and reusable packaging. Whereas it always benefits the environment when the firm's green disposable packaging has better environmental performance, adopting certification may negatively impact the environment if consumers' reusable packaging is greener. Furthermore, we find numerically that offering a price discount for BYOC may encourage the firm to adopt certification because of increased profitability, thereby leading to the aforementioned environmental implications. Managerial implications: We offer operational insights on how firms should make joint decisions on BYOC, disposable packaging choice, and communication. We also generate insights on how governments should regulate firms' green claims when firms start to allow BYOC.
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    Interplay Between Servicizing and Remanufacturing: Economic and Environmental Implications

    Sun, XichenRajapakshe, TharangaOliva, Rogelio
    114-126页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: To investigate the interplay between servicizing and remanufacturing, two widely used strategies in the circular economy, and its impact on firms' economic and environmental performance, we consider a profit-maximizing manufacturer who explores the possibility of jointly adopting the two strategies. Methodology and results: We develop optimization models that capture the main attributes for servicizing (pay-per-use, demand pooling) and remanufacturing (lower production costs, higher operating costs). We show that the presence of remanufacturing always makes servicizing less attractive to adopt, and having servicizing may discourage the adoption of remanufacturing if the remanufacturing cost reduction effect is not sufficiently large. The joint adoption of servicizing and remanufacturing is preferred when the remanufacturing cost is neither too high nor too low and the range of the remanufacturing cost that favors the joint adoption is further moderated by the firm's pooling level and the operating cost of remanufactured products. Lastly, we find that when the firm adopts servicizing in the presence of remanufacturing with relatively high remanufacturing costs, it can reduce the number of remanufactured products with low environmental impact in the market and, thus, harm the environment, resulting in a misalignment between economic and environmental goals. Managerial implications: Our findings suggest that managers considering jointly adopting servicizing and remanufacturing must balance their competition on the low-usage end of the market with the potential complementarity due to remanufacturing cost reduction. Further, by showing the win-win conditions under which the joint adoption of servicizing and remanufacturing improves firms' economic and environmental performance, we demonstrate that there are no one-size-fits-all circular economy strategies and call for caution when promoting these strategies across industries.
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    Recycling Standards, Green Inventions, and Spillover: Evidence from California's Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA)

    Dhanorkar, SuvratMuthulingam, Suresh
    127-146页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: The improper disposal of electronic and electrical goods at the end of their useful lives (i.e., e-waste) can have adverse effects on the environment and human health. The increased awareness of the negative consequences of e-waste has prompted many regulators to enact recycling standards that promote the proper disposal and recycling of e-waste. A large body of research has used analytical models to explore how recycling standards affect firms that make electronic and electrical goods. A key insight from this research is that e-waste recycling standards would induce firms to design products that have reduced environmental impact and are easier to recycle. In other words, e-waste recycling standards would enhance inventive activity at firms to better comply with regulatory requirements. But hardly any empirical work has validated the insights developed with analytical models. Methodology/results: We empirically examine whether California's Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) affects the inventive output (i.e., measured as patents) of firms that manufacture electronic and electrical goods. We leverage a quasi-experimental setup that arises when California enacted the EWRA and use multiple identification strategies to isolate the law's effect on the inventive output of firms. We disentangle two causal pathways, industry and headquarter location, by which EWRA affects manufacturers. We find that EWRA increased the environmentally focused inventive output (i.e., "green" patents) of affected firms in California by nearly 14% and by nearly 8% for firms in other states. Interestingly, we also observe spillover effects-EWRA increased other inventive output (i.e., patents other than green patents) of affected firms in California by nearly 41% and by nearly 24% for firms in other states. Managerial implications: Our study provides important insights for managers and policy makers by empirically quantifying the impact of recycling standards on environmentally focused inventions and by identifying spillover effects for other inventions.
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    Impact of Temporary Store Closures on Online Sales: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

    Gurlek, RagipSingh, Diwas K. C.Letizia, Paolo
    147-160页
    查看更多>>摘要：Problem definition: This paper examines the impact of retail store closures on omnichannel sales and consumer shopping behavior in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. To explain the likelihood of store closure, we develop a novel instrumental variable motivated by varying geopolitical responses across the United States to the pandemic. Methodology/results: Using data from a luxury fashion retailer, we find that when a store is closed, the volume of online orders originating from its location increases by 24%. Furthermore, when the retailer closes 10% of its stores, the omnichannel total sales (offline + online) decrease by 5.5%. Notably, our findings indicate that the online channel enables the retailer to recover 11% of offline sales that would have otherwise been lost because of store closures. We also show that compared with existing e-shoppers, new e-shoppers are more likely to order popular product models in an effort to mitigate the heightened mismatch risk associated with online transactions. For new e-shoppers, the likelihood of ordering a popular model stands at 70%, whereas it is 45% for existing online consumers. Additionally, the conservative behavior of favoring popular models reduces the likelihood of returns by new e-shoppers. Managerial implications: Even for luxury apparel, which is often associated with in-store purchases requiring "touch and feel" and customer tryout, the option to purchase online proves immensely valuable. The tendency of new e-shoppers to limit product mismatch risk by choosing popular products may create an opportunity for retailers to strategically target these inexperienced online customers with advertisements, product promotions, or virtual fitting rooms, all geared toward reducing online shopping risk of product mismatch.
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