The Impact of Supply Chains on Firm-Level Productivity

Authors: Juan Serpa and Harish S. Krishnan

Publication: Management Science, Vol. 64, No. 2, February 2018

Abstract:

Firms in a vertical relationship are likely to affect each other’s productivity. Exactly how does productivity spill over across this type of relationship (i.e., through which mechanisms)? Additionally, how does the relative importance of these mechanisms depend on the structure of the supply chain?

To answer these questions, we decompose the channels of upstream productivity spillovers—from customers to suppliers—by developing a structural econometric model on a sample of approximately 22,500 supply chain dyads.

We find that the “endogenous channel” (i.e., the effect of the customer’s own productivity on the supplier’s productivity) is by far the most important source of spillovers. This is especially true if (i) the supplier has a concentrated customer base, (ii) the supplier and the customer have similar operational characteristics, and (iii) the relationship has medium maturity.

In the converse scenarios, we find, it is more important to have a partner with a portfolio of favorable “contextual” characteristics (high inventory turnover, financial liquidity, and asset turnover) than to have a productive partner.

Read full article: Management Science

Saibal Ray on the potential benefits and costs if Amazon chooses Montreal

As Amazon hunts for a location for its second North American headquarters, Canada’s major cities are building their cases.

In a short interview with the McGill Media team, Desautels Professor Saibal Ray talks about the benefits that a Montreal Amazon office would bring in terms of jobs and indirect benefits to the city’s academic and research sectors.

Desautels’ Juan Serpa included on Poets & Quants’s top 40 Undergrad profs list

Poets & Quants has released its inaugural 2017 Top Undergraduate Business Professors list, and on it is Desautels’ own Juan Camilo Serpa, Assistant Professor of Operations Management.

Desautels professor on cultural sensitivity and western managers working in China

A piece at CNBM.net.cn quotes Desautels Professor Saibal Ray on how foreign workers in China can work smoothly with their Chinese counterparts. 

Integrated fleet mix and routing decision for hazmat transportation: A developing country perspective

Authors: Anand Kumar, Debjit Roy, Vedat Verter and Dheeraj Sharma

Publication: European Journal of Operational Research, Vol 264, No. 1, January 2018

Abstract:

Managing Patient Admissions in a Neurology Ward

Authors: Saied Samiedaluie, Beste Kucukyazici, Vedat Verter, Dan Zhang

Publication: Operations Journal

Abstract:

As Lush expands, pressure on producers mounts

According to the Globe and Mail, times are good for UK-based bath-bomb producer Lush. Right now, all of its North American stores are supplied from two Canadian production centres, but as business picks up in the southern US, the company is looking at opening a US factory to supply that market; since Lush is all about sustainable, preservative-free products, it needs a production facility to be near a given area’s retailers.

2016-17 Desautels Teaching Awards

Congratulations to Professor Juan Serpa and Professor Sujata Madan who have been selected as the recipients of the 2016-17 Desautels Faculty Teaching Award for Undergraduate and Graduate teaching, respectively. 

Juan Serpa awarded 2017 FRQSC New Academics Grant

Juan Serpa, Assistant Professor in Operations Management was recently awarded a 2017 FRQSC New Academics Grant for his project "Estimation de la relation entre la qualité du produit et la proximité de la chaîne d'approvisement".

Quality at the Source or at the End? Managing Supplier Quality Under Information Asymmetry

Authors: Mohammad E. Nikoofal, Mehmet Gümüş

Publication: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Restructuring the resident training system for improving the equity of access to primary care

Authors: Anna Graber-Naidich, Michael W. Cartera, Vedat Verter

Publication: European Journal of Operational Research, Volume 258, Issue 3, 1 May 2017, Pages 1143–1155

Abstract: 

Evaluating the role of simulation in healthcare innovation: recommendations of the Simnovate Medical Technologies Domain Group

Authors: Madani, A., Gallix, B., Pugh, C.M.,  Azagury, D., Bradley, P., Fowler, D., Hannaford, B., Macdonald, S

Binary decision rules for multistage adaptive mixed-integer optimization

Authors: Dimitris Bertsimas and Angelos Georghiou 

Publication: Mathematical Programming, Vol. 167, No. 2, 2018, pp. 395-433

Abstract: 

Supply-chain tests and solutions for growing Lush handmade cosmetics

Lush’s North American factories in Vancouver and Etobicoke are putting out bath bombs at a frenetic pace to keep up with the demands of the rapidly-growing company — and the extremely short turnaround that a preservative-free product line entails. But as the company and the wider organic and Fairtrade industries grow, they put increased strain on suppliers and growers.

Facility Location and Capacity Acquisition under Carbon Tax and Emissions Limits: To Centralize or To Decentralize?

Authors: Turken, N.,  Carrillo, J., Verter, V.

Publication: International Journal of Production Economics

Abstract: