Inspired by Practice Conference

Among the most excellent rewards I have received from serving as president of INFORMS is my participation in and very hearty welcome to the 2010 INFORMS Practice Conference. I have attended more than 30 INFORMS annual conferences but the practice conference is still relatively new for me. The 2010 Practice Conference was an outstanding experience for me and I believe for all who are enthusiastic about operations research in action. In practically every session and at each event, I was reminded why I thought choosing this profession was such a good idea in the first place.

Here is what I liked about the 2010 Practice Conference:

1. It was a two-day celebration of operations research and a validation of the value of our work in a multitude of endeavors, environments and countries.

2. It was all about bright ideas, experience and impact. Everything I saw (admittedly a small fraction of the program) showed operations researchers doing things well, doing things better, making more money, serving more customers and serving them better.

3. The conference was an opportunity to meet new people including longtime INFORMS members, top corporate executives, young faculty and other practice conference newcomers. The poster sessions provided an ideal place to casually engage in O.R. talk with other conference participants.

The one event that was most exciting for me was the Edelman Awards Gala announcing the winner of the Franz Edelman Prize for the Practice of Operations Research. The winner was INDEVAL,Mexico’s Securities Depository and Settlement System. Using O.R., this company decreased liquidity requirements by $130 billion per day!

The joy and excitement of the winners spread like wildfire throughout the audience. The prizewinners’ reactions reminded each of us about the satisfaction we have known in our own work. We were reminded of the validation that comes with the recognition of our peers. We all warmed to the sense of camaraderie that comes from working together and great leadership.We were cheering for the persistence and commitment that the team showed. Operations research was at the core.

The keynotes were all outstanding, but a more unusual event, the executive forum panel, caught my attention.Chip White led the panel in a discussion of “Supply Chain and Logistics” where top executives discussed their views on trends as they related to their companies.

Not surprising, the executive panel inspired supply chain thoughts in my mind. A supply chain extended to its cosmic reaches has a remarkable number of moving parts, each working in coordination with the others, information flowing back and forth. I began thinking about the supply chain for my favorite on-line (oldfashioned, paper-based) bookseller. It all begins with a seed taking hold in the ground on the way to becoming a tree and an idea taking hold in someone’s mind on the way to becoming a book. Such a long
chain, such a wide network to yield a book: the seed, the idea, the 8th grade teacher who gave encouragement, the paper, the ink, the publisher, the editors, the compositors, the product planning, the marketing, the forecasting, the financiers and the lawyers, the advance, the on-line software, the customer relationship management, “if you liked “Pride and Prejudice,”we think you will like …,”
the order, the warehouse, the shipping company, the routing, the scheduling, the delivery to my doorstep, the royalties to the author, the processing of my payment, the recycling of the packaging.

Well, one thought led to another and I began to think about the supply chain that eventually led to our Edelman winner or indeed any of the great projects described during the conference. It all starts with someone who has a great idea for a product or a service and some student who is drawn to math and applying it to solve problems.Maybe an 8th grade math teacher is involved too. Then there are many years of study. Then there is learning about a system, reading the data and identifying the critical problems and decisions. There are efforts to convince an investor in a project of the value of an analytic operations research solution. Then there is data, and prototypes and tests. There are teams and meetings and discussions and perspectives. Not to mention IT to make it happen, and many people to believe the results and make them work.

In summary, being at the Practice Conference inspired me.