When Perfect Data Meet Imperfect Thinking: A Delivery Optimization Story

In honor of Gene Woolsey, long-time contributor to Interfaces, I have prepared a “Fifth Column”-style article. This article recalls the many nontechnical hurdles that had to be overcome before developing a decision support model to improve delivery schedules for a small manufacturer. It discusses the importance of organization, process, biases, and key performance indicators on model implementation and acceptance. It makes actionable recommendations on the proper organizational and analytical frameworks from which to view a problem to solve it effectively.

History: This paper was refereed.