Decisions, Operations and Technology Management

The Decisions, Operations and Technology Management (DOTM) area seeks to combine the process view of operations with analytical approaches in conducting research in the service and manufacturing sectors. Our Ph.D. students master the art and science of modeling, data analysis, quantitative methods and effective interpersonal communication.

From the DOTM Ph.D. Liaison

"As the faculty liaison for the Decisions, Operations & Technology Management area, I warmly welcome you. Our PhD program and faculty are internationally recognized as leaders in operations management, technology management, and decision sciences. Students receive rigorous training in business analytics and OM methodologies, with many graduates attaining faculty positions in top business schools. The DOTM faculty, students, and alumni form a strong network in both academia and industry. If you are interested in earning a doctoral degree in UCLA’s intellectually stimulating environment, within the diverse, thriving city of Los Angeles, please contact us about applying today."

Velibor Mišić, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management

Explore the Program

Milestone Publications

Jobshop-like Queueing Systems
James R. Jackson
Management Science

Results shown in the seminal 1963 paper “Jobshop-like Queueing Systems” led to the development of the eponymous “Jackson queuing networks”. Later, Leonid Kleinrock, widely recognized as an important pioneer of the Internet, once referred to Jackson as “the father of the Internet” for his work on queueing systems. In December 2004, Management Science republished his 1963 paper (with commentary) as one of the 10 most influential works in that journal’s first 50 years. Professor Jackson passed away on March 20, 2011.

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Back to Bentham? Explorations of experienced utility
D. Kahneman, P.P. Wakker and R. Sarin
Quarterly Journal of Economics

In 1997, Ramsey-medal awarded Rakesh Sarin co-authored with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman to make the distinction between total utility, which social planners should seek to maximize, and remembered utility, which people use to make future decisions.

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Advance Booking Discount Programs Under Retail Competition
Kevin McCardle, Kumar Rajaram, and Christopher Tang
Management Science

In “Advance Booking Discount Programs Under Retail Competition”, Kevin McCardle, Kumar Rajaram, and Christopher Tang modeled a situation in which two retailers considered launching an Advance Booking Discount (ABD) program, wherein customers are enticed to precommit their orders at a discount price prior to the regular selling season – but these precommitted orders are filled during the selling season. While the ABD program enables retailers to lock in a portion of the customer demand and use this information to develop more accurate forecasts and supply plans, the ABD price reduces profit margin. McCardle, Rajaram and Tang analyzed the four possible scenarios wherein each of the two firms offered an ABD program or not, and established conditions under which the unique equilibrium called for launching the ABD program at both retailers. McCardle, Rajaram and Tang’s research was featured in Management Science.

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Competition and Structure in Serial Supply Chains with Deterministic Demand
Uday Karmarkar
Management Science

In “Competition and Structure in Serial Supply Chains with Deterministic Demand,” Uday Karmarkar found that supply chains often consist of several tiers, each with different numbers of competing firms. Karmakar examined the impact of fixed and variable costs on the structure and competitiveness of supply chains with a serial structure and price-sensitive linear deterministic demand. Karmakar derived expressions for prices and production quantities as functions of the number of entrants at each tier of a multitier chain, and characterized viability and stability of supply-chain structures and show. Lastly, Karmakar examined the effects of vertical integration in the two-tier case. Karmakar’s findings were published in Management Science.

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Lagrangean Relaxation for Integer Programming
A.M. Geoffrion
Mathematical Programming Studies

Art Geoffrion, who received the prestigious 2013 INFORMS President’s award, gives a systematic development of a simple bounding construct as a means to exploit the special structure of an optimization problem over integers. This is a classic in the theory of integer programming and has received about 1500 citations (Google Scholar).

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Zara Uses Operations Research To Reengineer Its Global Distribution Process
F. Caro, J. Gallien, M. Díaz, J. García, J. M. Corredoira, M. Montes, J. A. Ramos, and J. Correa
Interfaces

This 2010 paper was a finalist for the prestigious Franz Edelman Award, which attests to the contributions of operations research and analytics in both the profit and non-profit sectors. The model proposed in this paper helped Zara, the leading fast-fashion apparel retailer, reengineer its distribution process, resulting in a 3-4% increase in sales and an additional $353 million profit in 2008.

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Alumni Success

Manel Baucells (’99)

Dissertation: Essays in Cooperative Game Theory
First academic placement: University of Navarra, Spain

Manel Baucells was mentored at UCLA Anderson by 2012 Nobel Prize winner Lloyd Shapley, Steven Lippman and Rakesh Sarin. He co-authored the popular book Engineering Happiness with Professor Sarin. He has published widely in academic journals and has articles forthcoming in Management Science, Operations Research and Decision Analysis.

Soo-Haeng Cho (’08)

Associate Professor of Operations Management, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business

Dissertation: Asymmetric Optimal Policies in Multi-Dimensional Operational Decisions
First academic placement: Carnegie Mellon University

As the second prize winner for the 2007 MSOM Best Student Paper Competition, Soo-Haeng Cho researches supply chain management, global operations strategy, health care operations and innovation management. Among his most recent publications is "Contracting for On-Time Delivery in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Supply Chain," forthcoming in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

Morvarid Rahmani (’13)

Assistant Professor of Operations Management, The Scheller College of Business, Georgia Tech

Dissertation: The Dynamics of Collaboration in Knowledge-Based Work Processes

In addition to earning her Ph.D. at UCLA Anderson, Morvarid Rahmani also received three masters degrees: one for Industrial Engineering in 2008, another for Electrical Engineering in 2009, and the last in Economics in 2010. As an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Scheller College of Business, Rahmani’s research focuses on the study of the dynamics of collaboration in knowledge-based work processes such as new product or service development, management and IT consulting, technical projects, and education. Her research was a finalist in the MSOM Best Student Paper Competition in 2011.

Sandeep Rath (’16)

Assistant Professor of Operations, UNC Chapel Hill

Dissertation: Resource Planning Models for Healthcare Organizations

Sandeep Rath designs practical and implementable solutions that bring operational and clinical data together to aid hospital managers in their resource planning decisions. His research models are used by the Veterans Health Administration and the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center and have led to efficiencies saving millions of dollars annually. Rath's article "Planning for HIV Screening, Testing, and Care at the Veterans Health Administration" was published in Operations Research.

Ph.D. Program