Mind the gap between research and practice in operations management

Abstract

The mission of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) is to serve those who solve complex and critical problems of the world. Notably, the research–practice gap in Operations Management (OM) marginalizes the value and relevance of the IISE. To maintain and enhance the impact of the IISE, we identify major bottlenecks that limit the industrial installation of OM research outcomes. Ranked by the relative importance, the three bottlenecks are verifying the performance improvement, building trust with practitioners, and balancing model accuracy and simplicity, respectively, in the stages of value verification, implementation and development. We propose potential research opportunities and illustrate the challenges and opportunities using real case studies from three Fortune Global 500 companies. In particular, we emphasize the role of data-driven decision methods in dealing with the three bottlenecks.

Keywords:

• Operations management
• research–practice gap
• real-case studies
• data-driven

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Professor Hong Huo, Editor-in-Chief Yu Ding and two anonymous referees for their constructive suggestions that have significantly improved this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 71991462) and (Grant 71822105).

Notes on contributors

Xiaohong Chen

Dr. Xiaohong Chen obtained her bachelor’s degree from Central South University of Technology in 1983 and PhD degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1999. She joined the Hunan University of Technology and Business (HUTB) as the President in 2014, now serves as the party secretary of the HUTB Committee. She is also an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, a member of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, a convenor of the Management Science and Engineering Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, the deputy director of Management Commission of Science and Technology Committee of Ministry of Education, the director of national basic science center for Resource and Environmental Management Theory and Application in Digital Economy Era. Her research interests include decision theory and decision support systems, big data analysis and intelligent management, SME financing, resource-conserving and environment-friendly society and ecological civilization.

Tianhu Deng

Dr. Tianhu Deng obtained his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 2008 and PhD degree from University of California, Berkeley in 2013. He joined the department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University as an assistant professor in 2013, and was promoted to associated professor in 2016. His research interests include supply chain management and production scheduling.

Zuo-Jun Max Shen

Dr. Zuo-Jun Max Shen is a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He joined The University of Hong Kong in 2021 as the Vice President of Research. Max is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the President of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), and a past President of the Society of Locational Analysis of INFORMS. His primary research interests are in the general area of integrated supply chain design and management, and data driven decision making.

Yi Yu

Yi Yu obtained her bachelor’s degree from Nankai University in 2019. Now she is a PhD candidate in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tsinghua University. Her research interests include supply chain flexibility and mechanism design.