The center-of-gravity, Weber, and rectilinear minisum problems are common exemplars in single-facility (single-source) continuous location theory and the first of these is covered in many operations management (OM) textbooks. Extensions to multiple-facility (or multisource) continuous location problems are seldom covered in OM textbooks. I have…

In this paper, we describe a course project in which teams of undergraduate students propose and execute an end-to-end analytics project to solve a real-world problem. The project challenges students to implement machine learning, optimization, simulation, or a combination of these three techniques on real-world data that they collect. A…

How can students prepare for potential business disruptions? The approach shown in this paper uses optimization modeling with parametric sensitivity analysis and further broadens the search for insights with structural sensitivity analysis in a series of contextual exercises. The exercises prompt students to identify critical resources for…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and operations research (OR) have long been intertwined because of their synergistic relationship. Given the increasing popularity of AI and machine learning in particular, we face growing demand for educational offerings in this area from our students. This paper describes two courses that introduce machine learning…

College and university administrators must be able to process large amounts of financial information quickly and be able to communicate information about financial performance to governing boards. Financial ratio analysis provides a framework for administrators to identify financial and operational concerns as well as variances from institutional…

We present an exercise for teaching the transportation problem using a mix of spatial and randomly generated data. It illustrates the potential of using qualitative and quantitative data and is suitable for undergraduate or introductory business school courses on operations research (OR), logistics, and supply chain management. It poses two…

The simple vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a common topic of discussion in introductory operations research/management science courses. The VRP can be framed in a variety of ways, and it can be difficult to solve to optimality. For solution purposes, introductory textbooks demonstrate how Excel's Evolutionary Solver (ES) add-in produces a…

The Tangibles in Operations Strategy (TANGOS) exercise provides students with the direct experience of designing a firm's operations function. Specifically, students must engage in decision making with respect to the structural decision areas in a firm's operations strategy, by considering the firm's product strategy and span of control, process…

Accrediting organizations in higher education have shifted emphasis from indirect measures such as student course evaluations, focus-group interviews, and employer surveys to direct measurement of student performance using appropriate assessment instruments. In response, we developed a spreadsheet tool for reports and analysis of test assessments…

There is a significant amount of data available about students and their learning activities in many educational systems today. However, these datasets are frequently spread across several different digital services, making it challenging to use them strategically. In addition, there are no established standards for collecting, processing,…

Facility placement is of strategic importance to most organizations as a well-placed distribution center minimizes delivery costs and reduces fulfillment lead times, thus improving customer service levels. Because organizations value the location planning process, this teaching brief offers an exercise that analyzes the planning process using the…

It is often challenging to make decisions about how to teach planning within an undergraduate operations management module. This article defines and compares the two standard options available to instructors: (a) the traditional "technical" approach or (b) the "conceptual" or "conversational" approach. Through a…

This case study focuses on modeling and analyzing the practices concerning the staffing of the immigration agency at the Island of Tropical Paradise International Airport, which is responsible for processing arriving passengers into the country. Students are challenged to model the status quo of immigration employee scheduling and analyze various…

In US colleges, the scarcity of students from low-income families is a major concern. We present a novel way of boosting the percentage of qualified low-income students using constrained optimization (CO), an operations research technique. CO allows incorporation of both academic requirements and diversity goals in college admissions. The incoming…

The Traveling Salesman and Vehicle Routing Problems are integral parts of bachelor and master programs related to Operations Research/Management Science. This is due to their relevance in both practical applications and research. For students, it is essential to gain a deep understanding of the problems' inherent complexity. For this, several…