Operations Analytics and Optimization Consultancy

OMIS 4000
Closed
Schulich School of Business
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Associate Professor
(1)
3
Timeline
  • September 4, 2019
    Experience start
  • October 1, 2019
    Project Scope Meeting
  • October 29, 2019
    Midway Check-In
  • December 4, 2019
    Experience end
Experience
1/1 project matches
Dates set by experience
Preferred companies
Anywhere
Any company type
Any industries

Experience scope

Categories
Data analysis Operations Project management
Skills
operations research data optimization presentation skills operations management simulation
Learner goals and capabilities

Is your organization facing an operational challenge? In this project, upper year Schulich students will address a problem of your choosing, and perform a quantitative analysis to develop actionable recommendations that will improve efficiency and service quality. The focus is on a prescriptive approach; using mathematical and computational techniques to model and gain insight on processes/situations that have not yet arisen.

Learners

Learners
Undergraduate
Any level
40 learners
Project
15 hours per learner
Learners self-assign
Teams of 5
Expected outcomes and deliverables

The final project deliverables include:

  • A 10-page business report (all mathematical/computational details are provided in an appendix).
  • A 15-minute presentation (10-minute summary and 5-minute Q&A), which industry partners can attend in person or via Skype.
Project timeline
  • September 4, 2019
    Experience start
  • October 1, 2019
    Project Scope Meeting
  • October 29, 2019
    Midway Check-In
  • December 4, 2019
    Experience end

Project Examples

Requirements

Starting this September, teams of 4-5 student-consultants from the Schulich School of Business will spend 60 hours per team working to improve your operational processes and service delivery.

Through applying quantitative research methodologies, mathematical concepts, and computational tools, students will identify areas where your processes can be improved or your operations streamlined.

Using Microsoft Excel and the Python programming language, they will analyze your organizational data and provide managerial insight on how you can increase productivity, improve efficiency, lower costs, and deliver a consistently better quality product or service.

Past Projects include:

  • A cost comparison between current staffing practices and several new policies for The 10 Spot, a franchise of beauty bars in Toronto.
  • A systematic scheduling solution that fairly assigns students to academic cohorts while ensuring institutional requirements are upheld.
  • An analysis of potential rural bus routes and stop locations for the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and surrounding counties.

Students will use various tools and processes including, but not limited to:

  • Mathematical programming (e.g., linear, nonlinear and stochastic optimization, goal programming).
  • Computer simulations (monte carlo and discrete-event).

Project proposals must answer the following questions to be considered for inclusion in this course:

  1. What problems/opportunities would you like student teams to address through this project? Please be specific.
  2. What are the benefits of this project to your organization/customers? Please describe the desired recommendations.
  3. What organizational data set(s) will you providing to student teams? Please describe the format and the volume.

Possible areas of focus for this project include, but are not limited to:

  • Transportation and Routing
  • Inventory Management
  • Aggregate Planning
  • Asset Allocation and Insurance
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Employee Scheduling
  • Targeted Advertising
  • Energy Management
  • Risk Management
  • Process Analysis
  • Revenue Management
  • Policy Evaluation
  • Optimal Stopping
  • Appointment Scheduling
  • Financial Management
  • Inventory Modeling
  • Production Planning

Additional company criteria

Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:

Attend final student presentations in person or virtually.

Be available for a quick phone call with the professor to initiate your relationship and confirm your scope is an appropriate fit for the course.

Be available for 1-3 brief meetings with the students during the semester to review their progress and provide feedback and direction.

Provide an overview of the area/problem you want students to focus on over the course of the assignment to kick off the project.

Provide a detailed data set or in-depth case analysis for the students to work with prior to the start of the fall semester (i.e., September 4, 2019)

Provide a dedicated contact who is available to answer student questions throughout the project.

Provide the instructor with your feedback on the final reports and presentations by December 13th.