Perishable Product Supply Chains in Health Care

I will be speaking at McGill University in the Management Science research seminar this Friday.

I am very much looking forward to being back at McGill, having been there only this past August at the terrific INTRIM Conference, which focused in integrated risk management in operations and global supply chains.

The title and abstract of my presentation are below.

Title: Perishable Product Supply Chains in Health Care: Models, Analysis, and Computations

Abstract: In this presentation, I will describe our recent research on perishable product supply chains ranging from pharmaceutical supply chains with branded products to medical nuclear supply chains and blood supply chains. I will discuss the generalized network frameworks under system-optimization as well as in the case of oligopolistic competition. Waste management and sustainability issues will also be highlighted.

The OM/MS group at McGill is fabulous and I will be hosted by Professor Vedat Verter and Mehmet Gumus.

Scenes from Montreal Including Bicycles

I am back from a wonderful conference at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where the weather was delightful until we were ready to board the puddle jumper airplane (where each passenger gets her own aisle and window seat). A red alert was issued because the sky had turned black and the grounds crew can't be out on the tarmac if there are lightning strikes within 5 miles.

Although we had boarded the Air Canada plane, our pilot let us take a vote (how civilized) as to whether we wanted to wait on the plane before the alert was lifted or to go back to the waiting area. Luckily, the pilot's vote had more clout (the vote was split and one passenger was neutral) so we marched back in, caught some dinner, and two hours after the scheduled departure time we were off and had a bumpless flight.

I had spoken to my husband earlier and there had been a hailstorm in Amherst with our yard almost white.

Montreal is an amazing city and I managed to get a good deal of walking in -- caught a parade on Saturday of "twins," with one duo dressed up as a bride in white and a bride in black, and with bagpipers and even bands of twins -- very festive and fun.

What impressed me, as well, was the number of bicyclists, even around 6:30AM, with nice bicycle lanes and bicycles to rent (a bit like Paris).

However, this past Sunday, a tunnel collapsed around 9:15 AM (the Ville-Marie) tunnel and 15 tons ended up on the ground with, amazingly, no injuries. There has been a lot of pres recently about the bad state of infrastructure in Montreal due to salting of the roads and bridges in the winter resulting in deterioration of the infrastructure and insufficient funds invested for maintenance and repair. I heard that this is rather "local" to Montreal, however, and having been to Toronto and Waterloo last April was impressed by the quality of the roads there.

The last photo above is of the red alert light at the Montreal airport outside of our gate.

Looking Forward to the Integrated Risk Management in Operations and Global Supply Chains Conference

Information about the Integrated Risk Management in Operations and Global Supply Chains (INTRIM) Conference that will take place at McGill University in Montreal, Canada is now online.

This conference has no parallel sessions so the audience hears all of the talks together, which is a plus, and there is ample time for discussion.

I am very much looking forward to this focused conference at which I will be presenting our latest paper, Medical Nuclear Supply Chain Design: A Tractable Network Model and Computational Approach, co-authored with the "other" Professor Nagurney.

Recently, we also co-authored an Op-Ed piece, Viewpoint: Passage of American Medical Isotope Production Act of 2011 will help ensure U.S. nuclear medicine supply chain, which focused on the vulnerability of our medical nuclear supply chains.

The Last Spring 2010 Lecture in Operations Research / Management Sciences

Today we were treated to a wonderful lecture by Professor Mehmet Gumus of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Professor Gumus concluded our Spring 2010 Speaker Series in Operations Research / Management Sciences
with a lecture on supply chains, information asymmetry, and agreements between a buyer and a reliable and a not reliable suppliers. He brought in such issues as visibility and insurance and considered uncertainty associated with the capacities of the suppliers. His results were very interesting and well-presented.

The lecture was a fitting conclusion to a wonderful Spring Speaker Series and to a wonderful set of talks that we hosted all year.

As the Faculty Advisor to the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, I thank all of our terrific guest speakers, and commend the chapter officers and members.

Next Tuesday, we will be recognizing our chapter officers as well as staff members who have been so helpful to our chapter's activities all year at a party at the Isenberg School at UMass Amherst.

Above are some photos taken during Professor Gumus' visit on a simply spectacular April day.