Open to: any PhD students, including students from UoL and other universities
Registration fee: free, including free coffee, tea and lunch (travel and accommodation not included)
Available places: 30
Application deadline: 31 March 2024
Dates: 17- 21 June 2024
Place: University of Liverpool, South Campus Teaching Hub, 140 Chatham Street, L7 7BA - Seminar Room 6
The OSCM PhD Summer School
Organised by the Management School's Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) Group and the Centre for Supply Chain Research (CSCR), the PhD Summer School provides a platform for postgraduate research students to learn different methodologies and how to apply them in the OSCM context.
The Summer School consists of several sessions delivered by expert faculty on the most relevant approaches to study OSCM, including logistics and transportation modelling, as well as tips on how to design impactful research and develop your career as an OSCM researcher.
This year's PhD Summer School includes a session on 'The Role of Operations Management in Shaping Artificial Intelligence' delivered by esteemed Professor Tinglong Dai from Johns Hopkins University.
Our Summer School is an ideal opportunity for any PhD students (from OSCM fields and non-OSCM fields) interested in learning OSCM-related research methodologies.
During the OSCM PhD Summer School you also have the opportunity to present your research as part of a 3-minute research presentation competition, seek advice from relevant faculty members and network with other students and academics to explore future research collaborations.
Apply and enter our 3-minute research presentation competition
During our 3-minute research presentation competition, doctoral students will present their work in front of experienced OSCM researchers. The best presentations will receive a winner certificate during the last session of the PhD Summer School.
If you are currently a PhD student and would like to attend PhD Summer School on OSCM, please submit the following documents by 31 March 2024 (a Google account is needed for application submission):
- A cover letter explaining your motivation to attend the PhD Summer School on OSCM
- An up-to-date CV
- A support letter from your PhD supervisor
- An abstract (within 300 words) about the research you wish to present at the Summer School.
You will be notified the outcome of your application by 14 April 2024.
Programme
The PhD Summer School on OSCM features 10 sessions distributed across 5 days, from 17-21 June 2024. You are required to attend at least eight of the 10 sessions in order to receive an attendance certificate.
Free coffee, tea, and lunch will be provided on each day, and attendees ar also invited to attend a free welcome dinner on Tuesday 18 June 2024.
DAY 1 - Monday 17 June 2024
| Time | Speaker | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-12:00 | All |
Introduction Session Registration, opening, programme introduction, speaker introduction, student introduction, and campus tour. |
| 12:00-14:00 |
LUNCH BREAK (free coffee, tea and lunch provided) |
|
| 14:00-17:00 |
Researching Complex Phenomena Using Case Studies Case studies can provide the means for researchers to explore and analyse knotty, multi-faceted, business and management phenomena. This session concerns the use of case studies as tools to conduct empirical investigations of contemporary Operations Management research problems. In additional to practical guidance for choosing case studies for PhD research and for conducting such studies effectively, recent examples from a range of industry collaborators and research projects will be used to demonstrate the operationalisation of case study research and its strengths and weaknesses as a research methodology. |
|
DAY 2 - Tuesday 18 June 2024
| Time | Speaker | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-12:00 | Professor Jo Meehan |
Designing impactful Supply Chain Management research IIn this session, you will learn about the importance of ‘impact’ in academic research and be given practical advice of how your research can contribute to changing business practice, government legislation, professional standards, and influence attitudes towards responsible supply chain management. The session will be interactive and centred around developing an impact plan for your own research. |
| 12:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK (free coffee, tea and lunch provided) | |
| 14:00-17:00 | Professor Tinglong Dai |
The Role of Operations Management in Shaping Artificial Intelligence Much has been written about how artificial intelligence (AI) can shape operations management, but there has been little research on how operations principles can improve AI development, deployment, and scale. Operations management’s systemic perspective and analytical acumen can bring order to the complex AI lifecycle. Operations management methods can help improve AI training; develop realworld evidence of how AI affects productivity, efficiency, and equity; balance the accuracy of AI models with their ability to recognize patterns (some of which are beyond human capabilities); and accelerate AI model deployment and continuous learning, among other benefits. Operations management also ensures effective alignment between AI creators and stakeholders, resulting in better AI safety. I will use examples mostly from the healthcare industry, while including examples from other industries. If time allows, we will have breakout sessions to brainstorm potential research topics and form collaborations. |
| 17:00-19:00 | All |
Welcome Dinner The welcome dinner will take place in the University of Liverpool Management School, attended by PhD students, speakers, and also other academic staff from the Operations and Supply Chain Management Group and the Centre for Supply Chain Research. |
DAY 3 - Wednesday 19 June 2024
| Time | Speaker | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-12:00 | Professor Zlatko Bodrožić |
Expanding the possibility space of analysis and development in OSCM research The interaction between innovations in technology and organisational processes has played an important role in operations and supply chain management for decades. More recently, some scholars have gone beyond this two-way interaction and explore the three-way interaction of technology, organisation and public policy to expand the “possibility space” of their research. In this interactive session, you will learn how to apply this new perspective to your own research. |
| 12:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK (free coffee, tea and lunch provided) | |
| 14:00-17:00 | Professor Hugo Lam |
Conducting Event Studies in OSCM The event study methodology has been increasingly adopted by researchers to investigate how stock markets react to various OSCM related events such as product recalls and supply chain disruptions. This session will introduce the methodology and its applications in the OSCM context. It will also discuss some important methodological issues in conducting event studies and some possible future research directions. During the session, students will also have hands-on practices of the methodology based on real event data. |
DAY 4 - Thursday 20 June 2024
| Time | Speaker | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-12:00 | Professor Jason Choi |
The Six-Step Methodology for Analytical Modeling Research in Operations Management In operations management (OM), through building the analytical model, researchers try to capture the critical elements of the problem under exploration. The analytical model should neither be too complex nor too simple. The analysis should demonstrate a high-level of research rigor and the derived managerial insights should be robust. As a result, to conduct a good OM study using the analytical modeling approach requires the support of a solid methodology. In this session, we examine a six-step methodology for conducting analytical modeling research in OM. We discuss each step in details and share the corresponding tips. |
| 12:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK (free coffee, tea and lunch provided) | |
| 14:00-17:00 | Professor Tolga Bektas |
Logistics and Transportation Modelling in Supply Chains This session will cover various conceptual models of logistics and transportation often employed within supply chains, ranging from vehicle routing, facility and hub location, network design, and last-mile logistics. The session will also describe a range of optimisation problems that these models give rise to, and introduce two main types of analytical methodologies developed to address these problems, namely exact and heuristic solution techniques. |
DAY 5 - Friday 21 June 2024
| Time | Speaker | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00-12:00 | Professor Dongping Song |
Stochastic dynamic programming and parameterised policy optimisation Manufacturing production system and supply chain systems are often characterised by dynamic operations and uncertainty. This implies that we are required to make sequential decisions over time in anticipation of the impact of future unpredictable factors. Treating the uncertainty as stochasticity using random variables over time, optimal sequential decision-making problems can be tackled using a stochastic dynamic programming approach. In this session, I will introduce the stochastic dynamic programming technique, including the basic knowledge and various application examples. The solution methods and structural properties of the optimal policy will be discussed. Moreover, a range of techniques to optimise parameterised policy will be introduced. |
| 12:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK (free coffee, tea and lunch provided) | |
| 14:00-17:00 | All |
3-minute research presentation competition
|
Speaker bios (in alphabetical order of surnames)
Professor Tolga Bektas
Professor Tolga Bektas is Professor of Logistics Management at the University of Liverpool Management School.
He has a PhD in Industrial Engineering (2005) from Bilkent University and held academic posts at the University of Montreal and the University of Southampton.
His research interests are in the planning and optimisation of operations arising within freight logistics and distribution, including vehicle routing and scheduling, railway timetable optimisation, maintenance planning in sea vessels and last-mile distribution in cities, with an emphasis on reducing environmental externalities from transport.
Professor Zlatko Bodrožić
Professor Zlatko Bodrožić is a Professor of Digital Enterprise at the University of Liverpool Management School.
He is interested in the interaction of technologies, organisational paradigms and public policy (see, for example, his research published in ‘Administrative Science Quarterly’, 2018; ‘Organization Science’, 2022; ‘Production and Operations Management’, forthcoming).
Zlatko’s current research focuses on the evolution of these three spheres in response to grand challenges such as digital transformation or climate change.
Professor Jason Choi
Professor Jason Choi is currently Chair in Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM), and Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Research at University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS).
He has published extensively in leading journals in OSCM. He is currently serving the profession as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part E, a Senior Editor of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and Production and Operations Management, and an Associate Editor of Decision Sciences.
He is a highly cited researcher by Web of Science.
Professor Tinglong Dai
Professor Tinglong Dai is the Bernard T. Ferrari Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, in the area of Operations Management and Business Analytics.
He joined Carey in 2013 after receiving a PhD in Operations Management/Robotics from Carnegie Mellon.
As a renowned expert in healthcare analytics and global supply chains, Professor Dai has been quoted hundreds of times in the media, including Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNN, Fortune, New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, and has appeared on national and international TV such as CNBC, PBS NewsHour, and Sky News.
In 2021, he was named as one of the World’s Best 40 Under 40 Business School Professors by Poets & Quants.
Professor Dai’s research interests span across healthcare, human-AI interaction, global supply chains, and marketing-operations interfaces.
His work has been published in leading journals such as Management Science, M&SOM, Marketing Science, and Operations Research, and has been recognized by Johns Hopkins Discovery Award, INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Award, POMS Best Healthcare Paper Award, and Wickham Skinner Early Career Award (Runner-Up).
He is an Associate Editor of Management Science, M&SOM, Health Care Management Science, and Naval Research Logistics and a Senior Editor of Production and Operations Management.
Professor Hugo Lam
Professor Hugo Lam is Chair in Operations Management and Director of Research (Operations and Supply Chain Management) at the University of Liverpool Management School. He obtained his PhD in Operations Management from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Hugo’s research focuses on operational implications of emerging technology adoption and sustainable supply chain management, with relevant papers published or forthcoming in Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and International Journal of Operations & Production Management, among others.
He is serving as an Associate Editor of Journal of Operations Management and International Journal of Operations & Production Management, and an Editorial Review Board Member of International Journal of Production Economics and Decision Sciences.
Professor Andy Lyons
Professor Andy Lyons is Professor of Operations & Supply Chain Management and Head of the Operations & Supply Chain Management Department at the University of Liverpool Management School.
He has significant and varied experiences in research, teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange and has published over sixty journal articles and one book.
He has been awarded over £4M of direct research and knowledge exchange funding. He is a member of the School Management Committee and University Senate and was a former Interim Head of the Marketing Department and Head of the Marketing & Operations Department at the University.
His expertise and research interests are broadly in the area operations and supply chain management and design.
This includes supply strategy and the design of supply chain performance measurement systems, the scrutiny of supply chain practices through innovative mapping and modelling techniques, the examination of the effectiveness of lean practices, digital strategy development and analytics to support growth in SMEs, and the examination of mass customisation and variety management challenges.
His current, externally-funded, and most-prominent research concerns an EC Interreg-funded project looking to reduce the environmental footprint of seafood supply chains, a NERC-funded project on the business model and sustainability implications of improving the circularity of plastic packaging, and an ERDF-funded project on the introduction of industry 4.0 technologies to SMEs
Professor Lyons has supervised over 25 PhD students.
Professor Jo Meehan
Professor Jo Meehan is a Professor of Responsible Procurement and the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Business at the University of Liverpool Management School.
Jo’s research centres on modern slavery in supply chains, social value in public procurement, and corporate power.
Her work explores the commercial practices that allow social inequalities and environmental harm to persist, and crucially, what might be done to enable systemic change. Her work has won numerous international awards and she has been described in the business press as “one of the UK’s most influential
procurement academics”.
She is a regular public speaker on responsible business and has extensively published in world-leading academic journals and in the professional press.
Jo’s research has been referenced by the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme, the UK’s National Health System, the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service, and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, as well as numerous corporate organisations.
Jo is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management and champions the journal’s ’business-not-asusual’ research.
Professor Dongping Song
Professor Dongping Song is a Chair of Supply Chain Management in the University of Liverpool Management School.
He obtained his PhD at Newcastle University and previously served as a Professor of International Logistics at Plymouth University Business School.
He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of CILT.
Currently he serves as an Associate Editor for Transportation Research Part E and for International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics.
His research interests include applying mathematical modelling, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and simulation-based tools to various supply chain, maritime transport and logistics systems, especially in the presence of uncertainty and risk, with the goal to advance knowledge and assist industries in improving operational efficiency and reducing emissions. He has managed a number of research projects funded by EPSRC, ESRC, Royal Society, British Council, European Commission, and Chinese Research Councils.
He has published five monographs in the areas of supply chain, transport, and logistics, including “Optimal Control and Optimization in Stochastic Supply Chain Systems” by Springer in 2013, and “Container Logistics and Maritime Transport” by Routledge in 2021.
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