Call for Papers

Stream 1: Analytics for Operations Planning under Uncertainty

Ciara Heavin, S. Armagan Tarim
Cork University Business School, UCC, Ireland

Fierce competition in today’s global markets, the introduction of products with short life cycles and increased customer expectations have forced businesses to focus their attention on operations planning. Further, the Covid-19 Pandemic has created a new impetus for organisations to be flexible, as they adapt to changing internal (e.g., availability of staff) and external environmental factors (e.g., changing public health guidelines, Brexit etc).

Operations planning is concerned with assigning appropriate resources to activities and coordinating these activities promoting greater transparency and equity in decision making, while minimising multiple and possibly conflicting costs. These activities span a large spectrum of decisions, such as distribution network configuration, production scheduling, staff rostering, inventory control, integration of inventory and transportation, risk management, etc. Most of these planning problems have at their core difficult combinatorial problems and involve uncertainty.

In the literature it is well-established that our inability to effectively address uncertainty in operations planning is an increasingly critical limitation and is a significant inhibitor in the use of research results in practice. Operations management research, to be relevant, must tackle large-scale stochastic decision problems. However, the corresponding models often pose serious computational challenges for even small sized problems.

With the advancements of data acquisition and processing capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and operations research (OR) have significantly boosted the accuracy of data-driven predictions and optimisation in operations management. While notable progress has been made, much work remains to be done. In this session, recent research results will be presented. These studies will highlight the application of AI/ML/OR methods and techniques to operations planning under uncertainty with the potential to impact competitive performance, innovativeness, as well as inclusion and community building.

Stream 2: Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022

Khaled A. Alshare, Ph. D.
College of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Qatar

The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held, for the first time, in the Middle East Region in the State of Qatar.  The FIFA World Cup is one of the most popular mega sport events in the world. It is estimated that more than 3 billion persons watch the event and about 3 million attend in person.  As such, organizing such event will have a significant impact on the hosting country. This track will address the socioeconomic impact of hosting FIFA World Cup 2022 on Qatar as well as the potential reverse impact of Qatar on the World. In particular, this track will explore the following themes

• The economic and social impacts: The challenges and opportunities for sustainable development – this session will examine, through research papers, the challenges and opportunities of organizing the World Cup, including expected revenues during and after hosting the event.
• Contextualization of the event: When Modernity and Heritage meet: The aim of this session is to highlight, through research endeavours, the human side and social effect of hosting the event on local culture. Additionally, this session will address the Qatari traditions and culture attributes.
• The Journey of achievement: A virtual Tour: this session will include a documentary video about the activities that took place in preparing for this event including the infrastructure development and building the stadiums.
• Impact on Creating a Culture of Voluntarism: This session will discuss how hosting the event would help in creating a culture of voluntarism by providing opportunities for young people from different countries to participate in organizing the event. This includes some data about the volunteers who participated in many events related to the hosting FIFA 2022 World Cup and who will participate during the event.
• When diversity meets sports: In this session, the collaborative spirit and the diversity and challenges of the work environment during the preparation for the event will be explored
• Qatar: The World Capital of Sports: – A summary of all sport events that took place in Qatar for the last 10 years and the next 10 years will be reported, and consequently how feasible is this vision

The Qatar Decision Sciences Institute Chapter (QDSI) invites contributions relevant to the above themes.

Stream 3: Recent developments in product platforms

Linda L. Zhang, Ph.D., H.D.R.
IESEG School of Management, Lille-Paris, France
Bart MacCarthy, Ph.D.
Nottingham University Business School, The University of Nottingham, UK
Roger J. Jiao, Ph.D.
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Facilitating mass customization, product platforms have received increasing attention from academia and lasting interests from industries in the past several decades. Countless articles have been published to address various issues related to product platforms, e.g., product platform planning, product platform strategies, product platform replacement, product platform performance measurement, to name but four. In recent years, there are diverse, yet rapid advancements in technologies, such as IT, Blockchain, cloud computing, IoT, and they are being applied widely in today’s business activities. On the other hand, recognizing the limited resources and the environmental damages on the globe, organizations, be they in the manufacturing or service industries, are gearing their decisions and activities to achieve sustainability. In this context, this special stream is aimed at exploring the recent studies and results on product platforms. We are interested in product platform planning, design, development, and replacement by capitalizing on the technology advancements, product platform applications to sustain businesses, and many other related topics.

Two best paper prizes will be awarded – one for the best theory-oriented paper and one for the best applications-oriented paper presented at the conference. Prizes will also be awarded for the best PhD student presentation and best poster. Note that papers can only be submitted to one prize category.

Evaluation: The EDSI Board will convene the best papers nomination panel.