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Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Published by Alvin Nicolas at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On August 18, 2023

Introduction

Selecting an appropriate is perhaps the most important aspect of the dissertation module. Students spend months and years (in the case of a PhD) on their dissertation projects. Therefore, it is critical to choose an interesting but manageable topic of research. Selecting the right topic can also help complete the paper to the highest quality and within the allocated deadline framework.

This article aims to provide comprehensive support in the selection of a suitable operations management dissertation topic. All of the topics presented in this piece are carefully short-listed on the basis of the following important factors;

A topic must have a recent research interest/popularity in academics
Data must be available to analyse the recent research; to develop a case of research in the form of a step forward (contribution factor)
Topic must be manageable with respect to the availability of time and resources
The chosen topic should encourage the students to explore and investigate to further the research in their preferred area

Writers’ suggestion : Before selecting a topic, outline the type of research you intend to undertake given the available time and monetary resources; such as whether to perform primary or secondary and qualitative or quantitative. For example, you might not be able to conduct a cross-national survey based on primary research, as it can turn out to be a difficult and unmanageable task.

Therefore, it is important to select a topic which you can manage within the given resources; to produce high-quality results that would eventually lead to a high academic score. The following topics are much emphasised in today’s academic world, and you can rely on these topics with utmost trust.

Some of these topics can also include primary research, which may include conducting interviews and/or questionnaire with industry practitioners to suggest the most efficient systems and o present the pros and cons of each system based on the data obtained through primary research.

These operations management dissertation topics have been developed by PhD qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question , aim and objectives , literature review along with the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of dissertation topics for 2022 here.

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2022 Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 1: investigating the risks associated with green technology in the chinese construction industry..

Research Aim: This research study aims to investigate the challenges that project managers faced while managing the Chinese green technology construction projects and the risk associated with it. This study will also examine the relationship between the challenges related to green construction and its impact on its success and will also find improvement in the development of green technology.

Topic 2: Analyzing the operational risk in outsourcing software projects for international companies.

Research Aim: The concept of outsourcing is a trending topic nowadays. This research study aims to find the operational risk perceived in the process of outsourcing software projects in international companies and how they eliminate operational risks during the process.

A conceptual framework will be utilized to investigate the risks for strategic IT system development outsourcing projects.

Topic 3: How do the merger and acquisition of a company affect the performance of its employees? An exploratory study identifying the factors that affect employees performance. A case study of (Any company or companies can be studied)

Research Aim: This research aims to find the impact of the merger and acquisition of a company on its employees’ performance. This research will use a company or companies as a case study that went through a merger and acquisition. To identify different factors that affect the performance of employees during and after merger and acquisition. And after identifying those factors and their impact on the performance of employees. The research will also recommend possible ways to minimize the impacts of those factors on employees’ performance.

Topic 4: Impact of strategic management on the financial performance of companies

Research Aim: This research aims to find the impact of companies’ strategic management on their financial performance. This study will use indicators suggested by extensive literature in strategic management to gauge the strategic planning done by these companies. The study will then identify up to what extent those indicators affect the companies’ financial performance under observation. And based on the results, the study will recommend improvement in the areas that can improve the strategic management of those companies. That, in consequence, will improve the financial performance of those companies.

Topic 5: Analyzing the operational risks associated with the manufacturing of automobiles and the role of plant managers in reducing these risks.

Research Aim: This research study aims to identify and analyze the risks that are faced by businesses during the manufacturing of automobiles and vehicles. And how plant managers proposed effective strategies to reduce these risks. In this study, a conceptual framework of the operational model of management will help increase the overall effectiveness of automobile industries.

Topic 6: An assessment of the Company's tradeoff between innovation and uniformity- A case study of UK IT sector.

Research Aim: The primary goal of this study is to conduct an analysis of a company’s tradeoff between innovation and uniformity. This study will explore different components of the United Kingdom IT sector. It will give us an understanding of the importance of innovation and uniformity from a theoretical perspective and also examine the risk factor involved in the united kingdom’s IT sector.

Topic 7: Operation Management- Comparison between different forecast approaches.

Research Aim: The main goal of this study is to examine various forecasting methodologies used in operation management. Furthermore, this research offers insight on product operation management and what contributes to making it more effective. In addition, this study will look at the aspects and effects of various approaches utilised in product operation management.

Topic 8: An examination of the Effectiveness of RBT in strategic operation management in the UK manufacturing industry.

Research Aim: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of RBT in strategic operation management in the United Kingdom manufacturing industry. This study highlights the effectiveness and also discusses the benefits and drawbacks of strategic operation management in the UK manufacturing industry. Furthermore, it also highlights the importance of RBT in the UK manufacturing industry.

Topic 9: Humanitarian operation management- A review of Literature

Research Aim: In this study, we will analyse different previous studies on humanitarian operation management to find its importance. This study will also look at different methodologies used in humanitarian operations. Different scientific advancements and technologies will also be covered in this study.

Topic 10: A study to Determine if Operations Management solutions Effectively meet the needs of Home Care organizations- An International Perspective.

Research Aim: The main goal of this research is to perform a comprehensive analysis of operational management activities in order to properly comprehend and evaluate them in order to determine the efficiency of various regularly employed strategies. It will also identify key methods utilised in operational management activities and how these solutions are implemented worldwide by home care companies; and how these methods will have an impact on home care organizations, and determine if they will have a favourable or bad impact.

Covid-19 Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 1: impacts of coronavirus on global supply chains.

Research Aim: As the Coronavirus, the outbreak has resulted in the shortage of essential supplies, including safety equipment, diagnostic and clinical management. WHO (world health organisation) has organised a supply chain task force team (COVID supply chain system). This study will identify the details of this supply chain system and discuss how it works.

Topic 2: Intelligent operation management during COVID-19

Research Aim: As a result of COVID-19, industries are facing a lack of resources and staff. This situation calls for Intelligent operation management for continuity of the operation during this challenging situation. This study will analyse how Intelligent operation management works during COVID-19 discussing its advantages, challenges, and possible solutions to improve it.

Operations Management Dissertation Topics for 2021

Topic 1: impact of jit on improving supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets.

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the impact of JIT on improving the supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Topic 2: Operation management strategies B2B and B2C business model

Research Aim: This research aims to assess and compare the operation management strategies B2B and B2C business model

Topic 3: The role of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in SCM (Supply Chain Management)

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the role of Information and Communication Technology in Supply Chain Management.

Topic 4: TQM (Total Quality Management) as a competitive advantage

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the role of total quality management as a competitive advantage.

Topic 1: Analysing the impact of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) on improving business operations of multinational companies.

Research Aim: The main purpose of this research will be to highlight the major benefits of ERP, which can facilitate multinational organisations to help in conducting business operations productively and effectively. The researcher will identify major factors of ERP that can be related to the effective execution of business operations while increasing the overall productivity and efficiency of the business.

Topic 2: Impact of Just-in-time (JIT) inventory on improving supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Research Aim: The researcher will identify the major advantages as well as disadvantages of using Just-in-time (JIT) inventory on supply chain operations of the major retail outlets. In this study, the researcher will highlight major factors of Just-in-time (JIT) inventory that may directly or indirectly influence the effectiveness of the supply chain of large retail outlets while proposing recommendations to retail companies to increase the effectiveness and productivity of the company.

Topic 3: Analysing the pros and cons of outsourcing logistic operation activities in the construction industry of the UK

Research Aim: The main purpose of this qualitative-natured study will be to identify major advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing logistic operation activities while focusing on its implementation in the construction industries of the UK.

Topic 4: Assessing and comparing the operations management strategies of B2B and B2C business models

Research Aim: The researcher aims to discover prompt operations management strategies that are being utilised by major B2B and B2C companies while taking examples of major key players in each of the business models. After identification, the researcher will compare those strategies and recommends the best strategies and practices that can be utilised by each of the business model discussed in the study.

Topic 5: Analysing the operational risks involved in the manufacturing of automobiles and how can plant managers minimise these risks

Research Aim: The main aim of this study will be to identify and analyse the major risks that can be experienced by companies during the manufacturing of automobiles and vehicles while proposing effective strategies that can be used by plant managers to reduce these risks. In this study, the researcher will use a conceptual model of operational management, which helps increase the overall effectiveness of automobile industries.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service !

Supply Chain Management Dissertation Topics

The supply chain is considered one of the most important aspects of business in any organisation, as optimum management in the supply chain leads to successful business operations. Therefore, it is pivotal for organisations to constantly enhance processes and techniques of the supply chain which involve control, measurements, troubleshooting, adaptability, and innovation of new solutions. The following research topics are suggested for dissertation writing in the field of supply chain management;

Supply chain management and the related legal frameworks; Investigating the practices of the UK’s industrial sector
Strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain are large and diversified business organisations
The role of supply chain in manufacturing industry of the UK; A comprehensive study to evaluate the impact of supply chain management
Influence of state of the art technology aided systems on supply chain management
Impact of information technology on supply chain management
Case study of Dell, IMB and other supply chain control management systems being employed worldwide by large scale organizations
Supply chain management and e-commerce
The role of ICT in supply chain management

Lean Manufacturing Dissertation Topics

The lean concepts are still young and in the stage of steady development. New concepts are coming into practice as the efficacy of the old ones continues to diminish. Research ideas that have been much emphasised in recent research studies include Total Quality Control (TQC), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just in Time (JIT), and Total productivity maintenance (TPM). Some interesting topics under this subject are listed below;

The influence of the lean manufacturing techniques in operations management
Analyses of lean manufacturing techniques; Review of the most influential techniques currently being employed in theUK’ss manufacturing Industry; an inside perspective (This may include primary research in which the actual users of different techniques will be requested to provide their views on the impact of different techniques and to recommend which of the techniques can be best used to enhance industry productivity and performance)
Total quality management as a competitive advantage; A case study of the UK’s industry (Dell/HP/Other)
The relationship between quality management and client Satisfaction; A case of the UK’s construction/manufacturing Industry (This can also include primary research from the perspective of clients/buyers who can be questioned regarding their experience of the construction quality they obtained. The data could then be used to provide key recommendations for quality management)
Practical implementation of lean manufacturing techniques; A review of how business organisations have successfully adopted various techniques
Influence of new technology on lean manufacturing techniques; such as the use of Business Information Modeling (BIM), SAP, and other tools for enhancement of quality and productivity
Evolution of quality from the perspective of the development of lean manufacturing techniques; A study on how industries have been shaped by lean concepts in the past and visualizing the future SOPs

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Inventory Management Dissertation Topics

Inventory Management is another important component of supply Chain Management. A considerable amount of research has been conducted in this field of study in recent times, which highlights the need to establish effective processing techniques and systems so that business organisations can effectively measure/manage operations of their respective industries.

Optimum inventory management enables control of costs, time, productivity and delivery; the elements which are considered to be the pillars of any industry. The following topics are presented for dissertation writing on inventory management:

The influence of optimum inventory management on supply chain management; A study on how effective inventory management systems can help to establish high performing supply management systems in an industry
Analyses of inventory management systems being employed in the UK industries
The impact of latest technological developments on inventory management systems; A case study of the UK’s manufacturing Industry
Inventory management systems in manufacturing industry; Methods, benefits, challenges and opportunities
Case study on inventory management in retail; A case study of ASDA/TESCO/SAINSBURURY. (Primary research based: Data from different stores can be collected, and compared)
The impact of Just in Time (JIT) on the UK’s inventory management systems
Adoptability of JIT inventory management in the UK
E-commerce inventory management systems

Product Development Dissertation Topics

New Product Development (NPD) and the role of Research and Development (R&D) in the process of product development has remained a focus of research and a trigger for intense academic debate in the last many years.

The most notable elements of product development include; new concept developments, new product designs, product engineering, and market analyses and research.

Many organizations continually surge to develop new products and add these to their product- pipelines to earn additional profits. From the consumer perspective, NPD enhances the brand image and provides a research and development edge to business organisations.

Evaluating the process of product development; The need and implications
Strategies of product development and the product mix
Strategies of product development in various Industries – A case study of a company of your choice. This can also include primary research where different systems can be compared and data analysed.
The role of latest technological advancements and computer-aided systems in product development; A case study of the UK’s research and development industry

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Production Planning / Scheduling Dissertation Topics

Production planning and scheduling are considered one of the most crucial aspects of the manufacturing industry because it helps to maintain optimum levels of productivity in accordance with the production plans. Production scheduling has a direct influence on the production business, as it impacts the fundamental elements of production and services such as; production lead times, quality maintenance, and maintenance of supply & demand, and overall client satisfaction. Therefore, research in the field of production planning has been much prioritized in modern times and efforts have been made to develop integrated systems that incorporate various variables and elements of the production plan. Following are some of the selected topics that can be chosen for further research and dissertations;

Production Scheduling Analysis; A review of techniques employed in UK’s Manufacturing Industry
Analyses of Production Scheduling/Planning Techniques in Different Manufacturing Industries (Car Industry/Process industry/Steel Industry/Cement Industry)
Production Scheduling/Planning Techniques and Profitability of Different Manufacturing Industries (Car Industry/Process industry/Steel Industry/Cement Industry)
The Role of Latest Technological Advancements and Computer Aided Systems in Production Scheduling
The Role of Information Technology and Innovation in Production Scheduling

Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing Strategy Dissertation Topics

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a systematic operation that facilitates the manufacturing of a product from raw materials. The manufacturing strategy includes the methods of producing goods and is designed in accordance with the business objectives. Some latest supply chain management and manufacturing strategy dissertation topics are given below;

Manufacturing strategy; Investigating the importance of optimized manufacturing strategy for successful business operations
Review of manufacturing strategies of the UK’s automobile industry/ process industry/ manufacturing Industry / Any other industry of your choice.
The impact of new technologies on development of optimised manufacturing strategies and techniques
Supply chain management; Investigating the importance of optimized supply chain management techniques for a successful business operations
Examining supply chain management strategies of UK’s automobile industry / process industry / manufacturing Industry / Any other industry of your choice
Use of latest technologies for efficient supply chain management over the last decade (This may include primary research where data would be obtained from the practitioners of manufacturing/other industry via e-mail, interviews and/or questionnaire)

Risk Management Dissertation Topics

Industrial risk management is one of the most researched topics of recent times. Almost every engineering or financial activity involves risks in terms of their consequences and probabilities. The course of the future cannot be fully predicted. Of course, however, various actions can be undertaken to manage/mitigate these risks.

Analysis of various factors that can contribute to the risks; such as political influence, oil prices, and exchange rates, equipment performance characteristics, availability of resources, local conditions/environment and etc., can lead to the development of optimised risk management systems for improved project performance.

Investigating the risk management systems of construction industry / automobile Industry / pharma Industry / banking Industry / retail Industry
Risk management in construction industry; How construction industry can mitigate different types of risks
Analyses of factors that contribute to risk in industrial operations; Developing guidelines/best practices to manage industrial risks
Risk management and the use of advanced technological tools: Is technology really helping to mitigate risks? (This may include Use of primary data to find out if the use of computer aided tools have helped the industry to mitigate risks)
Risk management methodologies; A review of different methods of risk management employed in the UK
Risk Management for contractors in Saudi Arabian Construction Industry
Examining risks associated with green technology in Chinese construction industry
Managing environmental risks in chinese construction industry

Service Design Dissertation Topics

The efficient management of infrastructures, communications systems, components, materials, and human resources holds the key to improved quality of services. Therefore, it is extremely important to optimise service planning because it can ensure profitability as well as productivity for the service provider. Following are some service design dissertation topics that may concern the students;

The impact of future technology on service design
Service design analyses of Dell/HP/Other
Service design analyses of the UK’s food chain Industry
E-commerce web services design and implications
Service organisation’s fundamental design requirements & marketing strategies
Innovative solutions in service design

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Logistics Dissertation Topics

Logistics is a critical operations management system that helps to manage the flow of goods or services from start till the end. Logistics involves operations such as supply chain management, procurement, transportation, inventory, material handling, packaging, and integration of information between different teams. Some interesting topics for Logistics dissertations are listed below:

Logistics operations; An evaluation of the logistics management systems in the UK’s a construction/manufacturing / another sector of your choice
Impact of intermodal international logistics on the operation of the UK’s a construction/manufacturing / another sector of your choice
Review of logistic management principles and practices employed by the UK‘s industrial sector
Optimization of logistics management systems; A review of best practices and procedures
Case study analyses; A review of the Logistics Management in TESCO/ASDA/Sainsbury/Other; Is there a competitive advantage?
Impact of the latest technology on logistics management

Important Notes:

As a student of operations management looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing operations management theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.

The field of operations management is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like business , management , marketing , project management , and more. That is why it is imperative to create an operations management dissertation topic that is particular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best operations management dissertation topics that not only fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper but also add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample operations management dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Operations Management Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

A Title Page
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Abstract: A summary of the research completed
Table of Contents
Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems to be addressed. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic, in light of research questions to be addressed. The purpose is to highlight and discuss the relative weaknesses and strengths of the selected research area whilst identifying any research gaps. Break down of the topic, and key terms can have a positive impact on your dissertation and your tutor.
Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter, and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
References : This should be completed in accordance with your University’s requirements
Bibliography
Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, or graphs that were used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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How to find dissertation topics about operations management.

To find operations management dissertation topics:

Study recent industry challenges.
Investigate supply chain innovations.
Examine technology’s impact.
Explore lean management strategies.
Analyze sustainability in operations.
Select a topic aligning with your expertise and research interests.

Operations Management Research Paper Topics

Operations management research paper topics encompass a wide array of subjects related to the effective planning, organizing, and supervision of business operations. These topics offer a rich field of inquiry for scholars and practitioners alike, reflecting the complexity and centrality of operations management in modern business. This page is designed to provide students with comprehensive guidance on operations management research, including a categorized list of research topics, insights into choosing and writing on these topics, and exclusive writing services by iResearchNet. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced researcher in the field, this resource aims to support your exploration of the diverse and dynamic world of operations management.

100 Operations Management Research Paper Topics

Operations management is a multifaceted field that integrates various aspects of business like production, logistics, quality control, and much more. For students looking to delve into research, here’s an extensive list of topics categorized into ten different sectors.

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The role of technology in enhancing production efficiency.
Sustainable production practices and their impact on profitability.
Mass customization in modern manufacturing.
Just-in-time (JIT) production: Pros and cons.
Managing production lines for optimal workflow.
The influence of automation on manufacturing processes.
Ergonomics and production management.
The future of 3D printing in manufacturing.
Outsourcing production: Challenges and opportunities.
Lean manufacturing principles and their application.

Supply Chain Management

The importance of information sharing in the supply chain.
Risk management in global supply chains.
Ethical considerations in supply chain management.
Impact of e-commerce on traditional supply chain models.
Inventory management: Best practices.
The role of transportation in the supply chain.
Achieving sustainability through green supply chain practices.
The influence of big data on supply chain decisions.
Cross-border supply chain challenges.
Vendor management and strategic partnerships.

Quality Control and Assurance

Total Quality Management (TQM) in the 21st century.
Six Sigma methodology in operations management.
Quality assurance in the food and beverage industry.
Role of continuous improvement in quality management.
Balancing cost and quality in manufacturing.
Role of customer feedback in quality assurance.
Impact of quality control on brand reputation.
Quality assurance standards in healthcare.
The relationship between employee training and quality control.
Quality management systems: ISO 9001 and others.

Logistics Management

Technological advancements in logistics and distribution.
Managing logistics in e-commerce.
Impact of globalization on logistics management.
Third-party logistics (3PL) vs. in-house logistics.
Green logistics: Integrating sustainability.
Humanitarian logistics in disaster management.
Role of government regulations in logistics.
Challenges of urban logistics.
Reverse logistics: Principles and practices.
The future of drone technology in logistics.

Service Operations Management

The importance of customer experience in service operations.
Managing service quality in the hospitality industry.
Service blueprinting as a tool for service design.
Role of technology in enhancing service efficiency.
Balancing supply and demand in service industries.
The application of lean principles in service operations.
Innovations in healthcare service operations.
Ethical considerations in service provision.
Outsourcing services: A strategic perspective.
Transforming traditional services with digital technologies.

Strategic Operations Management

Aligning operations strategy with business goals.
The role of operations management in organizational success.
Developing a competitive advantage through operational excellence.
Integrating innovation into operations strategy.
Global strategies in operations management.
The role of leadership in strategic operations management.
Operations strategy in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Evaluating the performance of an operations strategy.
Mergers and acquisitions: Integrating operations.
Strategic considerations in outsourcing operations.

Sustainability and Environmental Considerations

Incorporating sustainability into operations management.
Environmental regulations and their impact on operations.
Waste management practices in manufacturing.
Achieving energy efficiency in operations.
Sustainable practices in supply chain management.
The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in operations.
Life cycle assessment in product design.
Sustainable procurement practices.
The green factory: Myths and realities.
Social sustainability in operations management.

Technology and Innovation Management

The impact of Industry 4.0 on operations management.
Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in operations.
Challenges of integrating IoT in manufacturing.
The role of innovation in competitive advantage.
Managing technology-driven change in organizations.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in operations.
The future of robotics in manufacturing.
Innovation culture: Fostering creativity in operations.
Technology management in healthcare operations.
Digital transformation and its impact on operations.

Project Management

Agile project management in operations.
Risk management in project execution.
The role of project management offices (PMOs).
Project portfolio management: An integrated approach.
Tools and technologies for efficient project management.
Stakeholder management in project execution.
The psychology of project management.
Cross-cultural considerations in global projects.
Managing virtual teams in projects.
Project failure: Analysis and lessons learned.

Human Resources and Operations

Managing diversity in operations management.
The role of team dynamics in operational success.
Talent management in operations.
Employee motivation and performance in operations.
Human factors in safety management.
The importance of organizational culture in operations.
Training and development in operations management.
Employee engagement and its impact on operational efficiency.
Managing remote work in operations.
Labor relations and negotiations in operations.

Operations management remains an evolving and essential field in both academia and industry. The above topics reflect the breadth and depth of areas one could explore. Each subject offers unique insights and challenges, enabling students to apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios. These topics are designed to inspire critical thinking and provide a starting point for those embarking on research in operations management. Whether you are looking for a topic that aligns with your interests or seeking to address current issues in the field, this comprehensive list offers diverse paths to contribute to the body of knowledge in operations management.

Operations Management and the Range of Research Paper Topics

Operations management is a vital aspect of business that deals with the design, administration, and optimization of business processes. It plays a crucial role in ensuring that an organization operates efficiently and effectively. From manufacturing to services, operations management transcends various sectors and industries. In this article, we’ll delve into the multifaceted world of operations management, explore its significance, and elucidate the range of research paper topics it offers.

Introduction to Operations Management

Operations management is all about the planning, oversight, and control of processes that transform inputs such as materials, labor, and technology into outputs like goods and services. It’s a dynamic field that requires a blend of analytical thinking, problem-solving, and practical skills.

Operations managers focus on improving efficiency, reducing costs, maintaining quality, and ensuring that products or services are delivered on time. The scope of operations management is broad, encompassing areas like:

Production Management : Deals with the creation of goods and services.
Supply Chain Management : Focuses on the flow of materials from suppliers to customers.
Quality Control : Ensures products meet specified quality standards.
Logistics : Concerned with the movement, storage, and flow of goods.
Project Management : Involves planning and overseeing projects to ensure they are completed on time and within budget.

Significance of Operations Management

Operations management is at the heart of any organization, impacting several critical areas:

Efficiency : By optimizing processes and eliminating waste, operations management helps in utilizing resources more efficiently.
Cost Reduction : Through continuous improvement and innovation, costs can be reduced, leading to higher profitability.
Customer Satisfaction : By ensuring quality and timely delivery, operations management plays a key role in customer satisfaction.
Competitive Advantage : Organizations that excel in operations management often have a competitive edge in the market.

The Ever-Evolving Nature of Operations Management

The field of operations management continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements, globalization, environmental concerns, and changing consumer preferences. Topics such as sustainability, automation, digital transformation, and global supply chain challenges are becoming increasingly relevant.

Range of Research Paper Topics

Given the diverse and complex nature of operations management, the range of research paper topics is vast and can be categorized into several areas:

Production Management : From lean manufacturing to the use of artificial intelligence, research can focus on how to make production more efficient and adaptable.
Supply Chain Management : Topics could include risk management, ethical considerations, green practices, and the influence of e-commerce on traditional supply chains.
Quality Control and Assurance : Research in this area could explore methodologies like Six Sigma, continuous improvement, and the relationship between training and quality control.
Logistics Management : With the growing importance of e-commerce and sustainability, research in logistics management is thriving.
Service Operations Management : This includes the design and management of processes that create and deliver services, with potential research focusing on customer experience, technology, and innovation.
Strategic Operations Management : Research topics can explore how operations strategy aligns with business goals and contributes to competitive advantage.
Sustainability and Environmental Considerations : This is an emerging area focusing on how operations management can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Technology and Innovation Management : From Industry 4.0 to digital transformation, this category looks at how technology is reshaping operations management.
Project Management : Topics might include agile methodologies, stakeholder management, risk mitigation, and cross-cultural considerations in global projects.
Human Resources and Operations : This could include topics like managing diversity, team dynamics, employee motivation, and training in operations management.

Operations management is a vibrant and multifaceted field with a wide array of research possibilities. From traditional manufacturing to modern service industries, from small businesses to multinational corporations, operations management is at the core of organizational success.

The broad range of topics reflects the evolving nature of the field and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. For students seeking to contribute to this essential area of business, these topics offer a rich and diverse avenue for exploration and innovation.

By understanding and engaging with these various aspects, scholars, practitioners, and students can appreciate the importance of operations management in today’s global economy and contribute to its future development. Whether through academic research or practical application, operations management remains a critical field that continues to shape the way businesses operate and thrive.

How to Choose Operations Management Research Paper Topics

Choosing the right topic for a research paper in operations management is a critical step that can significantly impact the quality and relevance of your work. It can be both an exciting and daunting task, given the wide array of topics available in this dynamic field. In this section, we’ll provide an introductory paragraph, 10 practical tips, and a concluding paragraph to guide you in selecting the ideal operations management research paper topic.

Operations management is a multifaceted field that encompasses various aspects of business processes, from production to logistics, supply chain to quality control. As such, it offers a wide range of intriguing research paper topics. The right topic not only aligns with your interests and academic goals but also has the potential to contribute to the broader field of operations management. Here are some tips to assist you in making an informed choice.

10 Tips for Choosing Operations Management Research Paper Topics

Identify Your Interests : Start by listing areas within operations management that intrigue you the most. Passion for the subject can fuel your research and make the process more enjoyable.
Understand the Scope : Consider the breadth and depth of the topic. A topic that’s too broad may be unmanageable, while a too narrow focus may lack sufficient material for research.
Check for Relevance : Ensure that the topic aligns with current industry trends and challenges. A relevant topic will have a greater impact and may open opportunities for further study or career advancement.
Consult Academic Sources : Look through academic journals, textbooks, and other scholarly publications in operations management to discover prevailing research themes and gaps in the literature.
Consider Practical Implications : If possible, choose a topic that has practical applications in real-world scenarios. This connection between theory and practice can make your research more compelling.
Assess Available Resources : Evaluate the resources you have at your disposal, including access to data, software, labs, or industry experts. Some topics might require specialized tools or contacts.
Seek Guidance from Advisors : Consult with professors, mentors, or industry professionals who have expertise in operations management. Their insights can help refine your topic and provide direction.
Evaluate Your Skill Set : Reflect on your skills and expertise in the subject area. Selecting a topic that complements your strengths will facilitate a smoother research process.
Consider Ethical Implications : Ensure that the chosen topic adheres to ethical standards, especially if it involves human subjects, sensitive data, or controversial issues.
Think about Future Opportunities : Your research paper can be a stepping stone for further studies, publications, or career opportunities. Consider how the chosen topic might align with your long-term goals.

Concluding Thoughts

Choosing a research paper topic in operations management is a delicate balance between your interests, the academic and industry relevance, the feasibility of research, and alignment with ethical standards. By adhering to these tips, you can select a topic that not only resonates with your passion and capabilities but also contributes to the field of operations management.

Remember that the right topic is a catalyst that can ignite your creativity and analytical abilities, leading to a meaningful and rewarding research experience. Whether you’re exploring sustainable supply chain practices or innovative quality control techniques, your choice of topic is the foundation upon which your entire research project is built. Make it a strong, informed one, and you’ll set yourself up for success in the vibrant world of operations management.

How to Write an Operations Management Research Paper

Writing a research paper in operations management is a systematic process that requires careful planning, in-depth research, and coherent presentation. This endeavor involves not only an understanding of the operations management concepts but also the ability to analyze, evaluate, and apply them in various real-world contexts. Below, you will find an introductory paragraph, 10 essential tips, and a concluding paragraph to guide you through the process of writing an operations management research paper.

Introduction

Operations management is a complex field that integrates various aspects of production, quality control, logistics, and supply chain management. Writing a research paper on a topic within this discipline demands a clear understanding of both theoretical principles and practical applications. The task may seem overwhelming, but with the right approach and adherence to specific guidelines, you can craft a paper that stands out in quality and relevance.

10 Tips for Writing an Operations Management Research Paper

Choose the Right Topic : Refer to the previous section for tips on selecting a relevant and engaging topic that aligns with your interests and the broader field of operations management.
Conduct Thorough Research : Utilize reputable academic sources such as journals, textbooks, and industry reports. Gather sufficient data and insights that relate to your chosen topic.
Create a Strong Thesis Statement : Your thesis should clearly articulate the main idea or argument of your paper. It serves as the guiding star for your entire research.
Develop an Outline : Before diving into writing, create a detailed outline that maps out the structure of your paper. It should include an introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, conclusion, and references.
Write a Compelling Introduction : Start your paper with an engaging introduction that provides background on the topic, states the problem, and introduces the thesis statement.
Include a Literature Review : Summarize existing research on the topic, highlighting key theories, models, and empirical findings. This section establishes the context for your study.
Explain Your Methodology : Describe the research design, methods, and tools you used to collect and analyze data. Be meticulous in explaining how you ensured the reliability and validity of your study.
Present Findings Clearly : Organize and present your research findings in a logical manner. Use charts, graphs, and tables where necessary to visualize the data.
Discuss the Implications : In the discussion section, interpret the results, compare them with existing research, and explore the implications for operations management practice and future research.
Edit and Revise : Spend ample time revising and proofreading your paper. Consider seeking feedback from peers, mentors, or professional editing services to ensure clarity, coherence, and correctness.

Writing a research paper in operations management is a rewarding yet challenging task. It requires a fusion of technical knowledge, analytical thinking, and writing skills. By following the tips outlined above, you’ll be well-equipped to craft a paper that is not only academically rigorous but also relevant to the dynamic and multifaceted world of operations management.

Remember, writing a research paper is a process that demands time, effort, and perseverance. Be patient with yourself and stay committed to excellence at every stage of the journey. The final product – a well-researched, well-written paper – is a testament to your intellectual curiosity, hard work, and contribution to the ever-evolving field of operations management. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a student just starting out, these guidelines are designed to empower you to write with confidence and integrity in the domain of operations management.

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At iResearchNet, we understand the challenges students face when tasked with writing a research paper on a complex subject such as operations management. That’s why we have designed our services to offer a customized solution that caters to your unique requirements. Whether you need assistance with topic selection, research, writing, or formatting, our team of professional writers and researchers is ready to provide comprehensive support.

Expert Degree-Holding Writers : Our writers are not just professionals; they are experts in the field of operations management. With advanced degrees and years of experience, they are capable of providing insightful and well-researched papers.
Custom Written Works : Every paper we produce is crafted from scratch, ensuring that it is tailored to your specific needs, guidelines, and academic standards.
In-Depth Research : Leveraging a rich library of resources, our team conducts extensive research, gathering relevant data and information to support the thesis and arguments of your paper.
Custom Formatting (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard) : Our writers are proficient in various formatting styles, ensuring that your paper complies with the specific guidelines of your academic institution.
Top Quality : Quality is at the core of our services. Each paper undergoes rigorous quality checks to guarantee that it is well-structured, coherent, and free of plagiarism.
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Operations →

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

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22 Mar 2024
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Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

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02 Jan 2024

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

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12 Dec 2023

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

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25 Apr 2023

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21 Apr 2023

The $15 Billion Question: Have Loot Boxes Turned Video Gaming into Gambling?

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11 Apr 2023

A Rose by Any Other Name: Supply Chains and Carbon Emissions in the Flower Industry

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28 Mar 2023

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31 Jan 2023

Addressing Racial Discrimination on Airbnb

For years, Airbnb gave hosts extensive discretion to accept or reject a guest after seeing little more than a name and a picture, believing that eliminating anonymity was the best way for the company to build trust. However, the apartment rental platform failed to track or account for the possibility that this could facilitate discrimination. After research published by Professor Michael Luca and others provided evidence that Black hosts received less in rent than hosts of other races and showed signs of discrimination against guests with African American sounding names, the company had to decide what to do. In the case, “Racial Discrimination on Airbnb,” Luca discusses his research and explores the implication for Airbnb and other platform companies. Should they change the design of the platform to reduce discrimination? And what’s the best way to measure the success of any changes?

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18 Oct 2022

Chewy.com’s Make-or-Break Logistics Dilemma

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12 Oct 2022

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

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22 Aug 2022

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12 Jul 2022

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05 Jul 2022
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05 May 2022

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

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31 Mar 2022

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

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28 Feb 2022

How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

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10 Feb 2022

Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

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It’s Time for a New Model for Operations Management

Magdi Batato,
Xavier Mesnard,
Suketu Gandhi

Companies can no longer consolidate decision-making at the top.

Covid-19 was the death knell for traditional hierarchical command-and-control operations management. In its place a new model has emerged that’s far better equipped to deal with today’s disruptive, volatile, and unpredictable environment. In this model, decision-making responsibility is broadly dispersed to where it makes the most sense, resulting in faster, more accurate decisions in response to changing conditions. This model is built on four pillars — trust, talent, transparency, and technology. Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate Nestlé is an example of a company that has embraced this concept in its factories and, as a result, has built a resilient operational model that has helped the company effectively respond to adverse events and challenges.

Is the traditional command-and-control operations management model — which reigned supreme for decades in an era of relative stability and predictability — finally dead? All the signs we see say it is. In a post-pandemic world characterized by unpredictable supply and demand, companies can no longer consolidate decision-making at the top. Doing so is counter to the kind of agility, flexibility, and speed they need in a world of rapid and chronic disruption and volatility.

Magdi Batato is the executive vice president and head of operations for Nestlé. He has extensive experience in the manufacturing and technical area, combined with business experience in both developed and emerging markets and a passion for sustainable food systems.
Xavier Mesnard is a partner with Kearney in the strategic operations practice. He has more than 35 years of strategy and management consulting experience with a focus on operations excellence in the consumer goods, retail, and engineering industries.
Suketu Gandhi is co-head of the global strategic operations practice at Kearney. He is a recognized industry leader and subject matter expert on a wide range of operations topics, with an emphasis on end-to-end supply chains.

Partner Center

86 Operations Management Topics

Operations management orchestrates all the processes to produce goods and deliver services efficiently. On this page, we suggest operations management research topics for you to explore the multifaceted dimensions of this field. Go through these operations management topics to discover the role of operations management in organizational success.

🔀 TOP 10 Operations Management Topics

🏆 best operations management research topics, 👍 examples of topics in operations management, 🌶️ more operations management topics.

Samsung Group’s Supply Chain and Operation Management
Starbucks Operations and Inventory Management
The Role of Technology in Operations Management
Operations Management: Apple Case Study
Human Resource Strategy in Operations Management
McDonald’s Operations: Self-Service Kiosk Case Study
Air New Zealand Airline’s Operations Management
Operational Management: the Case of Apple, Inc.
Apple Inc.’s Strategic Operations Management
Hard Rock Café’s Operations Management and Productivity
Operations Management: The Case of Concept Design Services Operations management is the approach to managing a range of resources that are used in order to manufacture certain products or propose specific services.
Nissan Motor Company: Operations Management To ensure financial stability and a strong position in the target market, recently, Nissan has decided to reorganize its operations strategy.
Linear Programming Operations Management Linear programming operations management is a mathematical strategy that is employed for arranging scarce or limited resources effectively while performing various tasks.
Samsung Electronics: Operations Management Performance Objectives In Samsung Electronics, it can be stated that one of the departments responsible for quality is Corporate Technology Office.
Kodak: Operations and Innovations Management This paper provides analysis of Kodak’s situation using the 3S model, application to Kodak, providing strategic analysis, systematic analysis, and situational analysis.
Heathrow Airport’s Service Operations Management The study evaluates service management at Heathrow airport and evaluates actions and measures that have been taken to improve the service quality at the airport.
Financial Operation Exposure Management Principles There are many principles that a company can implement to counter financial operation exposure. The definition of operating exposure affirms that it involves unexpected changes.
Toyota’s vs. Coca-Cola’s Operations Management The adoption of proper operations management is an important success factor for leading global companies, namely Coca-Cola and Toyota.
General Motors Operation Analysis: Project Management Speaking of General Motors, the company’s operational objective is improving performance and the level of customers’ satisfaction.
Airbus Company Systems and Operations Management In the context of the Airbus and its integration within business, systems and operations management is of significant importance in diverse ways.
Local Food Venture and Its Operations Management Building a small business enterprise is a complex task. This case study examines a model of expanding a local food venture to a permanent location and franchise.
Lenovo Group Ltd.’s Operations and Information Management The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of operations and information management and related concepts.
Hard Rock Café: Operations Management and Productivity This paper describes ten operations and performance management solutions at Hard Rock Café that help create the link between raw data processing and the final product.
Operations Management Trends and Future Operations management has evolved and changed over the years, affecting areas such as manufacturing and service.
WalMart Stores’ Operation Management Operation management is the process that transfers inputs such as raw materials and labor into output in the form of finished goods and services.
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Industry’s Operation and Management The paper regards the non-alcoholic beverages sustainability in the context of company analysis. It discusses organizational hierarchy development and finance raising.
Azure: Service Operations Management Overview The operation that Microsoft nurtures provides customers with numerous cloud services that are assembled under the name of Azure.
General Motors Company: Operations Management Concepts The present essay analyzes the current situation at General Motors and provides some recommendations for effective operations management.
Operations Management in Business Operations management is described as the organization of processes used to produce and distribute products and services. There are five main objectives of operations management.
Metrics and Performance Measurement in Operations Management Metrics is indeed a powerful management tool in aligning company strategies and objectives and ensuring people are working towards a common direction.
Franklin Equipment Ltd Company’s Operations Management The purpose of this paper is to discuss the criteria used by FEL to assign members of the project team, the importance of international projects and possible ethical dilemmas.
Online Grocery Business: Operations Management The project can have one and more critical paths. When a project has multiple critical paths, project risks increase according to the number of paths.
Operations Management and Productivity Operation management aims at ensuring that functions in a business are conducted in the most efficient manner, so as the end results are satisfied customers and reduced cost of production.
The Concept of Operations Management Operations management (OM) is defined as the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s primary products.
Operations Management and Production System: Case of Olive Garden Restaurant The presented paper is devoted to the discussion of operations management and production system using the case of Olive Garden restaurant
Construction Company’s Operational Risk Management This work presents an operational risk assessment connected to standard masonry techniques and procedures in the development of five-story apartment blocks.
Roche Company’s Operations Management This report examines three of Roche’s OM decision areas, compares and contrasts the organisation with another firm using the 4Vs of operations.
Operations Management of a Care Facility for the Elderly Any institution dealing with the provision of care to dependent elderly persons should ensure that its strategies are broad enough to cover the wide range of needs of the elderly.
Operations Management: Ford vs. Firestone This paper is an analysis of Ford vs. Firestone case “Death on the Highway: Quality Problems at Ford and Firestone” to unearth the operations management crisis in the two companies.
Lean Process and Operation Management The lean process applied along with the operations management is the popular paradigm that affects the functioning of companies and results in the rise of positive shifts in them.
Launching an Airline: Operations and Management Launching an airline requires a deep understanding of the market forces. The industry has many challenges, from stiff competition, to fluctuating oil prices, and policies that may hurt profitability.
Oman Refinery Company’s Operations Management T report aims to analyse critically ORPIC’s existing operations management practices, focusing on such areas as HR, quality management, and supply chain.
Canbide Corporation Operations Management Tools This paper focuses on individual problems and potential solutions of Canbide Corporation with an emphasis on the need to have managers who are experienced to use analysis tools efficiently.
Aspects of Operations Management Operations management is a vast and encompassing term used to collectively describe all business activities, which drive its internal processes.
Introduction to Operations Management Course The “Introduction to management” course built a strong foundation of knowledge connected with the organization’s peculiarities, management strategies, and organization operations.
Transport Efficiency Through Operation Management Operations management is one of the management fields which are increasingly becoming relevant in the competitive business environment.
McDonald Corporation: Operations Management and Productivity In all the restaurants under McDonald Corporation around the world, there are a number of operations that are related to the overall organizational strategy.
Operations Management of Logistics and Supply Chain The effective operations management of logistics and supply chain can deliver various goals such as cost reduction, timely response, waste reduction, and improved profitability.
Big Bone BBQ and Wicked Wings Restaurants’ Operations Management The current system of Big Bone BBQ is successful, but it does not realize its full potential due to a lack of automation that leads to imprecision and considerable wastage.
Operations Management Definition Operations management is an essential process that uses raw materials to turn them into goods and services. This phenomenon is connected with the supply chain.
Azzaz Shop’s Operations and Information Management Azzaz is a mobile phone and accessories retailer based in England, owned by Lewis. The business started with a single shop, which Lewis has grown into a chain of eleven.
Operations Management and Productivity It is certain that operations management is crucial for every business that strives for development. This field addresses an array of organizational processes.
Operational Management in Large Organizations Using the example of Zara and Kohl stores, the paper analyzes the most effective strategies that allowed companies to realize themselves as profitably as possible.
Operation Management and Value Chain in Healthcare One of the main challenges in healthcare is that service cost reduction should not affect health outcomes in patients.
Strategic Shipping Operations Management: Liquefied Natural Gas This research analyzes some commercial and technical strategies most beneficial to facilitate the transportation of LNG with specialized designed LNG tankers.
Operations Management Research Operations management is connected directly to the value stream and is thus tasked to maximize its effectiveness and efficiency.
Operations and Information Management of CC Music The given report outlines the main features of CC Music, a company founded by Chris and Clive. It focuses on the provision of specific services to bands that include social media marketing.
The Operations Process and Types of Training Management in the Army Training is a significant aspect of improving the skills of soldiers and preparing them for upcoming or potential operations.
Operations and Supply Chain Management The principal task of this essay is to explain what can happen if a project stage is not completed and if a stakeholder decides not to participate in the project implementation.
Innovation in Operation Management – Personal Experience To overcome the different challenges faced by companies, they must put in place some strategies like differentiating their products or services from those of the competition.
Thai-Lay Fashion Company’s Operations Management The paper reviews operations management in business with reference to the Thai-Lay Fashion Company Ltd., which is situated in Hong Kong.
Operations Management in Thai-Lay Fashion Company Ltd. Thai-Lay is a textile manufacturing company in Hong Kong with its markets situated mainly in Europe. The company produces a wide range of ready-made garments for adults and children of both sexes.
Combat Stress and Operational Stress Management Combat and operational stress is emotional and physiological stress which is a direct result of dangers faced in combat or the mere tension of being in combat.
CB&I Firm’s Operations and Supply Chain Management CB&I is an American construction and building company that also supplies raw materials to various small and medium-sized firms.
Emergency Operations and Its Management This essay discusses emergency operations centers, and plans, preparing the populace, the press role, risk communication, and training and preparedness exercises.
Operations Management: Factors and Approaches Operations management is critical for any business because it can be used for effective work that ensures the possibility to meet the overall business objectives.
“Operations Management” Term in Academic Literature This paper is aimed at discussing the way in which the business notion of “operations management” is introduced in the academic literature.
Production and Operations Management Depreciation of products means lower prices for goods produced in mainland China. Products with a lower price may increase exports from both Hong Kong and mainland China.
Project and Operation Management Essentials Operation management can be defined as a system of theories and strategies aimed at optimizing the processes occurring in the setting of entrepreneurship or aimed at completing a specific project.
Nutmeg Enterprises’ Operations Management In the case study of Nutmeg Enterprises, the operational framework of the beverage manufacturer and distributor is provided.
Worldwide Chemical Company’s Operations Management The current “fix it” approach maintained by the Worldwide Chemical Company is ultimately faulty. It leads to the decreased first-quality product yields and on-time deliveries.
American Workplace and Operations Management The paper reviews “State of the American Workplace” analysis by Gallup and provides applications of operations management concepts to improving employee engagement.
Abasco Company: Operations Management Although Abasco, Inc. has been developing at a rather fast pace in the manufacturing department, it has been showing comparatively low performance rates since recently.
EBags Company: Operations Management Analysis EBags had big expectations for the opportunities that the European market supposedly had in store for the company since there was a niche that the entrepreneurship was going to fill.
The Oasis Company Operations Management The Oasis Company has been in business for quite a while (since the 1990s). The essential purpose of the organization under analysis concerns providing flowers.
Operations and Supply Chain: Management Course The course serves as a real eye-opener in terms of what gravity the choice of the operation strategy and framework has on the overall efficacy of an organization.

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Operations Research Center

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Research activities.

At the ORC, we believe that research can change the world. Correspondingly, research is the key component of our program. The ORC provides students with exciting opportunities to explore a diverse array of applications and methodologies in operations research and analytics. Our students start working in research from day one, a distinguishing chracteristic of the ORC education.

Recent research topics include:

approximation algorithms
discrete, continuous, convex, robust, stochastic optimization
ground and air transportation
health care
health care analytics
machine learning and its interface with optimization
online algorithms
personalized medicine
pricing and revenue management
social networks
stochastic modeling
supply chain management

Research activities range from one-on-one projects involving a single faculty member and student, to much larger programs involving teams of faculty and students. Regardless of their scope, all of our projects aim to have real-world impact.

Fields that our research contributes to include:

engineering
service industry
transportation

Whether working in the ORC’s newly renovated, open workspace or one of MIT’s world-class research labs, you’ll be equipped with the latest technology and collaborative spirit you need to succeed—and to make valuable contributions to our field and the world..

Additional Research Activities

In order to inspire and challenge the research of our members, the ORC continually engages with the national and international OR community through the following:

participation in the Sloan School of Management Operations Management Workshop, which invites faculty and students to present their current research each week throughout the academic year
reading seminars, in which MIT students and faculty review and present summaries of current research papers on advanced study topics not covered in other courses
seminar presentations by faculty and scientists from public and private institutions as well as other universities
seminar series, in which prominent OR professionals from around the world present topics in operations research
the appointment of visiting scientists

ORC Research

Research is the key currency at the ORC and is a principle way in which the ORC achives its mission.

Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Choosing a great topic for your graduate, master or doctoral dissertation can often feel more challenging than actually undertaking the study. Knowing that the time spent on this work, which may be months, or in some cases years, on a PhD or Master’s Degree is so critical to success can making the topic choice seem daunting. Our advice is to always choose a topic that you love, or an area you find interesting because this makes the whole process much less arduous. It’s also often a good idea to look into the areas where your advisor has knowledge and experience so that they can guide and focus your work. Most importantly the topic should be focused and manageable. If these factors are taken into account when choosing a topic in the field of Operations Manager, the overall task will be much easier, interesting and can lead to new routes for you in your professional or academic development. To help in preparing for this great challenge, this article provides suggestions for Operations Management topics in a range of key areas such as the supply chain, scheduling, inventory management and design of services, all of which are current areas in the field.

Supply chain design and control Dissertation Topics

Inventory Management Dissertation Topics

Production scheduling dissertation topics, product development dissertation topics, design of services dissertation topics, dynamic pricing dissertation topics, industrial risk management dissertation topics, logistics dissertation topics, manufacturing and supply-chain dissertation topics.

Total quality management Dissertation Topics

Supply Chain Design and Control Dissertation Topics

The development and maintenance of effective Supply chains is one of the most crucial organisational elements of any manufacturing organisation and their achievement of competitive advantage and the building of good customer relationships. The planning, design and effective control of the supply chain and its various elements and stakeholders is of utmost importance to the success of the organisations. Organisations need to evaluate continuously improve and evolve their supply chains, and there is an increasing use of technology and other digital solutions to support control, measure and evaluation of this important facet of the organisations systems. With the development of automation, data analytics and a focus on corporate social responsibility effective and innovative supply chain design and control is moving forward into a new era. For up to date, timely operations management dissertation topics within this area please see the suggestions below.

What does “Legality” mean in reference to supply chain design?
The virtual supply chain and its role in streamlining short-term business partnerships
Supply chain management: Is autonomous transportation a reality and how effective can it be?
Blockchain technology and its effect on the UK supply chain: Issues and challenges
Supply chain management and impact of information technology: An analysis of manufacturing firms in UK.
E-commerce for supply chain management.
Supply chain management: Case study on Amazon.com and innovative solutions for packing, picking and delivering
Big Data and its role in revolutionising the supply chain for online retailers
How the supply chain differs on a B2C site compared to a B2B environment.
Supply chain control management: A case study on HP, UK.
Track and trace technology and its contribution to competitive advantage at Johnson and Johnson
I Robot : the use of Robotic picking and automation by Alibaba and the effect on supply chain efficiencies
How important will crowd-sourced transportation like Uber and Deliveroo be for reducing costs and increasing efficiency during “last mile delivery”

Inventory management is the supervision of non-capitalized assets (inventory) and stock items. A component of supply chain management, inventory management supervises the flow of goods from manufacturers to warehouses and from these facilities to point of sale.

As an integral component of supply chain management, inventory management refers to the systems of supervision for inventory and stock items, managing and monitoring the flow of goods from manufacturers to distributors and retailers. The processes can be complex and an inventory management system requires clear planning and concise and closely measured processes and technologies to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Suggestions for operations management dissertations topics on inventory management are:

Inventory management is still the backbone of supply chain management: True or False?
The influence of big data analytics in effective inventory management.
The importance of RFID in inventory management at Toyota UK.
How Smart is Smart Inventory in the grocery retail sector : Analysis of Smart inventory management at Tesco.
The internet of things and inventory management : how IoT is connecting customers to suppliers in a more efficient way
Inventory management or logistics solutions: how just in time approaches and inventory technology are changing traditional inventory management processes
Inventory management for e-commerce.
Inventory management with multiple procurement modes: A case study in UK.
Analytical study of inventory management in a car manufacturing organisation.
Warehouse drones and how they could change the face of inventory management : Examination of Sony and Amazon’s plans for connecting robotic automation with inventory management software
Are wearable scanning devices more time efficient than hand-held units – examination of wearable scanners in a FMCG warehouse setting
AI and inventory management : The role of artificial intelligence in making accurate stock decisions at Amazon.com

Production planning refers to the organisational function of establishing an overall level of output, called the production plan. The process also includes any other activities needed to satisfy current planned levels of sales, but should also incorporate the the firm’s general objectives in terms of profit, productivity, lead times, and achievement of customer satisfaction, defined with the strategic plan for the organisation. From a managerial perspective production planning requires the development of an integrated strategy where the operation element is the foundation and a crucial element of the production plan. Dissertations in production scheduling could cover any of the following topics.

Production scheduling techniques in a manufacturing environment.
Production scheduling techniques in a car manufacturing industry.
Toyota production scheduling techniques: A case analysis in UK.
The significance of theory of constraints in production scheduling.
Production scheduling in steel industry: A case study on Mittal Steel.
Fuzzy theory applied to production planning as a means of improving the accuracy of planning decision making processes
How integrated production planning and cross-employee communication increases productivity and employee motivation
Using AI to improve quality control : A case study of Amazon.com
Production scheduling optimisation within the Pharmaceutical industry through technology
Real time communication between multi-site manufacturers and the impact on productivity scheduling

Product development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved in the product development process: one involves the idea generation, product design, and detail engineering whilst the second path involves market research and marketing analysis for the proposed new product. NPD is the first operational stage in generating and bringing to market new products when looked at from the perspective of product life cycle management. If your area of interest is NPD, the following dissertation topics may be useful:

Fitting in: The world of the techno eco-system and what it means for NPD
Product development and how the process has been hijacked by consumers wanting to collaborate and innovate with food companies
Product mix and New Product Development strategies to meet consumer’s ethical and CSR demands
How do they do it? Critical analysis of Apple’s NPD strategy and process
Product development strategy In the automotive industry: Toyota’s lean thinking and its effectiveness in launching new products
Is technology like 3D printing changing the NPD process and what does this mean for small businesses?
Product life cycles in the digital age – is a new approach needed?
Product development strategy: case study Amazon.com.
Impact of information technology on product development strategy: case study on organisations based in UK.
Crowd-funding, new product development and people powered innovation: a new theory of NPD and its place in the product life cycle

Service Design is the activity of planning and organising people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service, in order to improve its quality, the interaction between service provider and customers and the customer’s overall experience. The increasing relevance of the service sector, both in terms of people employed and economic importance, requires services to be accurately designed. An operations dissertation on the design of services could include:

Customer service in e-business : Case study of Amazon.com
Spirituality, investment and motivation: Why Starbucks services design is a major contributor to its success.
Service design in fund management company.
Design and implementation of e-commerce web services.
Four major characteristics of services and the marketing strategies available for the service organisation.
Impact of big data analytics in creating effective service design.
Solutions and experience are the new service mantras, or are they just old wine in new bottles?
Future technology impact on service design.
The principles of service design thinking and how to apply them in a small restaurant business
Applying service design in the NHS: Sequencing a customer journey to improve experience
Co-creation of the service journey in manufacturing, from order through processing to delivery: examination of the integration of service design at BMW
Tesla motors and co-creation of a full service journey for customers through partnerships and alliances

Variable, dynamic pricing allows the retailer to change or fluctuate prices due to different variables, conditions, and situations. Being able to manage dynamic pricing strategies is a key ability for companies wishing to succeed in the world of e-commerce in particular. The forces of supply and demand are leading variables that dictate pricing. An operations dissertation on dynamic pricing would make for very interesting reading.

E-business models of dynamic pricing.
Dynamic pricing: A case study of the travel industry.
Consumer responses to dynamic pricing in the airline industry
Dynamic pricing: A case study of the insurance industry.
Comparing the use of dynamic pricing in the airline and retail industries
The importance of dynamic pricing in ‘auctioning’.
Analysis of the current issues, future trends and opportunities associated with dynamic pricing.
The significance of dynamic pricing in online retailing
Dynamic pricing: A case study on easyJet.
Dynamic pricing in a B2B environment in the UK.
Dynamic pricing in the UK service industry
Competition-based dynamic pricing in e-commerce
Price guarantees and dynamic pricing strategies

The majority of industrial and engineering operations are in the risk world. Almost everything done involves probabilities and consequences. Within these industrial settings, there are many factors contributing to uncertainty, for example, external influences (oil prices, political changes, etc.), equipment characteristics (reliability, availability), materials, contractors’ performance, suppliers, organization complexity, and human error. This is a very important issue within the business world and makes for an excellent operations dissertation.

Risk management in the UK construction industry: A case study
Risk management in the pharma industry: a case study analysis in the UK.
Is risk management different in the banking industry?
Risk management in the retail industry
Internal and external factors affecting industrial risk management
The impact of rapidly advancing information technology on industrial risk management: A case study if the automobile industry
Big data analytics and risk management for improving business operations
Risk management in the aviation industry
Human factors affecting industrial risk management
Industrial risk management in rural part of the UK.
The impact of risk management on production decisions
How can firms proactively manage supply chain risk?
Critical success factors in supply chain risk management in industrial firms in the UK

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources, including energy and people, between the point of origin and the point of consumption. The aim is usually to meet the requirements of consumers. To achieve its goals, logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material-handling, and packaging. Operations management dissertation topics for your logistics management dissertation could include:

Is the rise of intermodal international logistics affecting the operations of manufacturing companies?
Transport and logistics
Evaluation of the logistics operations carried out within manufacturing organisations
The logistic industry and corporate social responsibility: A closer look.
The impact of recent improvements in information technology on the logistics industry.
Principles of logistic management: an evaluation in a practical environment using Amazon as a case study
Anticipatory logistics on supply chain management.
Logistics management as a competitive advantage: A comparative analysis of Tesco and Asda
Value chain strategy of the logistic industry in the UK.
Optimising third party logistics using Big Data
Vehicle route optimisation in London
Decision-support systems to tackle the challenges of last mile logistics
Last mile logistics for the delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables in cities

Manufacturing strategy is a functional strategy, which means that manufacturing objectives should be derived from business objectives, and then manufacturing policies developed to address these objectives. Supply chain management (SCM) is the combination of art and science that goes into improving the way a company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. Possible topics for your operations dissertation are:

Is manufacturing strategy the key to business success?
Manufacturing strategies of automobile OEMs in China
Comparing the manufacturing strategies of automobile OEMs in China and the UK
A case study of Boeing’s manufacturing strategy
How Dell changed the computer world with its supply chain strategy: A retrospective case study
Combining environmental management with supply chain management: A case study on BMW
Examining continuous production as a manufacturing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry
E-supply chain management: An examination of the use of technology to build superior supply chains
ERP: A boon to supply chain strategy?
The impact of information technology on manufacturing strategy
Using information technology to support an integrated supply chain strategy
The potential of the Cloud for enhancing manufacturing strategy
Using an agile supply chain strategy to support supply chain performance
The impact of manufacturing flexibility on financial performance in the fashion industry

Total Quality Management Dissertation Topics

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organisational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centres, government and service industries, as well as NASA space and science programs. If you are looking at the area of Total Quality Management for your operations dissertation, the following topics may be useful:

Is Total Quality Management enough for competitive advantage?
Can TQM be a factor of sustainable competitive advantage for SME organisations?
Evolution of quality: First fifty years of production and operations management in the UK
Implementation of Total Quality Management: an empirical study of UK manufacturing firms.
Total Quality Management and customer satisfaction in homebuilding.
The application of Total Quality Management in construction field operations.
The impact of TQM on innovation
TQM: Theory and the practical implementation in the UK.
Creating synergies between TQM and information technology.
To what extent can TQM be applied in the public sector?
Using Quality Management to develop excellence in UK’s third sector
Barriers to the implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model in the UK

Mapping research on healthcare operations and supply chain management: a topic modelling-based literature review

1 School of Business and Law, CQ University, Rockhampton North Campus, Sydney, Australia

Devika Kannan

2 SDU- Center for Sustainable Supply Chain Engineering, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, Odense, Denmark

The literature on healthcare operations and supply chain management has seen unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This paper seeks to advance the body of knowledge on this topic by utilising a topic modelling-based literature review to identify the core topics, examine their dynamic changes, and identify opportunities for further research in the area. Based on an analysis of 571 articles published until 25 January 2022, we identify numerous popular topics of research in the area, including patient waiting time, COVID-19 pandemic, Industry 4.0 technologies, sustainability, risk and resilience, climate change, circular economy, humanitarian logistics, behavioural operations, service-ecosystem, and knowledge management. We reviewed current literature around each topic and offered insights into what aspects of each topic have been studied and what are the recent developments and opportunities for more impactful future research. Doing so, this review help advance the contemporary scholarship on healthcare operations and supply chain management and offers resonant insights for researchers, research students, journal editors, and policymakers in the field.

Introduction

Effective and efficient delivery of healthcare services is essential to counteract emergent diseases and promote healthy lives and the well-being of a population, particularly amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Many healthcare systems across the globe strive to efficiently utilise available resources and improve processes through more integrated operations involving all key stakeholders. As such, in the past few decades, research on healthcare has grown exponentially and has become a self-sustained discipline in operations and supply chain management (OSCM). Healthcare OSCM is a network of healthcare providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug suppliers, distributors, and logistics service providers that are involved in the process of acquiring and transforming raw material into finished products, adding value, and facilitating the flow of products and services to the end-customer. With the rapid growth of research on healthcare OSCM, the extant studies have been conducted in various directions and expanded over a dozen of academic journals.

As the field has grown, a corresponding growth in systematic literature reviews in healthcare has occurred, especially in the past six years. For example, Narayana et al. ( 2014 ) reviewed 99 articles (published between 2000 to 2011) on the pharmaceutical supply chain and explore that most studies focus on efficiency improvement with growing interest in process analysis and technology implementation. Volland et al. ( 2017 ) presented a review of 145 articles (published between 1998 and 2014) on material logistics in hospitals and suggested further work on the concepts of supply and procurement, inventory management, and distribution and scheduling. Ali et al. ( 2018 ) conducted a review of 88 articles (published between 2009 and 2018) on cloud computing in hospitals and devised a framework on opportunities, issues, and applications of cloud computing-enabled healthcare systems. Malik et al. ( 2018 ) reviewed 22 articles (published between 2001 and 2015) on the application of data mining in healthcare service delivery and revealed that application of data mining is narrow-focused (workforce scheduling and quality of care), thereby suggesting further research on the broader application of data mining. Moons et al. ( 2019 ) presented a review of 56 articles (published between 2010 and 2016) on logistics performance measurement in the internal hospital supply chain, specifically inventory management and distribution activities in the operation theatre. Diwas Singh et al. ( 2020 ) offered a review of 70 empirical articles (published between 1999 and 2018) from three journals ( Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management ) and suggested the need for more empirical research on personalised medicine, value-based healthcare, and digitisation of healthcare. Keskinocak and Savva ( 2020 ) mapped the healthcare research published between 2009 and 2018 from a single journal ( Manufacturing and Service Operations Management ) and suggested the need to develop and apply new OM methods for the improvement of healthcare service.

The existing literature reviews have different scopes and emphases focusing on a specific topic (e.g., material logistics in hospitals, data mining, only empirical papers, etc.). In other words, they are not designed to capture latent topics (hidden topics) that reside in large volumes of scholarly data. Expanding upon some knowledge from the existing reviews, this paper seeks to advance our understanding of the key research topics that have been addressed in healthcare OSCM using a topic modelling-based literature review. Topic modelling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) has been found as an effective method to algorithmically and automatically uncover the abstract topics that reside in a large and unstructured collection of articles (Antons et al., 2016 ; Blei, 2012 ; Zhang, 2012 ). LDA topic modelling builds upon rigorous statistical foundations which allows topic generation with little human intervention and/or manual processing (Blei, 2012 ; Zhang, 2012 ). Such an automatic method creates more meaningful and realistic topics and ensures the reliability and validity of outcomes as opposed to manual methods (Griffiths & Steyvers, 2004 ). LDA has been successfully applied for topic modelling in the information science field (Yan, 2014 ), marketing (Tirunillai & Tellis, 2014 ), statistics (De Battisti et al., 2015 ), tourism (Guo et al., 2017 ), decision sciences (Chae & Olson, 2018 ), computer science (Guo et al., 2017 ), and hydropower research (Jiang et al., 2016 ). However, to date, we have only seen a very limited application of topic modelling-base literature in OSCM fields (e.g., Chae & Olson, 2018 ; Lee & Kang, 2018 ), particularly in the healthcare context, to explore the significant topics hidden in a large sample of articles and to locate gaps for further research in each topic. As such, this study aims to: (1) uncover the latent topics residing in the articles published on healthcare OSCM, (2) examine the topic trend/evolution over time including hot, cold, and steady topics, and (3) find opportunities for more impactful research on each topic through a review of the literature around each topic. Driven by these core aims; the following research questions are posed:

What are the emergent topics of research in the field of healthcare OSCM?
How has research on each topic evolved over the past two decades?
What are the opportunities for more impactful future research in the area?

Our study is among the few that offers a topic modelling-based review of literature, which allows us objectively to uncover hidden patterns of research that pervade in a large collection of studies and to explore the development of literature on each topic. The paper advances our understanding of how the literature on different topics in the field of healthcare OSCM has evolved over time and what are the recent trends, knowledge flow, and opportunities for insightful research on each topic. We find an increasing focus and need for further investigation on some emergent topics, such as patient waiting time, COVID-19 pandemic, Industry 4.0 technologies, sustainability, risk and resilience, climate change, circular economy, humanitarian logistics, behavioural operations, service-ecosystem, and knowledge management. In terms of research methods, our analysis shows the increasing interest of researchers in the Markov method, mixed-integer programming, simulation, queueing model and stochastic programming in exploring multidimensional issues of healthcare OSCM. In addition, our analysis suggests that the past three years have also seen some empirical contributions in the area, including structural equation modelling, longitudinal study, and action research; thus, encouraging empirical researchers for more fruitful contributions on the topic.

Our study offers valuable research directions to researchers, journal editors, and policymakers in the field of healthcare OSCM. Researchers can observe whether their recent research topics are hot, cold, or steady, which will allow them to select appropriate topics for more productive forthcoming study in the area. Particularly, some early-career researchers find it difficult to keep up with the growing literature in their fields of research and familiarise themselves with a huge volume of literature in identifying the subject area on which they can focus or apply for research grants. The information from our topic modelling can be a useful tool for these researchers to understand recent developments in the field and then select more appropriate topics. Our findings can also be helpful to PhD students, who often face difficulties in topic selection due to time pressure. Journal editors can view if the extant research is consistent with their editorial policy, and they may even choose to launch a new editorial vision and direction. Our list of hot topics can be a valuable reference tool to launch special issues in the journals. Discovering underlying topics and tracking their evolution could also be of great interest to policymakers (e.g., government agencies) and industry. The information on which research themes and methods are growing or declining in popularity over time (Table (Table3 3 and Fig. 4 ) can support governmental funding agencies for grants allocation to promising areas. Likewise, firm managers and the industry as a whole can use this information to formulate promising R&D strategies and more informed investment decisions.

Hot, cold, and steady topics/methods

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Topic trend/dynamic over time

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 elaborates on the research methods, covering data collection, screening and analysis procedures. Section 3 outlines results which include word cloud, key term matrix, topic labelling, and evolution of each topic over time. Section 4 provides discussion, while Sect. 5 offers a review of literature and opportunities for further research. The study is concluded in Sect. 6.

As mentioned earlier, this study employs the topic modelling method. The superiority of the topic modelling method has been evidenced in other fields, for example, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) (Deerwester et al., 1990 ), Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) (Lee & Seung, 1999 ), and probabilistic topic modelling. LSA uses singular value decomposition and a traditional matrix factorization technique to reduce the dimensionality of documents (Deerwester et al., 1990 ). Unlike singular value decomposition, in NMF, the transformed and reduced version of documents contains no negative elements (Lee & Seung, 1999 ). Probabilistic topic modelling is a recent development in topic modelling where words and documents are described through probabilistic topics, and a topic is described in terms of a probability distribution over a vocabulary of words (Hofmann, 2001 ; Lee & Kang, 2018 ). Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is the most popular probabilistic topic modelling algorithm. A comparison of LSA, NMF, and LDA suggests that LDA has the greatest ability to maintain topic coherence and to generate predominant topics that handle the issue of polysemy, the overlapping of words with multiple meanings (Stevens et al., 2012 ). LDA has been successfully applied in the information science field (Yan, 2014 ), marketing (Tirunillai & Tellis, 2014 ), statistics (De Battisti et al., 2015 ), tourism (Guo et al., 2017 ), decision sciences (Chae & Olson, 2018 ), computer science (Guo et al., 2017 ), and hydropower research (Jiang et al., 2016 ). Borrowing knowledge from adjacent areas, this study employs LDA in healthcare. The analysis is completed in four main steps: data collection; text pre-processing; word cloud; and topic modelling.

Data collection

The analysis aims to uncover the landscape of healthcare research published in good quality international journals in the field of operations and supply chains. The data were collected from Scopus on 25 January 2022, which is one of the largest abstracts and citation databases of academic papers (Ali & Gölgeci, 2019 ; Ferreira, 2018 ; Ali et al., 2021a , 2021b ). To retrieve a broad range of literature on the topic, a large set of keywords was developed based on the authors’ extensive knowledge of the field and review of the extant literature in the field. These keywords included: healthcare, AND operations AND “supply chain” OR hospital OR pharmaceutical OR drug OR medicine AND model OR framework OR Stochastic OR Simulation OR “linear programming” OR Heuristic OR mathematical OR optimization OR “numerical model” OR “nonlinear programming” OR “decision tool” OR “decision analysis” OR “discrete event” OR multi-objective OR multi-objective OR multi-attribute OR multi-criteria OR MCDM OR MCDA OR qualitative OR quantitative OR “case study” OR empirical. Quotation marks were placed on the keywords comprised of more than one word (e.g., “linear programming”) to ensure that search engines consider them as one word.

Initially, we did not limit the timespan because we sought to capture a wide range of publications. The search query generated 663 articles. We excluded the three articles published before 2000 to set the time interval between 2000 and 25 January 2022 (the date of data collection). Next, we carefully read the title and abstract of each article and excluded irrelevant articles. We also excluded articles in non-English languages. Extreme care was taken to include the articles that focus on healthcare OSCM. The inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in the final set of 571 articles as shown in the supplementary file. Table Table1 1 presents the distribution of these articles.

Distribution of articles across 20 selected journals

The articles selected from Scopus were validated using other databases, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, ProQuest, and EBSCO to ensure that no important articles were missed in the review. The validation process also helped confirm that Scopus contains a greater number of related articles on the topic of healthcare OSCM compared to other databases, so it was used as a preferred database for this research.

Data pre-processing

Once the articles are collected from Scopus, some pre-processing of data collected is required to conduct further analysis. First, since our search result included the article’s title, keywords and abstract, we merged them as a single document. Second, we removed all punctuation and numbers and transformed all characters into lower-case. Third, we eliminated all “stop-words,” whose main role is to make a sentence grammatically correct, e.g., articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (of, by, from, etc.) and general words that repeatedly appear in most articles, e.g., “and,” “paper”, “find”, “effect”, and “discuss”. These words are not semantically meaningful, yet they create trouble in the analysis process. This step is important because without applying stop-word elimination, our analytical method could result in a big proportion of these unwanted words in the word cloud as well as in the topic matrix.

Word cloud with R-package is a text mining method to find the most frequently used keywords in sampled articles. A word cloud was designed to allow a visual interpretation of main themes and their trajectories in our review transcripts over the four different periods (2000–2004, 2005–2009, 2010–2014, 2015–2022). As mentioned earlier, we also included articles published until 25 January 2022. Data file for each period was imported into a popular R package, word cloud (Hornik & Grün, 2011 ) with default Dirichlet hyperparameters. The following functions in the R-package were applied to create word clouds: tm for text mining: snowballC for text stemming; Wordcloud2 for generating word cloud images; RColorBrewer for colour palettes.

Topics modelling

To extract the predominant topics from the 571 sampled articles, LDA’s generative process model was applied (Blei, 2012 ). Figure 1 demonstrates the process and its main variables where η is the parameter of the Dirichlet prior for the per-topic word distribution. K is the defined number of topics, while β k is a distribution of words over a topic. W represents the observable variable—the words in each article. W d,n is the n th word in article d . α is the parameter of the Dirichlet on the per-article topic distribution. θ d is a distribution of topics for the d th article. Z d,n is the topic assignment for the nth word in article d . Some variables are interdependent, that is, W (the observed word) depends on β (the distribution of topics) and Z (the topic assignment for the word), on θ (the topic proportion for the document). This process can be represented by the joint distribution of latent and observed variables through the following Figure and equations:

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The graphical representation for LDA.

Adapted from Blei ( 2012 )

The generative process aims to explore the topic structure (θ, z , and β), which can explain W . Given the observed variable ( W ), the posterior distribution is estimated with the following equation:

The purpose of Fig. 1 and Eqs. 1 and 2 herein is to demonstrate the analysis process followed by LDA. To perform the analysis objectively and automatically, we used the R-package topic-models along with the tm package (Hornik & Grün, 2011 ). This analytical process produces a document term matrix for the desired number of topics.

Analysis and results

This section presents the analysis and the results of data processing, which consist of word cloud, topic modelling, and topic labelling.

As presented in Fig. 2 , the word clouds show some noticeable changes between 2000 and 2022 in the healthcare literature. In the first period (2000–2004), the popular terms include strategy, logistics, risk, simulation, integer, programming, operations, reengineering, information, inventory, and planning. While a few terms in the first period and second period (2005–2009) are similar (e.g., reengineering, outsourcing, supply, chains, healthcare, strategy, logistics), several new terms became popular in the second period which includes sustainability, warehousing, reverse, heuristic, stochastics, empirical, knowledge, humanitarian, among others.

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Word cloud demonstrating changing pattern of terms over time (2000–2022)

The third period (2010–2014) shows some important changes, where several new terms (e.g., behavioural, literature, reviews, multilevel, action, structural, equation, Markov) emerged, and other terms (e.g., reengineering, outsourcing, strategy) disappeared. Some other terms remain similar to the second period (e.g., sustainability, warehousing, reverse, heuristic, stochastics, empirical, knowledge, humanitarian, waiting time).

While many terms of the third period continued to appear in the fourth period (2015–2022), several new terms are generated: circular, economy, climate, change, longitudinal. Terms such as warehousing, marketing, strategy disappeared in this period. Understandably, the terms “healthcare”, “operations”, “supply”, “chain” appeared consistently across the four periods.

Topic modelling

While the visualisation of word clouds (observed words) provides a broad picture of the research dynamics in the literature motivating towards further analysis, it does not provide quantitative information on the relationship between different terms that are generated. Without having quantitative information on each key term, it would be difficult to merge the related terms and assign them into specific topics.

To derive the quantitative information on the nexus between different terms, we used LDA topic modelling that explores the hidden or latent structure and generates different topics by merging interrelated terms from the data set. Generating an appropriate number of topics ( K value) from the given sample of articles is always challenging (Roberts et al., 2014 ). Selecting too few topics would not provide a full and meaningful understanding of the field, while selecting too many topics often results in meaningless outcomes. Therefore, to select the appropriate number of topics, two measures were undertaken: (1) a different number of topics (K value) were tried and accuracies of outcome were checked for each set of topics, and (2) brainstorming among researchers was conducted to ensure topic quality and relatedness to the context of the study (Mimno & McCallum, 2012 ; Silge & Robinson, 2016 ). As a result, 34 relevant topics were produced using LDA with R-package (Fig. 3 ). For each topic, the top five terms were selected, where each term represents a distribution weight (per-topic term probability).

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Topic matrix generated in R-package using LDA principle

Topic labelling

We conducted topic labelling based on the ‘LDA topic matrix’ that produced 34 topics (see Fig. 3 ). Each topic constitutes five terms with different distribution weights. Since the term “healthcare,” “operations,” “supply,” and “chain” appeared in most topics, we decided not to use any of them in labelling the topics. Further, while topic labelling in Table Table2, 2 , we used the numbering/sequence of topics exactly following the sequence of topics in the ‘LDA topic matrix’ (Fig. 3 ). To briefly illustrate the process of topic labelling, we discuss a few examples of topic labelling. From Fig. 3 , the top terms in Topic#1 are queuing and waiting, followed by hospital, patient, process; therefore, the topic is labelled the “patient’s waiting time”. Topic#2 includes top terms, such as RFID, big, data followed cloud, computing; therefore, we label the topic as “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution with the growing use of autonomous technologies such as cloud computing, big data analytics, internet supported RFID and others. Topic# 3 encompasses sustainability, economic, sustainable; hence, it is labelled as sustainability.

Likewise, Topic#8 is labelled “risk and resilience” since the top terms are risk, adaption, resilience supported by healthcare and readiness. Topic#18 is labelled “Stochastic programming” because its top terms are stochastics, programming, followed by model, method, and chain. We adopted a similar process for labelling all 34 topics as demonstrated in Table Table2 2 .

Topic dynamic/evolution over time

In this section, we introduce the hot, cold, and steady topics (research themes and methods) to provide researchers with an idea of where trends are going (hot) and not going (cold). Exploring the dynamic changes in different topics over time can offer directions for more impactful research on healthcare. We identified three patterns of topic evolution including hot, cold, and steady. For this purpose, we employed a bivariate correlation between the frequency of keywords and time period using four different time periods, namely 2000–2004; 2005–2009; 2010–2014; 2015–2022 (Fig. 3 ). Scopus database was used to collect the information on the frequency of keywords (for each topic shown in Fig. 3 and Table Table2) 2 ) in each time interval.

Hot, cold, and steady topics (which include ‘research themes’ and ‘research methods’ as shown in Table Table3) 3 ) were identified based on the direction of the trendline on each topic and the value of slope (Fig. 4 ).

Hot topics show a trendline moving upward and a positive slope (x-value). Examples of the hot topics related to research themes include the Patient’s waiting time, Industry 4.0 technologies, Sustainability, Circular economy, Behavioural OSCM (OSCM), Risk and resilience, Climate change, and research methods that constitute Markov method, Simulation, Stochastic programming, among others.

The number of contributions on these topics (themes and methods) increased almost continuously from 2010 to 2014, with a dramatic increase on some topics (e.g., patient waiting time, sustainability, circular economy, etc.) between 2015 and 2022.

Cold topics, on the other hand, imply the opposite pattern to these hot topics; they show declining trendline and negative slope values, perhaps due to the relative lack of interest of researchers in recent times.

Examples of cold topics associated with research themes include warehousing, marketing, outsourcing, business process reengineering, strategy, operation strategy, and research methods of heuristics and game theory model among others. These topics enjoyed significant attention between 2000 and 2015, but their proportions have been steadily decreasing over the past five years (Fig. 4 ).

Finally, steady topics show a rise in the beginning but there is no rise or fall in trendlines over the past 5 or more years; perhaps, their importance has not been increased over time.

Overall, two topics depicted a steady growth over the past 5 or more years including goal programming and multi-level analysis. As can be seen in Fig. 4 , the trendline for goal programming modelling increased up to 2009, while no remarkable increase was observed since then. Likewise, the trendline for multi-level analysis shows an upward trend until 2014; however, no growth has been demonstrated since then.

While not investigated in this study, it can be speculated that these topics may lose the interest of research and likely become a cold topic in future. Drawing upon trendline and slope for each topic in Fig. 4 , we have presented all 34 topics under three main categories: hot, cold, and steady (Table (Table3). 3 ). For better clarity of expression, we have segregated the topics into themes and methods. While both themes and methods are both important, our focus is on research themes in this analysis and discussion.

Over the last two decades, research on healthcare OSCM has seen spectacular growth. In light of the burgeoning literature on the topic, this study was motivated to explore recent developments, trends, and core topics of research in the area. The study was driven by three key research questions. Addressing the first research question, we explored 34 core topics on which extant research on the topic has been conducted over the past decades. For the second research question, our topic modelling analysis has resulted in the identification of hot, cold, and steady topics in empirical research healthcare OSCM (Table (Table3 3 and Fig. 4 ). Thirteen topics of research themes show an upward trend, and nine of them (Patient waiting time, Industry 4.0, Sustainable OSCM, Behavioural OSCM, Risk and resilience, Humanitarian logistics, Climate change, Healthcare logistics, and Literature reviews) start with a relatively flat value (close to 0) before showing a rising trend from around 2010. The other four topics (Circular economy, Service ecosystem, Knowledge management, and Pharmaceutical OSCM) show a gradual upward trend from the early 2000s. Five research topics belong to cold topics. Outsourcing and operations strategy shows an almost linear declining trend, while both Marketing and Warehousing show a bell-shaped trend whose popularity rose in the early 2000s but fell after 2010 and 2015, respectively. Business process reengineering was a popular topic during the early 2000s but, since 2010, shows a declining trend. It is important to note, however, that being identified as a cold topic does not suggest that the topics are not important and should be abandoned. The results provide more of an indication about the interest (trends) of researchers’ interests rather than the importance of the topics themselves. It is also interesting to see that most of the changes of the trends (either upward or downward) of the topics took place around 2010.

Finally, in response to the third research question, we offered a review of the literature and identified numerous opportunities for further research (Sect. 5). Our findings show a shift of current research from traditional topics of operations management (Business process reengineering, Marketing, Outsourcing, Heuristics) to emergent topics such as Patient waiting time, Industry 4.0 technologies, Sustainable operations, Risk and resilience, Climate change, and Circular economy. In general, the shift in topics seems to show a move away from traditional, efficiency-focused research toward broader goals of superior customer service and system’s effectiveness. While each of the three groups of topics deserves discussion, in this section, we discuss the hot research topics as well as provide recommendations of avenues for fruitful future research. It should be noted that although the topic “literature reviews” was a hot topic, we do not include it in our discussion below as the extant research related to it has already been discussed in the introduction section.

Literature review and opportunities for further research

The following section provides a brief synthesis of current literature around emergent research topics that are recovered through topic modelling, and it offers numerous opportunities for further research in the field.

Patients’ waiting time and COVID-19

This research topic covers two interrelated and emerging issues: patient waiting time and COVID-19 outbreak. With a rapidly growing population of aged people, healthcare systems have been facing pressure for more health services resulting in patients’ long waiting times. Therefore, determining methods to ameliorate waiting time has been high on the agenda of most developing and developed economies. Correspondingly, in recent years, mostly building upon simulation and Markov as the primary method of research, considerable studies appeared around the issues of patients’ waiting time, such as patient’s admission process (Chae, 2019 ; Vissers et al., 2007 ); surgery procedures (VanBerkel & Blake, 2007 ); patient inflow and outflow in the emergency department (Abo-Hamad & Arisha, 2013 ); no-shows of patients and overbooking (Topuz et al., 2018 ); outpatient appointment scheduling (Shehadeh et al., 2019 ); time overestimation for the emergency procedure (Gartner & Padman, 2019 ); walk-in patients treatment (Pan et al., 2019 ); patient readmission and discharge planning model (Gu et al., 2019 ); resource planning model to reduce waiting time of patients (Hejazi, 2021 ); load smoothing of scheduled admission to the reduced number of beds required and probability of delay (Asgari & Asgari, 2021 ), and modelled association between length of appointment interval and no-shows of patients (Pan et al., 2021 ).

Overall, although the existing studies have captured several important issues related to patient waiting time, we identify the need for further research on this significant topic. For example, there is potential to develop an integrated model investigating how multiple factors such as general service time, equipment breakdown, high attrition of hospital staff, variability in patient’s arrival time, and unpunctuality of already booked patients cumulatively contribute to patients’ waiting time. Further research can also devise a model at the intersection of patients’ waiting list management, operations theatre scheduling, and patient waiting time for surgery. While the literature on simulation and mathematical modelling continues to grow, there is also an opportunity to further expand empirical research for testing causal links between various factors and their combined effect on patient waiting time. For example, empirical research can test links among customers’ heterogeneous behaviour and their service time in scheduling appointments. Further, a unified model capturing non-value-added practices at both micro and meso levels would be fruitful future research in reducing patient waiting time. While research on bedding and staffing is growing, there is a need to optimise bed and staff requirements amid the global pandemic. Another potential research area is to examine the longitudinal effect of hospital staff’s training on patients’ waiting time.

Likewise, given the outbreak of COVID-19, the recent literature of healthcare OSCM has been rapidly growing on the topic. Pamucar et al. ( 2022 ) proposed a model for supplier selection amid COVID-19. Fan and Xie ( 2022 ) generated an optimization model for COVID-19 testing facility design and planning. Ghaderi ( 2022 ) offered a framework for public health intervention in the wake of the pandemic. Govindan et al. ( 2020 ) developed a decision support system and fuzzy interface system to help with demand management in the healthcare supply chain amid the COVID-19 crises. Nagurney ( 2021a ) modelled labour shortage due to COVID-19, resulting in reduced food harvest and supply. Tavana et al. ( 2021 ) presented a mixed-integer programming model for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine in developing countries. Salarpour and Nagurney ( 2021 ) constructed a stochastic model to study competition among different countries for medical supplies amid COVID-19 crises. Nagurney ( 2021b ) offered a supply chain network optimization model to manage labour in electronic commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thakur ( 2021 ) developed a model to manage hospital waste during the COVID-19 outbreak. Choi ( 2021 ) used a sense-and-response specific OR model to demonstrate the specific actions needed to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

To sum up, while the past research continues to grow on COVID, it would be interesting to explore how to extenuate potential risks and develop shockproof healthcare systems to deal with unanticipated outbreaks such as COVID-19 and similar future incidents. In this regard, it is worth exploring how such a topic as Industry 4.0 technologies could be applied across the healthcare system to capture data from wide sources and help the decision-making process in the event of a pandemic, including contact tracing, the identification of the outbreak location. Some potential areas of research amid COVID-19 include but are not limited to patient inflow and outflow in the emergency department; outpatient appointment scheduling model; models on time estimation for the emergency procedure; walk-in patients’ treatment model; patient admission and discharge planning model; resource planning model to reduce waiting time of patients; load smoothing of scheduled admission to the reduced number of beds required and probability of delay. Besides, pharmaceutical SCM would be the ultimate hope for the recovery and possibly eradication of the virus that allows us to go back to normal life. It would be insightful to examine how pharmaceutical supply chains were affected by COVID-19 and develop a recovery model dealing with such a situation. In particular, if/when a pharmaceutical solution to COVID-19 emerges, research is needed to help understand the best ways to rapidly scale up and distribute the materials on a scale that has never been seen before. It is also of interest to study whether synergy in logistics could be achieved between the public organisations and the growing number of private companies that have entered the healthcare business. Future research should continue to incorporate the healthcare and hospital view into operations management and transfer established concepts from other industries into healthcare while accounting for industry specifics. Again, the links between this and COVID-19 are both obvious and critical.

Industry 4.0 technologies

Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution refers to fully automated and in-connected technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data analytics, blockchain, artificial intelligence, among others (Ali & Govindan, 2021 ; Ali et al., 2021a , 2021b ). Industry 4.0 technologies can enhance the level of service in the industry through real-time information sharing, visibility, traceability, agility, and connectivity within a firm’s boundary and across the supply chain (Govindan et al., 2022 ). Given this, growth in research on the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in healthcare service provision is evident, such as Sultan ( 2014 ) developed a conceptual framework on the potential of cloud computing in the advancement of healthcare services. Chong et al. ( 2015 ) modelled variables that influence the adoption of IoT (e.g., RFID) in healthcare. Priya and Ranjith Kumar ( 2015 ) used big data analytics to predict the progression of atherosclerotic disease, the narrowing and hardening of arteries due to the accumulation of plaque on the artery wall. Fan et al. ( 2018 ) recognised the factors affecting the adoption of artificial intelligence-based medical diagnosis support systems. Kochan et al. ( 2018 ) modelled on how cloud computing improves visibility and responsiveness in hospital SC. Galetsi et al. ( 2020 ) developed a theoretical framework for the realisation of big data analytics.

The research on Industry 4.0 is growing with the advent of new technologies and provides fruitful opportunities for further research. The models on big data should incorporate data of all inter-connected functions in healthcare, instead of just focusing on a single function or silo approach. For example, the impact of Industry 4.0 on the entire healthcare supply chain can be modelled. This is important to understand how interaction with different functions/partners through Industry 4.0 technologies influence healthcare productivity. Most of the current research focuses on big data and cloud computing which needs to be expanded to other Industry 4.0 technologies, such as blockchain, cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things in healthcare OSCM. There is a lack of a holistic model testing the combined impact of all Industry 4.0 technologies on the healthcare system and an investigation into if there is a trade-off for investing between various digital technologies would be helpful. Future research can also investigate how machine learning techniques impact diagnostic, maintenance, and prognostics systems in healthcare settings. Research highlights the intricate issues of human–machine interaction at the workplace (Arslan et al., 2021 ); we suggest further research on how to maintain trustworthiness and to harmonise productive human–machine interactions and reduce workers’ resistance to automated machines in the healthcare settings. We also highlight the need for further research on the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare OSCM.

Sustainable operations and supply chain

Today sustainability is a growing concern of most organisations and therefore the topic of sustainability has received increasing focus from researchers from operations management. Healthcare systems worldwide face pressing challenges of service quality and cost issues as well as safe disposal of waste. As such, in recent times considerable attempts have been made to realise sustainability in the healthcare system. Chauhan and Singh ( 2016 ) employed a hybrid model for the selection of sustainable locations to dispose of healthcare waste. Anuar et al. ( 2018 ) offered a conceptual framework demonstrating the link between lean practices and a sustainable healthcare system. Malekpoor et al. ( 2018 ) modelled a sustainable healthcare treatment plan. Thorsen and McGarvey ( 2018 ) investigated the effectiveness of fixed and mobile dentistry for the financial sustainability of the healthcare system. Mousa and Othman ( 2020 ) found a positive impact of green human resource management practices on a sustainable healthcare system.

While research on healthcare sustainability is growing, there is still space for further research. For instance, more studies are needed that simultaneously investigate the impact of all three dimensions (social, environmental, economic) of sustainability through a single model. Prospective studies can also investigate the combined impact of synchronous business activities including green human resource management, green marketing, and green production on healthcare sustainability. There is also an opportunity to develop a sustainable performance measurement and management model in healthcare.

Circular economy

The circular economy is a recent concept aimed to eliminate waste through the make, use, recycle and reuse approach. It helps to overcome a take-make-dispose linear pattern of production and consumption. The healthcare industry inevitably generates waste that may become hazardous to both public health and the environment. Therefore, the circular economy has recently gained significant attention in healthcare literature. For example, Kumar and Rahman ( 2014 ) suggested RFID supported process reengineering for waste management ensuring circular economy. Jensen et al. ( 2019 ) discussed the healthcare refurbish system as a means to reduce waste. Dehghani et al. ( 2019 ) suggested that transhipment can reduce waste and save substantial costs compared to no-transhipment. Viegas et al. ( 2019 ) identified the need for research on the circularity of end-of-use medicine in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Although research circular economy has witnessed mounting attention, there is still room for further research. For instance, there is a need to develop a model that could make the circularity of outdated medicine more visible through all stages of reverse flow and re-manufacturing. Also, healthcare literature lacks studies modelling processes and decision-making for circular economy implementation at micro and meso levels. Prospective research can also explore the healthcare staff’s perception of the circular economy. It would be interesting to investigate how healthcare professionals are prepared to deal with the circular economy and how they might contribute to reducing wastage in reverse flow.

Service ecosystem

With its root in marketing, the service ecosystems concept is defined as “relatively self-contained, self-adjusting systems of resource-integrating actors connected by shared institutional logics and mutual value creation through service exchange” (Vargo & Akaka, 2012 , p. 207). That is, the service ecosystem generates value for all the actors in a network through resource integration, value co-creation, and co-innovation. The service ecosystem concept has received a great deal of attention in healthcare literature. Nudurupati et al. ( 2015 ) elaborate on the process of value co-creation through strategic alliance and collaboration with multi-stakeholders. Albarune et al. ( 2015 ) suggested a value-based supply chain for integrated hospital management. Chae ( 2019 ) suggested digital innovation as a promising source of resource sharing and value creation among actors in an ecosystem. Lee et al. ( 2020 ) showed a positive relationship between the previous year value-based purchasing penalty and the current year care process improvement in the hospital.

Service ecosystem research is a growing area of research in the healthcare context; thus, offering opportunities for further expansion. For example, the influence of contextual behavioural factors in value co-creation and unlocking innovation needs further investigation. Also, service ecosystem research needs to be expanded from the organisational level to the entire healthcare system. For example, how resource integration practice can be integrated into a multitude of value co-creation processes in the healthcare networks. Moreover, the role of advanced technologies and servitisation in the healthcare service ecosystem has yet to be investigated.

Knowledge management

Knowledge management refers to the process of generating, transferring, and managing knowledge and information in an organisation or network. Knowledge management becomes a major driver of performance and productivity where front-line workers are required to provide customised services tailored to the need of individual clients such as healthcare. As such, the literature has witnessed considerable growth in literature on knowledge management in healthcare settings. Gagnon et al. ( 2016 ) empirically corroborated a positive association between knowledge management on staff practices and quality of healthcare. Mura et al. ( 2016 ) found that knowledge exchange and assets have a positive impact on workers’ innovation, such as idea generation, idea promotion and idea implementation. Avgerinos and Gokpinar ( 2017 ) argued that knowledge transfer capability in a team positively influences healthcare productivity. Hiranrithikorn and Sutduean ( 2019 ) expound that access to information and knowledge has a positive influence on healthcare supply chain skills. Despite considerable contributions to knowledge management, there is still significant room for further research. A few models are investigating the impact of knowledge sharing on the quality and productivity of healthcare performance. Qualitative research can be conducted to explore the barrier and enablers of knowledge sharing in healthcare. Future research can use multi-method research investigating the relationship between social capital, culture, and knowledge management.

Behavioural operations

Research on behavioural operations is well-received, particularly from healthcare service perspectives. Healthcare systems have two main stakeholders: staff and patients. The research suggests that the findings of healthcare modelling may not be reliable without considering the behaviours of the main stakeholders (Brailsford et al., 2012 ). For example, a simulation model suggesting the effectiveness of a new drug will be unreliable if it does not consider patient behaviour; some patients may not complete the prescribed course of medication, and potential side effects of medicine should be shown. As such, healthcare literature has seen an emergence of interest in understanding both human behaviour in practice and how to capture it in operations research models. Brailsford et al. ( 2012 ) used a simulation model capturing behavioural factors of a patient while treating breast cancer. Based on a review of literature, Kunc et al. ( 2018 ) identified scarcity of research on behavioural aspects of healthcare. Harper ( 2019 ) used a queuing model to assess how healthcare workers behave and treat patients, especially when such professionals encounter changing workloads, service queues, and other factors that impact service quality.

To sum, behavioural operational research has become an important research topic in healthcare but significant room for further research in the area remains intact. Specifically, we suggest more research with detailed models on the nexus between behavioural interventions on healthcare practice. Future research can model workforce adaptive behaviours and productivity. We agree that the incorporation of behavioural factors is important to increase the reliability of the healthcare model because of the increasing influence of human behaviours in healthcare operations. Future research can also examine the behavioural consequences of inter-organisational interaction in complex healthcare systems.

Risk and resilience

Healthcare systems are susceptible to operational failures in services offered to patients when a shortage of medicine and equipment occurs, or when the execution of such systems is incorrectly managed. Given the divergent risks emerging from a variety of sources, there is an increasing focus on risk mitigation and the development of resilient healthcare. Nemeth et al. ( 2011 ) developed a model for healthcare crises management and resilience. Mahjoub et al. ( 2014 ) found risk mitigation in healthcare through a risk-sharing agreement between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare service providers. Saedi et al. ( 2016 ) suggested an optimal inventory policy to reduce drug shortage risks. Rubbio et al. ( 2019 ) examined the role of digital technologies in developing healthcare resilience. Rahimian et al. ( 2019 ) investigated an appropriate level of risk-aversion through robust optimization. Zhang et al. ( 2020 ) formulated a model which helps to reduce overtime risk during surgery in a hospital.

While research on risk and resilience in healthcare is growing, there is still substantial room for more impactful future research. Most models investigate risk and resilience in isolation. Others focus on particular functions such as hospital surgery. As such, a quantitative model that simultaneously investigates risk and resilience focusing on the key supply chain actors in healthcare is lacking. Future research can also use a mixed-methods approach where qualitative research can explore various risk factors and resilience strategies, while quantitative research can test the interrelationship between risk and resilience in explaining healthcare performance.

Humanitarian logistics

Humanitarian logistics refers to the transportation, delivery, and distribution of supplies in the event of natural disasters or another emergency to the affected area and people. Given the unprecedented incidents such as floods, cyclones, disease outbursts, the humanitarian logistics in healthcare (e.g., supplies of medicines, medical equipment, sterile items, linen, and food) has gained significant attention in recent times. For example, Naor et al. ( 2018 ) found strategies for effective humanitarian logistics in healthcare, such as quickly sending a team to the disaster area to gather firsthand information on the unique situations of disaster followed by the main delegation staff carrying effective disaster relief service. Prasad et al. ( 2018 ) suggested effective healthcare intervention to deal with disease outbreaks in a community. Cherkesly et al. ( 2019 ) assist with the design of a community healthcare network, increasing the service coverage for underserved areas in adverse situations.

Although research on humanitarian logistics has been progressing steadily, we highlight the need for further research on healthcare OSCM. A fruitful future research avenue is modelling the role of volunteers and NGOs in humanitarian logistics from a healthcare perspective. Also, interviews with disaster area patients can provide additional insights into the real-world phenomenon. Further research can also develop a model of budget allocation as the community service demand increases drastically due to a natural disaster. It would be interesting to investigate the nexus among service compliance rate, disease rate, and total cost by disaster type.

Pharmaceutical OSCM

A pharmaceutical supply chain involves firms, processes, and operations involved in the design, development, and distribution of life-saving drugs. It is one of the critical supply chains since it is related to the life and health of people. The success of healthcare services directly depends on well-managed pharmaceutical supplies. Therefore, the management of the pharmaceutical supply chain has become a popular topic in healthcare literature. Jia and Zhao ( 2017 ) highlighted the issue of drug shortage due to lack of collaboration between pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturing and supplier. Nematollahi et al. ( 2018 ) also found a positive link between hospital service level and efficient pharmaceutical supply chain. Viegas et al. ( 2019 ) discussed the significance of a coordinated pharmaceutical supply chain for the reverse flow of end-of-life medicine. Recently, Zandkarimkhani et al. ( 2020 ) formulated a model to redesign the pharmaceutical supply chain network in the wake of demand uncertainty.

Despite growth in literature on the pharmaceutical supply chain, significant room for further research still exists, particularly in the context of a recent pandemic. Most of the existing research lacks a holistic view that involves all key stakeholders of the supply chain. There is less focus on upstream networks and processes (Narayana et al., 2014 ). There is also limited research on integrated new product development in the pharmaceutical supply chain. There is also an opportunity for research to model examining the link between healthcare financing and pharmaceutical supply chain financing such as investment in R&D, production and distribution, between waste management, environmental and pharmaceutical supply chains. Future studies can also model the behaviour of individuals in the robustness of pharmaceutical supply chains. Given that supply chain design is critical in the planning process (Govindan et al., 2017 ), we suggest designing integrated models that encompass all stages from drug manufacturing to final consumer for robust decision-making in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Another interesting avenue is formulating a model at the intersection of supplier selection and sustainable pharmaceutical supply chain networks.

Climate change and healthcare

The increased intensity and frequency of disasters due to extreme weather conditions draw our attention to the unprecedented changes in climate which are mainly attributed to excessive greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints. To deal with the climate change challenges, greenhouse gas mitigation targets were set to a minimum level in the historic Paris Agreement (Bodansky, 2016 ). While a lot of research spotlights the emissions reduction in the automotive, energy, and mining industries, the carbon footprint and climate change research has recently received attention. Rezali et al. ( 2018 ) discussed the importance of a green healthcare supply chain to reduce the environmental impact of the healthcare industry. Belkhir and Elmeligi ( 2019 ) examined 15 pharmaceutical supply chains across different countries and found that the pharmaceutical industry is more emission-intensive than the automotive industry. Tanwar et al. ( 2019 ) identify the potential risks and risk mitigation measures in implementing a green pharmaceutical supply chain. Over the past five years, the topic of climate change has received increasing attention in healthcare settings. Most studies on the topic focus on factors contributing to climate change (greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprint), thus leaving a gap for research models incorporating the business impact of climate risks when they unfold and examining specific risk mitigation measures.

Healthcare logistics

Healthcare logistics refer to the physical flow of healthcare materials from the pharmaceutical production facility to the healthcare service provider. Logistics cost has been identified as the second largest cost after personnel in the healthcare system (Ross & Jayaraman, 2009 ). As such, the importance of material flow in healthcare service is recognised important to add value and reduce the cost of services. Correspondingly, a growth in literature on healthcare logistics is evident. Oumlil and Williams ( 2011 ) suggested strategic alliance and consolidation of logistics in the healthcare sector as a strategy to reduced logistics costs. Volland et al. ( 2017 ) identified four main domains in which healthcare logistics research exists, including procurement, inventory management, distribution, and supply chain management. Al-Sharhan et al. ( 2019 ) expounded on the significance of hospital-supplier integration of inefficient material logistics. Fathollahi-Fard et al. ( 2019 ) developed a green home healthcare supply chain model to reduce emissions in logistics. Pohjosenperä et al. ( 2019 ) discussed the impact of service modularity in value-creating and improving healthcare logistics service. Zabinsky et al. ( 2020 ) developed a model through mixed-integer linear programming to address healthcare scheduling and routing problem. Further research could examine an item-level analysis of different product categories in the regional healthcare units, together with their replenishment models. Such a study is needed to show the true potential of modularity in service offerings of the logistics support organisation.

Over the last two decades, research on healthcare OSCM has been continuously advancing making it a self-sustained discipline in the OSCM field. We argue that with this unprecedented development in healthcare literature, the current status and trends in the field need to be mapped. The use of robust statistical and automatic methods for extracting key topics from a large set of articles has been increasingly used in other fields such as finance, marketing, statistics, tourism, and computer sciences. Borrowing the knowledge from these adjacent fields, this study employs probabilistic topic modelling with LDA as an automatic text analytics approach to unpack dominant topics and development trajectories in a large collection of research articles on healthcare OSCM. In doing so, we contribute to the literature on new and rigorous methods for systematic literature review in the field of OSCM. Our sample included 571 articles retrieved from 20 journals in the field of OSCM. The results produced 34 topics on healthcare research. Analysis of dynamic changes in the 34 over the past twenty years suggested 24 hot, 8 cold, and 2 steady topics (see Table Table3 3 ).

Our findings show a shift of current research from traditional topics of operations management (Business process reengineering, Marketing, Outsourcing, Heuristics) to emergent topics such as Patient waiting for time, Industry 4.0 technologies, Sustainable operations, Risk and resilience, Climate change, and Circular economy. In general, the shift in topics seems to show a move away from traditional, efficiency-focused research toward broader goals of superior customer service and system’s effectiveness. The data on research methods shows a larger dominance of modelling research (e.g., Markov, mixed-integer programming, simulation, queueing model, and stochastic) in exploring multidimensional issues of healthcare operations. However, the past three years have also seen some empirical research, including Structural equation modelling, Longitudinal study, and Action research. This shows a positive change in operations research journals from purely quantitative modelling studies to empirical research as well. This recent shift in a strategy not only offers a great opportunity to empirical researchers for publication in some OR journals but also provides sound premises on which to expand the scope and subscription of these journals.

The findings of this research offer useful research directions to researchers, journal editors, and policymakers in the field of healthcare research. Researchers can observe whether their recent research topics are hot, cold, or steady, and accordingly select appropriate topics for more impactful future research in the area. Particularly, some early-career researchers find it difficult to keep up with the growing literature in their fields of research and familiarise themselves with a huge volume of literature in identifying the subject area on which they can focus or apply for a research grant. The information from our topic modelling can be a useful tool for these researchers to understand recent developments in the field and then select more appropriate topics. Our findings can also be helpful to PhD students, who often face difficulties in topic selection due to time pressure. Journal editors can view if the extant research is consistent with their editorial policy, and they may like to launch a new editorial vision and direction. Our list of hot topics can be a valuable reference tool to launch special issues in the journals. Discovering underlying topics and tracking their evolution could also be of great interest to policymakers (e.g., government agencies) and industry. The information on which research themes and methods are growing or declining in popularity over time (Table (Table3 3 and Fig. 4 ) can support governmental funding agencies for grants allocation to promising areas. Likewise, firm managers and the industry as a whole can use this information to formulate promising R&D strategies and to make more informed investment decisions.

We believe that topic modelling is one of the most effective and reliable approaches in revealing the latent (hidden) structure and development of research topics in a field, and recommend that future research can combine the LDA-based models with other text analytics techniques from different text data (e.g., customer feedback, medical records, research reports, business reviews, company descriptions) and interconnection among various business areas (e.g., marketing, supply chain, information systems). For example, sentiment analysis (Pang & Lee, 2008 ) is deemed a popular text analytics tool in the field of finance (Sul et al., 2017 ), marketing (Liang et al., 2015 ), and operations/supply chain (Chae, 2015 ). The sentiment analysis can be integrated with topic modelling: a two-pronged method using topic modelling followed by sentiment analysis can offer more nuanced findings by revealing both positive and negative aspects of a product and/or service.

As with several studies, there are some limitations of our study. First, given the authors’ extensive knowledge of the field and review of the extant literature, full efforts were made to guarantee that all pertinent articles were included in the analysis. However, some articles might have been ignored. Nevertheless, two measures might help mitigate this limitation: (1) the topics are generated based on the frequencies of the keywords/key terms and, therefore, missing a few articles from such a large dataset (571 articles) will not have a significant impact on overall results; (2) the dataset is validated with other databases. Second, the research is limited to healthcare research published in OSCM journals. That is, we excluded the papers and related journals containing healthcare research but not from OSCM perspectives.

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FOSTER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Spring Quarter 2024
Summer Quarter 2024
Autumn Quarter 2024

OPMGT 301 Principles of Operations Management (4) Examines problems encountered in planning, operating, and controlling production of goods and services. Topics include: waiting-line management, quality assurance, production systems, project management, and inventory management. Computer and quantitative models used in formulating managerial problems. Prerequisite: ACCTG 225; ECON 200; either MATH 112, MATH 124, MATH125, MATH 134, or Q SCI 291; either ECON 311, IND E 315, QMETH 201, Q SCI 381, PSYCH 315, PSYCH 318, STAT 220, STAT 301, STAT 221/SOC 221/CS&SS 221, STAT 311, or STAT 390. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 301

OPMGT 402 Introduction to Logistics (4) Logistics studies of the efficient delivery of goods and services. A total-cost approach recognizes this involves not only the obvious vehicle-routing issues but also shipment size and mix, warehouse location, product design, and customer services. Includes study of real companies' logistics problems. Prerequisite: OPMGT 301. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 402

OPMGT 443 Inventory and Supply Chain Management (4) Examines modeling and analysis of global supply chains in order to improve service and decrease cost. Covers tools and methods for managing inventory of items with different demand and supply characteristics. Topics include forecasting, Just-in-Time production, deterministic and stochastic inventory models, Materials Requirements Planning; and supplier management. Prerequisite: OPMGT 301. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 443

OPMGT 450 Introduction to Project Management (4) Focuses on management principles, methods, and tools to effectively plan and implement complex projects. Includes project selection, preparation, planning, and monitoring. Covers classical techniques and new methodologies; spreadsheet-based tools; and probabilistic project simulation from strategic, tactical, and operational perspectives. Prerequisite: OPMGT 301. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 450

OPMGT 490 Special Topics in Operations Management (1-6, max. 12) Operations management topics of current concern to faculty and students. Potential topics: logistics management, project scheduling, manufacturing strategy, site and location analysis, management of service operations. Prerequisite: OPMGT 301. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 490

OPMGT 495 Operations Management Internship (1-4, max. 8) Internship with a private firm, nonprofit organization, or government agency, where work experience involves substantial application of analysis techniques and management concepts learned in classroom. Prerequisite: OPMGT 301. Credit/no-credit only. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 495

OPMGT 499 Undergraduate Research (1-6, max. 9) View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 499

OPMGT 502 Introduction to Operations Management (3) Managerial decision making in operations problems, including application of quantitative analysis and use of computers. Production of goods or services in any type of organization. Inventory management, scheduling, facility location, management of service systems, and quality assurance. Prerequisite: QMETH 500. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 502

OPMGT 520 Operations Management (4) In this course, important concepts and the state of the art analytical techniques essential for managing the operations of any organization, especially hi-tech companies, are covered. In particular, topics such as process management, capacity and waiting lines management and inventory and supply chain management are introduced. Offered: Sp. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 520

OPMGT 530 Risk: Measurement, Management, and Leadership (2/4, max. 4) Presents holistic enterprise perspective on management tools and frameworks to understand and identify risk in various business settings. Emphasizes how to measure, manage, and improve a firm's risk position through leadership, and how to adapt an organization to deal with risk, from suppliers, customers, operational disruptions, imposed and unexpected regulation, and from digital business models. May only be taken for credit once. Prerequisite: QMETH 500 and B A 501 (or equivalent). Offered: AS. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 530

OPMGT 540 Sustainable Design of Global Supply Chains (2/4, max. 4) Learn how to build and operate a sustainable and resilient supply chain. Discuss strategic and operational decisions to design and manage a global supply chain, such as where to locate facilities, where to source from, how to coordinate worldwide operations to enhance performance, how to manage risk, how to embrace sustainability challenges, and how to account for relevant legal and tax issues. May only be taken for credit once. Prerequisite: B A 502 or equivalent. Offered: A. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 540

OPMGT 550 Project Management (4) Management of complex projects, and tools and techniques (e.g., CPM and PERT) developed to aid the planning, scheduling, and control of projects. Includes work breakdown structures, precedence networks, Gantt charts, resource leveling and allocation, and the use of microcomputer programs. Prerequisite: B A 502 or OPMGT 502 or equivalent. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 550

OPMGT 560 Supply Chain Management (4) This course focuses on efficient integration of suppliers, factories, warehouses and stores so that merchandise is produced and distributed in the right quantities, to the right locations and at the right time. The course objectives are to develop modeling skills and provide concepts applicable to the design, planning of supply chains. Offered: W. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 560

OPMGT 565 Business Analytics-Tools for Big Data (2/4) Introduces data analytic techniques via quantitative tools and sophisticated software (R and Tableau). These techniques are drawn from machine learning, data mining, and optimization. Note that this is not a technical or theoretical course. Offered: ASp. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 565

OPMGT 570 Operations Strategy (4) Strategic management of operations and manufacturing in domestic and international companies. Developing and implementing a coherent strategy based on continuous improvement of quality, productivity, products, processes, and customer services. Facilities, capacity, process/work-force planning, organization, people, systems integration, coordination between operations, marketing, engineering, and R&D. Prerequisite: B A 502 or OPMGT 502 or equivalent. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 570

OPMGT 579 Special Topics in Operations Management (2/4, max. 12) Major topics in operations management and systems analysis. Emphasis on research and, where appropriate, application of quantitative analysis and computers. Topics vary, including workforce planning, project management, research and development management, quality assurance, technology planning and forecasting, systems analysis of complex organizations, and urban systems analysis. Prerequisite: B A 502, OPGMT 502, or equivalent. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 579

OPMGT 581 Advanced Research Topics in Operations Management I (4) Overview of research problems and techniques in operations management. Focuses on emerging and ongoing research relating to current issues in the field, including readings and discusions of literature deaing with subjects of special interest to participants. Prerequisite: doctoral student or permission of instructor. Offered: A. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 581

OPMGT 582 Advanced Research Topics in Operations Management II (4) Overview of research problems and techniques in operations management. Focuses on emerging and ongoing research (beyone those discussed in OPGMT 581) relating to current issues in the field, including readings and discusions of literature deaing with subjects of special interest to participants. Prerequisite: doctoral student or permission of instructor. Offered: W. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 582

OPMGT 583 Advanced Research Topics in Operations Management III (4) Examinse interdisciplinary research in operations and supply chain management. Focuses on one specific application area of interest each quarter including: healthcare, sustainability, marketing, game theory, economics, etc. Prerequisite: doctoral student or permission of instructor. Offered: Sp. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 583

OPMGT 584 Fundamentals of Operations Management Research (4) Surveys basic areas that form the foundations for much of the research in operations management today. Topic areas include facility location, scheduling, project management, and supply chain management. Prerequisite: QMETH 580. Offered: W. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 584

OPMGT 587 Advanced Topics in Inventory Management (4) Survey of literature in inventory/production control with emphasis on current research. Topics include single-echelon deterministic and probabilistic models and multi-echelon stochastic models. Prerequisite: QMETH 592 and course in probability theory and in stochastic processes. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 587

OPMGT 590 Stochastic Models for Research in Business Management (4) Covers the foundation and applications of stochastic models used in business and management research. Prerequisite: doctoral student or permission of instructor. Offered: A. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 590

OPMGT 599 Doctoral Seminar in Operations Management (1, max. 12) Study and research in advanced topics of operations management. Concerned with unpublished areas of research and conducted by visiting professors and departmental faculty. Prerequisite: doctoral student status. View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 599

OPMGT 600 Independent Study or Research (*-) View course details in MyPlan: OPMGT 600

Advancing Practice through Theory

Volume 16, Issue 1

The organizational side of a disruption mitigation process: exploring a case study during the covid-19 pandemic.

Margherita Molinaro
Pietro Romano
Gianluca Sperone

Analysis of power dynamics in sustainable supply chain under non-linear demand setup

Varun Sharma
Abhishek Chakraborty

Comparative study of bottleneck-based release models and load-based ones in a hybrid MTO-MTS flow shop: an assessment by simulation

Federica Costa
Kaustav Kundu
Alberto Portioli-Staudacher

Bayesian networks as a guide to value stream mapping for lean office implementation: a proposed framework

Tamie Takeda Yokoyama
Satie Ledoux Takeda-Berger
Enzo Morosini Frazzon

Blurred lines: the timeline of supply chain resilience strategies in the grocery industry in the time of Covid-19

Maria Concetta Carissimi
Lorenzo Bruno Prataviera
Fabrizio Dallari

Uncovering dimensions of the impact of blockchain technology in supply chain management

Ulpan Tokkozhina
Ana Lucia Martins
Joao C. Ferreira

A measurement model of dynamic capabilities of the continuous improvement project and its role in the renewal of the company’s products/services

Jorge Iván Pérez-Rave
Rafael Fernández Guerrero
Favián González Echavarría

An analytic network process model to prioritize supply chain risks in green residential megaprojects

A. M. Alamdari
Y. Jabarzadeh
S. Khanmohammadi

A hybrid fuzzy-AHP-TOPSIS model for evaluation of manufacturing relocation decisions

Movin Sequeira
Anders Adlemo
Per Hilletofth

How to transform sustainability practices into organizational benefits? The role of different cultural characteristics

André Luiz Romano
Luis Miguel D. F. Ferreira

A tailored aggregation strategy for inventory pooling in healthcare: evidence from an emerging market

Asmae El Mokrini
Tarik Aouam
Nadine Kafa

Developing a green supplier evaluation system for the Chinese semiconductor manufacturing industry based on supplier willingness

Ping-Kuo Chen

Risk evaluation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure using Fuzzy AHP – a case study in India

Shubham Gupta
Raghav Khanna

Sustainability-oriented supply chain finance in Vietnam: insights from multiple case studies

Anh Huu Nguyen
Thinh Gia Hoang
Huan Huu Nguyen

Performance management systems: Trade-off between implementation and strategy development

Roman A. Lewandowski
Giuseppe T. Cirella

Expectations of manufacturing companies regarding future priorities of improvement actions taken by their suppliers

Maciej Urbaniak
Piotr Rogala
Piotr Kafel

Empirical study of an artificial neural network for a manufacturing production operation

Sungkon Moon
SangHyeok Han

Inventory systems with uncertain supplier capacity: an application to covid-19 testing

Mohammad Ebrahim Arbabian
Hossein Rikhtehgar Berenji

4.0 technologies in city logistics: an empirical investigation of contextual factors

Andrea Ferrari
Giulio Mangano
Alberto De Marco

Research on strategic liner ship fleet planning with regard to hub-and-spoke network

Bingfeng Bai

Contract manufacturing, market competition, and labor productivity in US manufacturing industries

Michael Tannen

Tourism sustainability during COVID-19: developing value chain resilience

Zerin Tasnim
Mahmud Akhter Shareef
Ramakrishnan Raman

Quality and selling price dependent sustainable perishable inventory policy: Lessons from Covid-19 pandemic

Vikash Murmu
Dinesh Kumar
Ashok Kumar Jha

The missing link in disruption management research: coping

Nezih Altay

Structural transformation of fuzzy analytical hierarchy process: a relevant case for Covid-19

Surendra Kansara
Sachin Modgil
Rupesh Kumar

Strategic drivers to overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for ensuring resilience in supply chains

Md. Abdul Moktadir
Sanjoy Kumar Paul
Razia Sultana

Antecedents of agriculture supply chain performance during COVID-19: an emerging economy perspective

Sneha Kumari
Shirish Jeble
Yangyan Shi

The effects of organizational learning culture and decentralization upon supply chain collaboration: analysis of covid-19 period

Alev Ozer Torgaloz
Mehmet Fatih Acar
Cemil Kuzey

Application of six sigma and the system thinking approach in COVID-19 operation management: a case study of the victorian aged care response centre (VACRC) in Australia

Sandeep Jadhav
Ahmed Imran
Marjia Haque

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Operations Management Dissertation Topics
As a student of operations management looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing operations management theories - i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic. The field of operations management is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like business, management ...
Operations Management Research Paper Topics
Operations management research paper topics encompass a wide array of subjects related to the effective planning, organizing, and supervision of business operat ... Check for Relevance: Ensure that the topic aligns with current industry trends and challenges. A relevant topic will have a greater impact and may open opportunities for further ...
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Operations Management Research focuses on rapidly publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed research that enhances the theory and practice of operations management across a wide range of topics and research paradigms.. Presents research that advances both theory and practice of operations management. Includes all aspects of operations management, from manufacturing and supply chain to health care ...
Operations: Articles, Research, & Case Studies on Operations
by Rachel Layne. Many companies build their businesses on open source software, code that would cost firms $8.8 trillion to create from scratch if it weren't freely available. Research by Frank Nagle and colleagues puts a value on an economic necessity that will require investment to meet demand. 27 Feb 2024.
Articles
James J. H. Liou. OriginalPaper 12 December 2023 Pages: 324 - 339. 1. 2. …. 10. Next. Operations Management Research focuses on rapidly publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed research that enhances the theory and practice of operations ...
253797 PDFs
Jorge Muniz Jr. Vagner Batista Ribeiro. This study aims to discuss how literature explores the relationship between Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, operations management, and sustainability. A ...
Operations/supply chain management in a new world context
As incoming editors a year ago, our 2019 editorial described 14 topic areas deserving of research and professional practical attention in operations and supply chain management (O/SCM), that are still important and deserving of scholarly and practical work (Samson and Kalchschmidt, 2019).While the topics such as supply chain risk, sustainability and new technology have remained relevant, the ...
Operations Research: Topics, Impact, and Trends from 1952-2019
In "Operations Research: Topics, Impact and Trends from 1952-2019," A. Calma, W. Ho, L. Shao, and H. Li retrospectively look at 68 years of publication of the Operations Research. ... CURRENT ISSUE. Pages iii-vi, 425-870, C2-C3. Volume 72, ... The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. 5521 Research Park Drive ...
Production and Operations Management: Sage Journals
The mission of Production and Operations Management is to serve as the flagship research journal in operations management in manufacturing and services. The journal publishes scientific research into the problems, interest, and concerns of managers who manage product and process design, operations, and supply chains. View full journal description
Thirteen years of Operations Management Research (OMR) journal: a
The journal of Operations Management Research (OMR) is a rigorous journal that started its publication in 2008. It publishes short, focused research studies that advance both the theory and practice of operations management. ... provide hot topics and develop future directions in OR by revealing the current research trends and frontiers of ...
It's Time for a New Model for Operations Management
September 19, 2023. MirageC/Getty Images. Summary. Covid-19 was the death knell for traditional hierarchical command-and-control operations management. In its place a new model has emerged that ...
Relevant research areas in Operations Management & Operations Research
Current PhD projects ... of Operations Management and the decision support of Operations Research. The setting is multidisciplinary and gives attention to the points of view of quality, timely delivery, costs, and organization. Behavioral, HRM, and ICT aspects are covered by cooperation with neighbouring research groups. Research topics are: ...
A Review of Case Study Method in Operations Management Research
This article reviews the case study research in the operations management field. In this regard, the paper's key objective is to represent a general framework to design, develop, and conduct case study research for a future operations management research by critically reviewing relevant literature and offering insights into the use of case method in particular settings.
Thirteen years of Operations Management Research (OMR ...
The journal of Operations Management Research (OMR) is a rigorous journal that started its publication in 2008. It publishes short, focused research studies that advance both the theory and practice of operations management. Considering the relevant OMR's contribution to the field of Operations Management in the last years, this study provides an overall assessment of the journal performance ...
86 Operations Management Topics & Research Titles
86 Operations Management Topics. Operations management orchestrates all the processes to produce goods and deliver services efficiently. On this page, we suggest operations management research topics for you to explore the multifaceted dimensions of this field. Go through these operations management topics to discover the role of operations ...
Management research topics: Positioning, evolution, alignment with
The most popular research topic, Supply Chain Management does generate many job listings. However, terms such as Innovation and Inventory generate many more. There are also research topics that yield little or no job listings, such as the fifth and seventh most common research topics, Behavioural Operations Management and Game Theory.
Research Activities
pricing and revenue management. social networks. stochastic modeling. supply chain management. Research activities range from one-on-one projects involving a single faculty member and student, to much larger programs involving teams of faculty and students. Regardless of their scope, all of our projects aim to have real-world impact.
Operations Management Dissertation Topics for FREE
To help in preparing for this great challenge, this article provides suggestions for Operations Management topics in a range of key areas such as the supply chain, scheduling, inventory management and design of services, all of which are current areas in the field. ... and detail engineering whilst the second path involves market research and ...
Mapping research on healthcare operations and supply chain management
The literature on healthcare operations and supply chain management has seen unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This paper seeks to advance the body of knowledge on this topic by utilising a topic modelling-based literature review to identify the core topics, examine their dynamic changes, and identify opportunities for further research in the area.
Mapping research on healthcare operations and supply chain management
The literature on healthcare operations and supply chain management has seen unprecedented growth over the past two decades. This paper seeks to advance the body of knowledge on this topic by utilising a topic modelling-based literature review to identify the core topics, examine their dynamic changes, and identify opportunities for further research in the area. Based on an analysis of 571 ...
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
OPMGT 582 Advanced Research Topics in Operations Management II (4) Overview of research problems and techniques in operations management. Focuses on emerging and ongoing research (beyone those discussed in OPGMT 581) relating to current issues in the field, including readings and discusions of literature deaing with subjects of special interest ...
Volume 16, Issue 1
A measurement model of dynamic capabilities of the continuous improvement project and its role in the renewal of the company's products/services. Jorge Iván Pérez-Rave. Rafael Fernández Guerrero. Favián González Echavarría. OriginalPaper 21 June 2022 Pages: 126 - 140.

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Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Introduction

2022 Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 2: Analyzing the operational risk in outsourcing software projects for international companies.

Topic 3: How do the merger and acquisition of a company affect the performance of its employees? An exploratory study identifying the factors that affect employees performance. A case study of (Any company or companies can be studied)

Topic 4: Impact of strategic management on the financial performance of companies

Topic 5: Analyzing the operational risks associated with the manufacturing of automobiles and the role of plant managers in reducing these risks.

Topic 6: An assessment of the Company's tradeoff between innovation and uniformity- A case study of UK IT sector.

Topic 7: Operation Management- Comparison between different forecast approaches.

Topic 8: An examination of the Effectiveness of RBT in strategic operation management in the UK manufacturing industry.

Topic 9: Humanitarian operation management- A review of Literature

Topic 10: A study to Determine if Operations Management solutions Effectively meet the needs of Home Care organizations- An International Perspective.

Covid-19 Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 2: Intelligent operation management during COVID-19

Operations Management Dissertation Topics for 2021

Topic 2: Operation management strategies B2B and B2C business model

Topic 3: The role of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in SCM (Supply Chain Management)

Topic 4: TQM (Total Quality Management) as a competitive advantage

Topic 1: Analysing the impact of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) on improving business operations of multinational companies.

Topic 2: Impact of Just-in-time (JIT) inventory on improving supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Topic 3: Analysing the pros and cons of outsourcing logistic operation activities in the construction industry of the UK

Topic 4: Assessing and comparing the operations management strategies of B2B and B2C business models

Topic 5: Analysing the operational risks involved in the manufacturing of automobiles and how can plant managers minimise these risks

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Operations Management and the Range of Research Paper Topics

Introduction to Operations Management

Significance of Operations Management

The Ever-Evolving Nature of Operations Management

Range of Research Paper Topics

How to Choose Operations Management Research Paper Topics

10 Tips for Choosing Operations Management Research Paper Topics

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How to Write an Operations Management Research Paper

Introduction

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