A new model for measuring system and process performance
Chien-Ming Chen has defended his PhD thesis entitled “<link erim events _blank>Evaluation and Design of Supply Chain Operations Using DEA” on June 19.Performance evaluation has been one of the most critical components in management. As production systems nowadays consist of a growing number of integrated and interacting processes, the interrelationship among processes have created a major challenge in measuring system and process performance. Moreover, rapid information obsolescence has become a commonplace in today’s high-speed environment. Process design decisions managers need to take, are therefore often based on incomplete information regarding the future market.
The PhD thesis of Chien-Ming Chen studies the above problems in the evaluation and design of complex production systems. Chen’s design approach combines interdisciplinary techniques to facilitate efficient decision-making in situations with limited information and high uncertainty. As an illustration, he applies these approaches to project selection and resource allocation problems in a supply chain.
About Chien-Ming Chen:
Chien-Ming Chen was born in 1977 in Kuanshan, Taidung county, Taiwan. He has a Bachelor degree in Urban Planning, and a MBA degree with a specialization in operational management. Soon after he obtained the MBA, he started to work for AU Optronics Corporation--the third largest designer and manufacturer of TFT-LCD (Thin film transistor-Liquid crystal display) in the world---as a production supervisor in the OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) fab. Next he became a contracted researcher in Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center of Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan. In 2005, he joined the PhD program at ERIM, where he contributed to studies on performance measuring of supply chains using mathematical programing methods. As a PhD student, he has given presentations at several international conferences in Europe, North America, and Asia. His research has appeared in European Journal of Operational Research and Production and Operations Management. He has also been the reviewer for several academic journals.
He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Center for Corporate Environmental Performance, UCLA Institute of the Environment.
Abstract:
Performance evaluation has been one of the most critical components in management. As production systems nowadays consist of a growing number of integrated and interacting processes, the interrelationship and dynamic among processes have created a major challenge in measuring system and process performance. Meanwhile, rapid information obsolescence has become a commonplace in today’s high-velocity environment. Therefore managers often need to make process design decisions based on incomplete information regarding the future market. This thesis studies the above problems in the evaluation and design of complex production systems. Based on the widely used Data Envelopment Analysis models, we first develop a generalized methodology to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of production networks. Our method evaluates both the supply network and its constituent firms in a systematic way. The evaluation result can help identify inefficiency in the network, which is important information for improving the network performance. The second part of the thesis covers multi-criteria process design methods developed for situations of different information availability. Our design approaches combine interdisciplinary techniques to facilitate efficient decision-making in situations with limited information and high uncertainty. As an illustration, we apply these approaches to project selection and resource allocation problems in a supply chain.
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