 Wen-Chih Chen, a recent Ph.D. graduate from ISyE, will be receiving the third place award in the annual Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award competition.
Dr. Chen's dissertation, titled Integrating Approaches to Efficiency and Productivity Measurement, addresses methods to benchmark productivity of industrial systems, such as factories and warehouses. His research has derived a formal linkage between traditional productivity measures and the newer approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA).
Traditional methods use the ratio of a single output (e.g., goods produced) to a single input (e.g., direct labor cost). While easy to understand, these methods provide only a partial picture of productivity, since systems typically have multiple inputs and outputs of interest. Data envelopment analysis, on the other hand, allows the inclusion of multiple inputs and outputs, and provides a means to compute which systems are the most efficient transformers of inputs to outputs. DEA is mathematically complex, though, and requires advanced knowledge and software. Hence, it typically is not used in industry.
Through a formal linkage between the two approaches, it is hoped that DEA methodology will become more widely deployed in industry. Chen's dissertation also includes a case study involving warehouse productivity, based on the iDEAs project, which he developed with his advisor, Prof. Leon McGinnis.
Dr. Chen currently is a post-doctoral fellow in ISyE, where he continues his work in performance assessment methods.
Administered by the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Pritsker Award recognizes outstanding graduate research in the field of industrial engineering. The first-place, second-place and third-place awards will be given at the awards banquet during IIE's annual conference, held May 15-19 in Houston. |
