The center-of-gravity, Weber, and rectilinear minisum problems are common exemplars in single-facility (single-source) continuous location theory and the first of these is covered in many operations management (OM) textbooks. Extensions to multiple-facility (or multisource) continuous location problems are seldom covered in OM textbooks. I have…

In this paper, we describe a course project in which teams of undergraduate students propose and execute an end-to-end analytics project to solve a real-world problem. The project challenges students to implement machine learning, optimization, simulation, or a combination of these three techniques on real-world data that they collect. A…

How can students prepare for potential business disruptions? The approach shown in this paper uses optimization modeling with parametric sensitivity analysis and further broadens the search for insights with structural sensitivity analysis in a series of contextual exercises. The exercises prompt students to identify critical resources for…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and operations research (OR) have long been intertwined because of their synergistic relationship. Given the increasing popularity of AI and machine learning in particular, we face growing demand for educational offerings in this area from our students. This paper describes two courses that introduce machine learning…

College and university administrators must be able to process large amounts of financial information quickly and be able to communicate information about financial performance to governing boards. Financial ratio analysis provides a framework for administrators to identify financial and operational concerns as well as variances from institutional…

We present an exercise for teaching the transportation problem using a mix of spatial and randomly generated data. It illustrates the potential of using qualitative and quantitative data and is suitable for undergraduate or introductory business school courses on operations research (OR), logistics, and supply chain management. It poses two…

The simple vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a common topic of discussion in introductory operations research/management science courses. The VRP can be framed in a variety of ways, and it can be difficult to solve to optimality. For solution purposes, introductory textbooks demonstrate how Excel's Evolutionary Solver (ES) add-in produces a…

There is a significant amount of data available about students and their learning activities in many educational systems today. However, these datasets are frequently spread across several different digital services, making it challenging to use them strategically. In addition, there are no established standards for collecting, processing,…

Facility placement is of strategic importance to most organizations as a well-placed distribution center minimizes delivery costs and reduces fulfillment lead times, thus improving customer service levels. Because organizations value the location planning process, this teaching brief offers an exercise that analyzes the planning process using the…

Some Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) lack effective business strategies, creating barriers to student success and institutional financial stability. Grounded in the complexity and systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies HBCU leaders use to sustain the financial stability of…

This paper proposes the production of animated comics in POWTOON to serve as a visual collaborative tool and a teaching-learning strategy for a course on Operations Research. This proposal aims to achieve meaningful learning of the subject matter, incentivizing the creativity of undergraduate students of marketing and business at the Guadalajara…