Article ID: | iaor20021553 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 31 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 7 |
End Page Number: | 29 |
Publication Date: | Jan 2001 |
Journal: | Interfaces |
Authors: | Katok Elena, Tarantino William, Tiedeman Ralph |
Keywords: | production, scheduling, decision: applications, programming: linear |
Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc. maintains, manufactures, and distributes flight manuals containing safety information for over 300,000 pilots and 400 airlines worldwide. Its service deteriorated when a growing line of over 100,000 aviation charts overwhelmed its production system. We developed optimization-based decision support tools that improved production planning. Concurrently, we developed a method for evaluating investments in production technology. Our work reduced lateness and improved production processes, which led to a decrease in customer complaints, a reduction in costs of nearly 10 percent, an increase in profit of 24 percent, and the creation of a new OR group. Today, OR-based decision support systems are spreading to all areas of the company.