Informs Annual Meeting 2017

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INFORMS Houston – 2017

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fraction of farmers are strategic. We show that though the number of strategic farmers growing a crop can reduce with an increase in the crop’s MSP, the total availability of the crop is always increasing. Due to this, improper execution of MSP can hurt the society. While the returns of farmers can be negatively affected, bad MSPs can skew product availability. 2 - Mobile Money Agent Inventory Management Karthik Balasubramanian, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, United States, kbalasubramanian@hbs.edu, David F. Drake, Douglas Fearing Mobile money agents exchange cash for electronic value and vice versa, forming the backbone of an emerging electronic currency ecosystem in the developing world. We model the agent’s inventory problem, develop policy recommendations, and evaluate these policies with East African data. 3 - Global Vehicle Supply Chains in Humanitarian Operations: A Network Analysis Approach Jon M. Stauffer, Texas A&M.University, 4217 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, United States, jstauffer@mays.tamu.edu, Alfonso J.Pedraza-Martinez, Lu Yan, Luk N. Van Wassenhove Using 4WD vehicle supply chains, we test the common assumption that development program supply is independent of disaster supply in humanitarian operations. We utilize Exponential Random Graph Models to empirically test hypotheses and then use simulations to study the impact of the empirical results. We find that development program supply decreases due to disaster supply, which increases the preference for centralized supply chains. 4 - Operational Drivers of Stock-outs in Reproductive Health Care Supply Chains: An Empirical Study Amir Karimi, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States, karim100@umn.edu, Karthik Natarajan, Kingshuk K. Sinha Despite the widespread prevalence of contraceptive stock-outs in practice, very little is known about the drivers of stock-outs and this forms the motivating context for our study. Utilizing data from service delivery points in developing countries, we investigate the relationship between the stock-outs of contraceptive products and factors such as product variety, inventory management practices, and a facility’s geographic location. This study sheds light on the operational drivers of stock-outs in global humanitarian health delivery settings, thereby highlighting the potential mitigation mechanisms that can be leveraged by facilities to minimize the likelihood of stock-outs. 360C Marketing Contributed Session Chair: Jacob Do-Hyung Cha, Seoul National University, Gwanak-gu, United States, research.dohyung@gmail.com 1 - Subscription Selling: the Role of Consumer Valuation Uncertainty and Competition Qiaohai (Joice) Hu, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St Louis, MO, United States, joice.hu@gmail.com, Yimin Yu, Xiaobei Shen As subscription becomes increasingly popular, it is important to understand when it is more profitable than traditional selling. The literature offers the following explanation: subscription benefits firms because it enables them to price- discriminate among heterogeneous consumers. This study reveals two new drivers of subscription: an intertemporal pooling effect in the presence of consumer valuation uncertainty and a competition softening effect. 2 - The Evil Necessity: the Role of Surge Pricing in Sharing Economy Xinying Hao, PhD Student, The University of Texas at Austin, 3500 Greystone Dr., # 262, Austin, TX, 78731, United States, xinying.hao@mccombs.utexas.edu Using prices as signals to equilibrate supply and demand, Uber’s surge pricing fits economics theory perfectly. Yet, surge pricing still faces popular and harsh criticism. In this paper, we examine the consumer’s skepticism and psychological resistance to this mandatory charge. We propose a reference price model to empirically investigate how surge pricing (in price and time dimensions) can affect consumers’ behavior. We aim to provide implications for platforms in sharing economy via three natural experiments: (1) No surge pricing. (2) Optional surge pricing, which would allow riders to opt-in to surges and be expedited to the front of the queue at a premium cost. (3) Mandatory surge pricing. MB44

360A Additive Manufacturing – Data Analytics and OR I Invited: Invited OR and Advanced Manufacturing Invited Session Chair: Alaa El Wany, Texas A&M University, TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, United States, elwany@tamu.edu 1 - Characterizing the Geometric Accuracy of Additively Manufactured Components Mojtaba Khanzadeh, PhD Student, Mississippi State University, McCain Engineering, Starkville, MS, 39759, United States, mk1349@msstate.edu, Linkan Bian, Prahalada Rao The objective of this work is to quantify the geometric deviations of additively manufactured parts from a large dataset of laser-scanned coordinates using a type of neural network called self-organizing map (SOM). The central hypothesis is that clusters recognized by the SOM correspond to specific types of geometric deviations, which in turn are linked to certain additive manufacturing process conditions. This hypothesis is tested on parts made using the Fused Filament Fabrication AM process. This is an important research; although AM processes can make parts with complex geometries, a major barrier preventing use of AM in mission-critical applications, is the lack of geometric accuracy of parts. 2 - Forward Uncertainty Quantification Analysis via Polynomial Chaos Expansion of an Additive Manufacturing Selective Laser Melting Thermal Model Alaa Elwany, Texas A&M.University, College Station, TX, 77843, United States, elwany@tamu.edu, Gustavo Tapia Thermal models of Additive Manufacturing SLM processes help gain understanding by calculating thermal histories that the material undergoes given a combination of processing parameters, and can be employed in quality assessment of the build by melt pool characterization. Nevertheless, these models normally depend in many physical inputs whose values might vary according a probability distribution. This study presents a Forward UQ approach using PCE to quantify the variation in the outputs of the model given those of the inputs. The analysis benefits users to identify specific parameters and decide if more control over them should be applied if variations of melt pool dimensions are excessive. 3 - The Impact of 3D Printing on Manufacturer Retailer Relations Mohammad Ebrahim Arbabian, PhD Student, University of Washington, 4120 Brooklyn Ave NE unit 503, #503, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States, me.arbabian@gmail.com, Michael R.Wagner We consider the impact of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, on a supply chain, consisting of a manufacturer and retailer, where either the manufacturer or retailer can adopt 3D printing. The firms utilize a wholesale-price contract and serve stochastic customer demand. We also study government subsidies of the 3D printer cost. 4 - Multiple-Objective Optimization of Additive Manufacturing Processes Linkan Bian, Mississippi State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, P.O. Box 9542, Mississippi State University, MS, 39762, United States, bian@ise.msstate.edu We propose a novel approach for improving geometry accuracy of Additive Manufacturing parts in a systematic manner. Initial experimental data show that different geometric characteristics of part may not be possible to optimize simultaneously. The developed method targeted minimizing deviations within parts major Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing characteristics. Efficiency of proposed method is validated using simulation studies coupled with a real world case study for geometry accuracy optimization of parts fabricated by the Fused Filament Fabrication system. The results show that optimal designs are achieved by fewer numbers of experiments compared with existing methods. 360B Humanitarian and Developing Country Operations Sponsored: Public Sector OR Sponsored Session Chair: Jon M. Stauffer, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, United States, jstauffer@mays.tamu.edu 1 - The Impact of Crop Minimum-support-prices on Farmers’ Sowing Decisions and Product Availability Prashant Chintapalli, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States, prashant.chintapalli.1@anderson.ucla.edu, Christopher S. Tang We analyze the impact of crop minimum-support-price (MSP) program on the sowing decisions of farmers in emerging markets. We consider the case of 2 crops and when farmers have heterogeneous production costs. We assume that a MB43

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