Informs 2015

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INFORMS Philadelphia – 2015
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TB35
35-Room 412, Marriott
Using Technology to Enhance Guest Experiences and
Performance in Hospitality Management
Cluster: Hospitality, Tourism, and Healthcare
Invited Session
Chair: Alex Susskind, Cornell University, 350 Statler Hall, School of
Hotel Adminstration, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States of America,
1 - Picturing Hotels: Attributes of Hotel Images That Attract
Consumer Attention Online
Stephani K. A. Robson, Senior Lecturer, Cornell University,
255 Statler Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States of America,
, Breffni Noone
Images have been shown to be an important element in the online hotel choice
process. This exploratory study uses eye tracking technology to investigate the
attributes of hotel images that attract consumers’ eye fixations during a
naturalistic search for lodging, with implications for hotel marketing strategies.
2 - The Connection Between Restaurant Performance and
Customer-facing Technology in Restaurants
Alex Susskind, Cornell University, 350 Statler Hall, School of
Hotel Adminstration, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States of
America,
In this study, the relationship between customer-facing technology, customer
satisfaction and restaurant performance are examined. The findings suggest that
the use of customer-facing technology in a full-service restaurant experience is
positively connected to customers’ satisfaction with their service experience in the
restaurant, higher average spending in the restaurant and a higher tip percentage
paid to the servers.
3 - Does Customer-facing Technology Reduce Service Time
in Restaurants?
Ben Curry, Data Scientist, Ela Carte, Ela Carte Headquarters, San
Francisco, CA, United States of America,
Looking at how table turn time and service labor usage was affected by
customers’ use of customer facing technology in restaurants, I found that
customer-facing technology notably reduced table turn time when customers
ordered their meals through the table top device; that figure increased more for
customers who ordered their meals and settled their bills using the table-top
devices.
TB36
36-Room 413, Marriott
Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Logistics
Sponsor: Public Sector OR
Sponsored Session
Chair: Chris Zobel, Professor, Virginia Tech, Business Info. Technology,
880 W. Campus Dr., Suite 1007, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0235,
United States of America,
Co-Chair: Andrew Arnette, Assistant Professor Of Decision Sciences
And Governor Geringer Scholar, University of Wyoming, 1000 E.
University Ave, Laramie, WY, 82071, United States of America,
1 - Management of Blood Supplies During Humanitarian Crises
Cigdem Gonul Kochan, Ohio Northern University, 525 South
Main Street, Ada, OH, 45810, United States of America,
, Shailesh Kulkarni, David R. Nowicki
This study presents a combined problem of allocating and routing the available
blood supplies at the central blood bank to a given set of hospitals with uncertain
demand. We develop two multi-product newsvendor (MPNP) –traveling salesman
(TSP) models. We examine and compare the results of both models.
2 - A Markov Decision Process Model for Equitable Distribution of
Supplies under Uncertainty
Lauren Davis, North Carolina A&T State University,
1601 E. Market St., Greensboro, NC, United States of America,
, Sefakor Fianu
Food banks are one of many non-profit organizations assisting in the fight against
hunger. Most of the food distributed by the food bank comes from donations
which are received from various sources in uncertain quantities at random points
in time. We present a finite horizon decision-making model that determines the
optimal allocation of supplies to demand locations (charitable agencies) given
stochastic supply.
3 - Exploring a Community’s Perception of Resilience and its Effect
on Public Policy
Roberta Russell, Professor, Virginia Tech, 1007 Pamplin Hall,
0235, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, United States of America,
Yuhong Li, Michelle Seref
Resilience has been used in many disciplines to describe the ability of an entity to
withstand the effects of a disaster, to bounce back from a disaster, or to change
and adapt to a new reality post-disaster. This research uses text mining to explore
the use of resilience and related terms in newspaper and other media to describe
disasters and subsequent recovery efforts. Particular views of resilience are
correlated with community actions related to building resilience for the next
disaster.
4 - Improving Resource Pre-positioning to Support Disaster
Relief Operations
Andrew Arnette, Assistant Professor Of Decision Sciences and
Governor Geringer Scholar, University of Wyoming, 1000 E.
University Ave, Laramie, WY, 82071, United States of America,
Chris Zobel
This research seeks to address a need for improving asset location modeling for
opening overnight shelters in response to natural disasters. Such pre-positioning
is crucial for organizations that provide immediate relief to impacted populations,
and we discuss a mathematical programming approach that improves on previous
attempts to determine more optimal placements for a combination of resources.
TB37
37-Room 414, Marriott
Health Care Modeling and Optimization X
Contributed Session
Chair: Songinan Zhao, Student, Kansas State University, 1600 Hillcrest
Dr., Apt 4, Manhattan, KS, 66502, United States of America,
1 - Use of Simulation-optimization Technique in Operating
Room Scheduling
Musa Demirtas, Research And Teaching Assistant, Western New
England University, 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA,
01119, United States of America, ,
Mohammad Dehghani, Thomas K. Keyser
In hospitals, operating Rooms (ORs) are the most important and costly
departments, and generate a big portion of revenues. This study focuses on
maximization of ORs utilization and minimization of inpatients’ length of stay to
decrease costs and increase patients’ satisfaction. Since the arrival of emergency
patients may disrupt the schedule, we developed a reactive simulation-
optimization model to schedules that optimally allocate limited resources to
multiple ORs.
2 - Optimal Delivery and Pickup Planning for Patients with Chronic
Diseases using Drones
Seon Jin Kim, University of Houston, Dept. of Industrial
Engineering, Houston, TX, 77204, United States of America,
Gino Lim, Jaeyoung Cho
Patients with chronic diseases are required to visit clinics for a routine health
exam. The cost of chronic diseases has been increasing every year, which became
a burden to patients, government, and health insurance companies. We present a
robust optimization model to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of
healthcare service using drones. The model finds optimal routes of drones to
deliver medicine and pickup necessary samples to analyze patients’ health.
3 - Application of Theory of Constraints in Blood Banking
Harshal Lowalekar, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of
Management Indore, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore, MP, 453556,
India,
We discuss the application of the Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes
(TOCTP) methodology in managing inventory at blood banks. Using the Thinking
Processes approach the root-cause behind the common inventory problems at
blood banks like high shortage and wastage of blood products, high operating
expenses and low revenue levels is identified. A TOC based solution is then
proposed to address the root-cause.
4 - Study of Optimal Control Strategies for Visceral Leishmaniasis
Songinan Zhao, Student, Kansas State University, 1600 Hillcrest
Dr., Apt. 4, Manhattan, KS, 66502, United States of America,
Chih-hang Wu, Yan Kuang, David Ben-arieh
Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne disease which is transmitted by
sandflies and it is the second-largest parasitic killer after Marilia. Mathematical
models were proposed to assist in the control of spread of VL; however,
quantitative conditions for the control of VL transmission are not studied. This
paper develops a general mathematical model for VL disease transmission system,
performs bifurcation analysis to discuss control conditions, and calculates optimal
control strategies.
TB35