In an assemble-to-order system, a wide variety of products are rapidly assembled from component inventories, in response to customer orders. Orders must be filled within a productspecific target leadtime. In the event that some of the components required to fill an order are out-of-stock, these...

Motivated by a $2.2 billion inventory write-off by Cisco Systems, we investigate how duplicate orders can lead a manufacturer to err in estimating the demand rate and customers' sensitivity to delay, and to make faulty decisions about capacity investment. We consider a manufacturer that sells...

This paper examines a grocery retailer’s management of a premade food product. The retailer’s goal is to maximize a weighted sum of direct profit and customer welfare. Multiple items of the product are produced in batches and displayed for sale. Considering that each item’s quality...

M&SOM has published papers of importance for poverty alleviation. Yet, rich opportunities for impactful research remain as yet untapped. OM insights suggest business model innovations that alleviate poverty by simultaneously empowering women, protecting natural systems or mitigating pollution,...