Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences The purpose of the Franz Edelman competition is to call out, recognize and reward outstanding examples of management science and operations research practice in the world,with $15,000 in awards. First prize is accompanied by a $10,000 honorarium. Videos and DVDs of past competitions, suitable for teaching, marketing, or publicizing OR/MS practice successes, are available for purchase from INFORMS. Who Was Franz Edelman? Read about the life and legacy of Franz Edelman Application Process View information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines Past Winners View information about all past winners of this prize Most Recent Winners FIRST PLACE 2009 Share Hewlett Packard: HP Transforms Product Portfolio Management with Operations Research Ann Brecht, Brian Cargille, Russ Chadinha, Kathy Chou, Gavin DeNyse, Shailendra Jain, Holger Mishal, Thomas Olavson, Cookie Padovani, Kurt Sunderbruch, Robert Tarjan, Julie Ward, Joseph Woods, Bin Zhang, Hewlett-Packard; Jason Amaral, Emeraldwise LLC; Dirk Beyer, M-Factor; Chris Fry, Strategic Management Solutions; Qi Feng, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin; Sesh Raj, DSApps, Inc.; Krishna Venkatraman, Intuit; Jing Zhou, Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina at Charlotte HP offers a wide spectrum of innovative products to meet diverse customer needs. While this has helped the company achieve unparalleled market reach, it has come with significant costs and challenges. HP developed two powerful OR-based solutions for product variety management that address the diverse needs of its businesses throughout their products’ lifecycles. The first uses custom-built ROI calculators to evaluate each proposed new product before it is introduced. The second, HP’s Revenue Coverage Optimization (RCO) tool, is used to manage product variety after it has been introduced. By identifying a core portfolio of products most important to order coverage, RCO enables HP businesses to increase operational focus on the most critical products in their offerings. Using these tools, HP achieved over $500M in profit improvements across several business units since 2005. HP also streamlined its product offering, improved execution, achieved faster delivery performance, lowered overhead, and increased customer satisfaction and market share. 2009 FINALISTS CSX Railways: CSX Railway Uses O.R. to Cash in on Optimized Equipment Distribution Dharma Acharya, David Sellers, CSX Transportation; Michael Gorman, University of Dayton Each day, CSX Railway allocates hundreds of empty railcars among hundreds of customer car orders. In 1997, CSX implemented the U.S. rail industry’s first real-time, fully integrated equipment distribution optimization system, the Dynamic Car Planning system (DCP). DCP allows the global perspective of OR modeling to be seamlessly integrated into the field communication process for the assignment of empty cars to customer car orders. CSX estimates it saves over $51 million annually from the DCP system, totaling $561 million since its implementation. Additionally, CSX was able to avoid $1.4 billion in capital expenditure on additional railcars required to support its business due to a more efficient allocation of cars. Fewer railcars yields improved return on assets and reduced congestion on the CSX rail network. Other railroads have benefited from subsequently implementing similar systems. Public benefits include an estimated $600 million through improved highway safety, reduced congestion, pollution and greenhouse gases, and reduced general tax-supported road maintenance. IBM Corporation: Analytics-Driven Solutions for Increased Sales Force Productivity at IBM Rick Lawrence, Claudia Perlich, Saharon Rosset, IBM Corp., IBM T.J. Watson Research Center; Matt Callahan, Matt Collins, Alexey Ershov, Shiva Kumar, IBM Corp., Business Performance Initiatives and Strategy In 2004, IBM introduced a set of broad OR-based initiatives designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of its global sales force. The first solution, OnTARGET, provides a set of analytical models designed to identify new sales opportunities at existing IBM accounts as well as non-customer companies. The objective of the second solution, the Market Alignment Program (MAP), is to optimally allocate sales resources based on field-validated analytical estimates of future revenue opportunity in each operational market segment. The development of both sets of analytical models, as well as the underlying data models and web sites used to deliver the overall solutions, will be described. The combined initiatives have resulted in a revenue impact estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Marriott International: Group Pricing Optimizer Sharon Hormby, Julia Morrison, Prashant Dave, Michele Meyers, Tim Tenca, Marriott International Marriott has a 20-year history of successfully applying revenue management to individual bookings. Group Pricing Optimizer (GPO) represents a significant extension. GPO, a dynamic real-time pricing system, provides robust guidance to sales personnel as they negotiate pricing of hotel rooms for group customers. The system employs demand segmentation, price elasticity modeling and optimization techniques to recommend an optimal rate. In operation since late 2006, the system has improved revenue for hotels by an annual amount of at least $46m. It also has enhanced the sales process for both sales managers and customers. Contracted business that has been priced using GPO since its implementation is over $1 billion. Norske Skog:  Norske Skog Improves Global Profitability Using O.R. Graeme Everett, Norske Skog Tasman; Rune Gjessing, Kjetil Vatn, Norske Skog; Andy Philpott, University of Auckland Many businesses face uncertainty about demand in the face of economic recession. Global paper maker Norske Skog is familiar with this, as the company has experienced declining demand for its products due to electronic media replacing printed publications. O.R. models have become a vital part of the decision making process, helping the company to reduce costs and enabling senior managers to make difficult decisions. The suite of MIP-based decsion tools at Norske Skog was developed to optimize manufacturing, distribution, and sourcing of raw materials in Australasia. After becoming a part of Norske Skog in 2000, the methodology was futher developed for use in global operations. The tactical use of the models resulted in savings of $8 million US and $10 million US annually in Australasia and Europe respectively. In 2008 the model was used to contribute to a strategic decision to close two paper mills and a paper machine, saving $100 million US annually. Zara: Zara Uses Operations Research to Reengineer Its Global Distribution Process Miguel Diaz, Jose Manuel Corredoira, Javier Garcia, Marcos Montes, Zara/Inditex S.A.; José Antonio Ramos, Carrefour S.A.; Juan Correa, Dell, Inc.; Jérémie Gallien, MIT Sloan School of Management; Felipe Caro, UCLA Anderson School of Management Zara is the world’s leading fast-fashion retailer. Overcoming significant technical difficulties, Zara recently deployed a new process relying extensively on sophisticated OR models to determine every single shipment of inventory it sends from its two central warehouses to its 1,500 stores worldwide. An innovative feature of the model implemented is the joint optimization of the shipments of individual sizes of the same article, reflecting size-related store display policies. Through a rigorous controlled field experiment, the authors estimate that this new process has increased sales by 3-4%, corresponding to an estimated realized impact of approximately $233M and $353M in additional revenues for 2007 and 2008, respectively. Return to the INFORMS Awards Page