Edward A. Silver

Born:
June 13, 1937

Brief Biography

Edward A. Silver Fellow Portrait

Edward A. Silver is a Canadian inventory and production planning researcher and former President of the Canadian Operational Research Society and the International Society for Inventory Research. In 1959, Silver earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from McGill University. After receiving his ScD in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology four years later, he joined the consulting firm Arthur D. Little. At Arthur D. Little, Silver worked primarily on scheduling problems and inventory systems for a wide portfolio of clients, including a large brewery, a wholesale drug firm, and an international welfare organization. He credits this practical experience as having a significant impact on his subsequent research.

While at Arthur D. Little, Silver taught part-time at his alma mater prior to accepting an Associate Professorship at Boston University’s College of Business Administration in 1967. The in 1969 he joined the brand new  Department of Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo two years later prior accepting a position at the University of Calgary, where he was made Carma Chair in 1991.

When Silver’s department at the University of Calgary changed its name and focus toward Operations Management in the 1980s, he began an increased affiliation with the OM community. Silver credits the key to his success to his educational experience and the continuation of part-time consulting and executive workshops. His part time consulting clients have included Alberta Justice, Canadian General Tower, the National Energy Board, PanCanadian Petroleum, and the United States Army Inventory Research Office. Throughout his career, Silver has taught a number of executive development courses and seminars on inventory management, supply chain fundamentals, process improvement and creative problem solving, and decision making under risk. 

Education

McGill University, B.Eng 1959

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ScD. 1963

Affiliations

Academic Affiliations
Non-Academic Affiliations

Key Interests in OR/MS

Methodologies
Application Areas

Oral Histories

INFORMS. MSOM Society Fellows: Edward Silver. Accessed January 6, 2016. 

Memoirs and Autobiographies

Résumé

Awards and Honors

Institute of Industrial Engineers Operations Research Division Award 1986

Canadian Operational Research Society Award of Merit 1990 

Institute of Industrial Engineers Fellow 1995

International Society for Inventory Research Fellow 2000

Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Fellow 2000

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Fellow 2003 

Harold Larnder Memorial Prize 2007

Production and Operations Management Society Fellow 2010

Professional Service

Canadian Operational Research Society, President 1980-1981.

International Society for Inventory Research, President 1994-1996, President-Elect 1992-1994, Vice President 1990-1992

Selected Publications

Silver E. A. & Meal H. C. (1973) A heuristic for selecting lot size quantities for the case of a deterministic time-varying demand rate and discrete opportunities for replenishment. Production and Inventory Management, 14(2): 64-74.

Peterson R., & Silver E. A. (1979) Decision Systems for Inventory Management and Production Planning . John Wiley & Sons: New York. 

Silver E. A. (1979) A simple inventory replenishment decision rule for a linear trend in demand. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 30(1): 71-75.

Dixon P. S. & Silver E. A. (1981) A heuristic solution procedure for the multi-item, single-level, limited capacity, lot-sizing problem. Journal of Operations Management, 2(1): 23-39.

Silver E. A. (1981) Operations research in inventory management: A review and critique. Operations Research, 29(4): 628-645

Silver E. A, Axsater A., & Schneeweiss C., eds. (1986) Multi-Stage Production Planning and Inventory Control. Springer-Verlag: Berlin. 

Silver, E. A., Pike, D. F.  & Thomas, D. J. (2016) Inventory and Production Management in Supply Chains, Fourth Edition, CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton FL.