Jeppesen Named 2010 INFORMS Prize Winner in Analytics, Operations Research

ORLANDO, FL, April 26, 2010 – The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) today announced the award of the INFORMS Prize to Jeppesen, a Boeing Company.

INFORMS, a professional society for specialists in operations research and analytics, recognizes only a single outstanding organization every year. By awarding the 2010 INFORMS Prize to Jeppesen, INFORMS took note of the world-class capabilities and contributions of the Jeppesen operations research department.

“Jeppesen uses O.R. to address both the strategic and tactical problems we encounter on a continual basis,” says Mark Van Tine, Jeppesen president and CEO (pictured above, far right). “INFORMS has bestowed a significant honor upon us. It independently confirms the impact OR has at Jeppesen, while highlighting our commitment to leveraging O.R. for the benefit of our customers and the success of our company. We simply could not do much of the highly sophisticated work we do without this fundamental capability.”

INFORMS bestowed the 2010 INFORMS Prize for outstanding, organization-wide use of operations research throughout the company.

Jeppesen helps pilots, mariners, and others get safely and efficiently to their destinations by providing them with mission critical information, including flight manuals which contain navigational and other safety-of-flight information. Worldwide, more than 650 airlines and 1 million pilots; 6,500 commercial ships and 1.5 million boaters; and some of the largest railroad operators in Europe rely on Jeppesen.

INFORMS first took notice of Jeppesen in 2000, when judges for the association’s Franz Edelman Award competition gave the prize to Jeppesen after a turning point in the company’s history. In 1997, Jeppesen saw its service deteriorate when a growing line of over 100,000 aviation charts overwhelmed its production system. The company responded by establishing a small O.R. group to analyze its production problems. In just two short years, Jeppesen was able to eliminate late delivery of product orders, reducing costs by nearly $3 million annually.

Since then, the expanding O.R. department has consistently applied a wide variety of O.R. techniques throughout the enterprise to improve operations and to support decision-making related to resource utilization, inventory optimization, capital investments, market strategy, product development and pricing.

Today, more than 75 professionals with an O.R. background are helping Jeppesen apply analytics to make better decisions, build better products, and offer better services.

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences annually awards the INFORMS Prize for effective integration of operations research into organizational decision making. The award is given to an organization, like Jeppesen, that has repeatedly applied the principles of O.R. in pioneering, varied, novel, and lasting ways.

Past recipients of the award include Intel, UPS, HP, IBM, Procter & Gamble, and GE Research.

More information about the INFORMS Prize is here.

Operations research is the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.

The ceremony took place on April 19 at an INFORMS meeting, Applying Science to the Art of Business: the 2010 INFORMS Conference on Operations Research Practice at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek.

About INFORMS

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, financial engineering, and telecommunications. The INFORMS website is www.informs.org

About Jeppesen

For more than75 years Jeppesen has made it possible for pilots and their passengers to safely and efficiently reach their destinations. Today this pioneering spirit continues as Jeppesen delivers essential information and optimization solutions to improve the efficiency of air, sea and rail operations around the globe. Jeppesen is a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, a unit of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Jeppesen corporate information is available online at jeppesen.com.

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