Seyed Iravani | MEM | Northwestern University

Seyed Iravani

Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences Department
Master of Engineering Management

Course:

IEMS 407 - Quantitative Methods for Decision Making

Dr. Iravani’s research and teaching focus on the analytical tools of decision making. Students learn to create mathematical models that can be used in any industry and in every area of business: finance, production, logistics, supply chain, operations, and more. Whether it is a factory manager making decisions about production schedules, or a marketing team forecasting future demand, Dr. Iravani demonstrates the difference between ad hoc decision making - we produced 500 last year and made good profit, let’s make 550 this year - and scientific decision making, where data and models drive the decision. This systematic way of thinking provides a broader perspective of the real problem, and business decisions made using a mathematical framework typically create consensus faster.

Dr. Iravani is passionate about teaching decision theory because he has seen many cases where these models improved business results significantly. He believes the MEM program at McCormick is “the ideal environment for successful engineers to learn about the management side of their business. They will be taught by top faculty and interact with other highly motivate, career-oriented technical professionals.”

Seyed has received numerous awards and honors, including the ASG Faculty Honor Roll Award, Northwestern University (2007), the IIE Operations Research Division Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Operations Research (2006), the Pentair-Nugent Chair Professorship in Manufacturing, Northwestern University (2003-2006), and the Graduate Teaching Award, Department of IE/MS, Northwestern University (2002).

Education:

Ph.D.   Industrial Engineering                         University of Toronto, Canada                    1997
M.S.    Industrial and Systems Engineering     Iran University of Science and Technology 1989
B.S.     Industrial Engineering                         Iran University of Science and Technology    1986

Dr. Iravani also worked with the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan during his postdoctoral years. He has also worked closely with industry (e.g., Ford, GM, Motorola, etc.)

Boards and Memberships:
Dr. Iravani currently serves as Associate Editor for Management Science, Operations Research, IIE Transactions, and Naval Research Logistics. He also serves on the Executive Board of Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO).

Publications:

Iravani S.M.R., Duenyas I. and Tava L. Olsen. “A Production/Inventory System Subject to Failure with Limited Repair Capacity." Operations Research 48 (2000) 951-964.

Iravani S.M.R., Posner M.J.M. and J.A. Buzacott. “Operations and Shipment Scheduling of a Batch on a Flexible Machine." Operations Research 51 (2003) 585-601.

Iravani, S.M.R., Sims, K. and M.P. Van Oyen. “Structural Flexibility: A New Perspective on the Design of Manufacturing and Service Operations." Management Science 51 (2005) 151-166.

Huang, B. and S.M.R. Iravani. “Production Control Policies in Supply Chain under Selective Information Sharing." Operations Research 53 (2005) 662-674.

Hopp, W., Iravani, S.M.R., and G. Yuen. “Discretionary Task Completion: A Key Difference between White-Collar and Blue-Collar Work Systems." Management Science 53 (2007) 61-77