• 2021 Supply Chain Research Forum

    Supply Chain Challenges: Practical Insights from Emerging Academic Research

    Friday, May 28 – Saturday, May 29, 2021

    Supply Chain Challenges: Practical Insights from Emerging Academic Research is an annual research forum for invited Canadian-based academic researchers to present emerging research findings relevant to solving business challenges firms encounter in designing, optimizing, and sustaining their supply chains. The forum is an initiative of the George Weston Ltd. Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains and the Operations Management & Information Systems Area of the Schulich School of Business, in partnership with Supply Chain Canada.

    In May 2021, six professors from five Canadian universities presented new managerial insights into contemporary supply chain challenges at the inaugural research forum. The six presentations delved into topics from ensuring availability of hand sanitizers in retail outlets, building manufacturing capacity for vaccine production, scheduling volunteer engagement activities to support food bank operations, improving corporate social responsibility performance among suppliers, anticipating solar panel waste, and selecting suppliers post-supply disruptions.

    Highlights from the forum were shared in a conference presentation at the 2021 Supply Chain Canada National Conference, delivered by David A. Johnston and M. Johnny Rungtusanatham. A summary also appeared in Supply Chain Canada Magazine, Issue 4, 2021.

2021 Speakers:

M. Johnny Rungtusanatham, Schulich School of Business, York University

Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Management (Tier 1); Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems;

Presentation: "Supplier selection in the aftermath of a supply disruption."

Presenter Bio:

M. Rungtusanatham is Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Management at the Schulich School of Business, York University; a 2017 Fellow inductee of the Decision Sciences Institute; a 2015 Dennis E. Grawoig Distinguished Service Award also from the Decision Sciences Institute. He is considered as one of the top-50 authors of research in supply chain management, according to Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (in 2019), and a top “individual researchers with greatest overall contribution to the field of Operations Management,” according to International Journal of Production Research (in 2015). His research is supported by grants totaling more than US$295,000 and CAD$1,400,000, with his 50+ publications related to quality management, mass customization, and supply chain disruptions and relationships having appeared in top academic and business journals. His current research focuses on supply chain disruptions – their attributes, triggering events, performance consequences, and mitigation. Rungtusanatham has also co-authored two introductory operations management textbooks and five teaching cases. He has received teaching excellence recognition and awards from four different academic institutions worldwide. He is past President of the Decision Sciences Institute and previously served as its Interim Executive Director.

Deishin Lee, Ivey Business School, Western University

Associate Professor, Operations Management & Sustainability

Presentation: "Resilience of food supply chains."

Presenter Bio:

Deishin is an Associate Professor in the Operations Management and Sustainability groups at Ivey. Deishin uses an operational lens to study sustainability problems, focusing on how resources can be utilized more effectively, thereby avoiding waste. She studies field-based problems in a number of different industries including food, energy, high tech, and industrial manufacturing. Deishin also has a stream of research on the management of information and technology in a network environment.

Xiaodan Pan, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University

Assistant Professor, Supply Chain and Business Technology Management

Presentation: "What happened to hand sanitizer? Retail operations in an uncertain world?"

Presenter Bio:

Dr. Xiaodan Pan joined the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in 2018. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Supply Chain Management from the University of Maryland (UMD). She holds an M.Eng. in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.Sc. in Management Science from Queen’s University, and an M.Eng. in Transportation Planning and Management from Dalian Maritime University.

Fuminori Toyasaki, School of Administrative Studies, York University

Associate Professor

Presentation: "Procurement strategies for COVID-19 vaccines from the perspective of at-risk vaccine production capacity building."

Presenter Bio:

Dr. Toyasaki has been conducting research in the area of sustainable supply chain designs involving environmental and disaster/emergency issues. Specifically, his research interests are closed-loop supply chains and humanitarian logistics. He has been conducting research in the area of supply chain designs involving disaster and environmental issues. His research interests include: disaster and emergency logistics, humanitarian logistics, fund-raising operations for aid agencies, reverse logistics, and closed-loop supply chains. His works have been published in leading academic journals and recorded high citation counts.

Changmin Jiang, Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba

Associate Professor, Supply Chain Management; Department Director, Transport Institute

Presentation: "Impact of supplier's network centrality with customer firms on supplier's CSR performance."

Presenter Bio:

Changmin Jiang's research involves various issues in and aspects of the transportation sectors, particularly the economic and policy analysis. It focuses on the interaction between various parties in a transportation system and its policy implications for the regulator. So far, Dr. Jiang already has more than 30 peer-reviewed journal publications, most of which are published in first-tier journals that are recognized as top in different fields. He’s also the principal investigator of four national grants and the winner of multiple research and teaching awards.

Serasu Duran, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

Assistant Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management

Presentation: "The dark-side of clean energy: A circular outlook"

Presenter Bio:

Serasu Duran is an assistant professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Haskayne School of Business. Her main research focus is energy-related operations management; with a particular interest on the impacts of new technologies and disruptions on existing supply chains.

Prior to joining Haskayne, she completed my PhD studies at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Supporting Partners: