Shailesh S. Kulkarni

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Full) at University of North Texas

Teaching relatively complex quantitative topics in statistics, operations management, and management science to undergraduate as well as graduate students can pose numerous pedagogical challenges. However, several topics in these disciplines are amenable to exposition by means of dynamic interactive visualizations. We present a sample of such visua...

False positive rates and their impacts have been a focal point for information security research. However, most of this research investigates false positives exclusively from the system defender’s perspective, while in reality an attacker also faces the classification decision in identifying feasible targets and the consequences of false positive r...

In this paper, we study a healthcare system consisting of a healthcare provider and a patient. We first look at a patient with a chronic condition, such as asthma or diabetes, where the patient needs to go through a restorative treatment when she falls sick and through an occasional full treatment. We assume that the health condition of the patient...

A distinct feature of process industries such as food, chemical and consumer packaged goods is the blending of intermediates into finished goods. In the context of such manufacturing systems the levels of different inputs that can be blended to process a final good define the range of flexibility. Likewise, the cost for using (blending) different i...

In this paper, we study information security investment for target asset protection. Most existing studies focus on the investment in information security that impacts the target asset's vulnerability while assuming that the loss resulting from a successful security breach is irrelevant to the security investment. We recognize the practice of infor...

For years, supply chain executives have asked how can they reduce inventory without affecting customer service levels or shifting cost to other supply chain partners? The answer could be a new inventory management strategy. H AVING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF INVENTORY when and where it's needed is a key element of corporate success. After all, losing cont...

Poor supply management of blood products poses a critical challenge for healthcare supply chains in support of humanitarian operations. A mismatch between blood product supply and blood product demand can have catastrophic consequences that can lead to loss of life, especially when humanitarian efforts are deployed as a result of a disaster. This s...

To avoid stockouts and maintain product availability, retailers typically carry excess units and subsequently incur higher cost. In case of style/fashion goods, demand forecasting is extremely difficult due to short selling cycles. The purpose of this study was to minimise the cost of excess stocking without compromising product availability. To ac...

To prevent loss of lives during seasonal disasters, relief agencies distribute critical supplies and provide lifesaving services to the affected populations. Despite agencies' efforts, frequently occuring disasters increase the cost of relief operations. The purpose of our study is to minimize the cost of relief operations, considering that such di...

In this article, we introduce the use of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as a technique for uncovering the intellectual structure of a discipline. LSA is an emerging quantitative method for content analysis that combines rigorous statistical techniques and scholarly judgment as it proceeds to extract and decipher key latent factors. We provide a ste...

In this paper, we consider a system with multiple components, each prone to failure, during which production is halted. Minimal repair is performed by an external contractor whenever a component breaks down. The contractor also conducts a general preventive maintenance (PM) for the whole system at pre-determined times. The contractor's goal is to m...

In this paper, we provide a simple approximation scheme for the optimal objective value for a particular type of location problem. Typically, such problems are solved using the classic set covering formulation. Such a formulation automatically requires data for the constraint matrix and can get too large to implement or too difficult to solve to op...

This paper clarifies some important issues related to a basic location model that is covered is most Operations Management courses. We show that the Euclidean mini-sum single facility location problem is structurally similar in terms of its convexity properties to its squared Euclidean counterpart and although a closed-form solution may not be read...

Information-intensive services (IIS), such as financial services, business services, health care, and education, form a large and growing part of the service sector in the US economy. In this paper we present a classification of IIS based on their operational characteristics. We also propose empirically grounded conceptual analysis and prescriptive...

The decision of a firm to set up a plant network is influenced by a number of factors, including demand fluctuations across its portfolio of products, logistics costs, and service level requirements. Product plant networks offer the benefits of consolidated production and reduced transshipment costs; on the other hand, process plant networks allow...

In this paper, we examine a joint lot-sizing and process investment problem with random yield and backorders. We allow for inspection and develop stochastic models which provide the optimal inspection and lot-sizing policy as well as the optimal process investment for variance reduction. The process quality loss profile around the target is capture...

In this note we consider a multi-product environment where production lot-sizing and investing for quality improvement in several production processes are desired. We develop a mathematical model for addressing this important problem. We use our model to calculate the optimal lot-sizes and the optimal allocation of investment across products in the...

In this paper, we consider the case of process plant networks, which consolidate production of components. It is well known that such networks take advantage of process commonalities thereby accruing economies of scale advantages. It has also been shown in recent work that besides scale economies, process plant networks also enjoy risk-pooling adva...

The problem of bivariate clustering for the simultaneous grouping of rows and columns of matrices was addressed with a mixed-integer linear programming model. The model was solved using conventional methodology for very small problems but solving even small to moderate-sized problems was a formidable challenge. Because of the NP-complete nature of...

Numerous authors explore the relationship between investment in a production process to reduce it's variance and improve quality levels. Recent studies also looked at reduction of process variance from a non-traditional Taguchi quality cost perspective. In this paper we propose and compare an alternative to Taguchi variance reduction models. We stu...

Abstract A firm’s choice between setting up a plant network is influenced by a number,of factors including demand fluctuations across its portfolio of products, logistics costs and service level requirements. Generally speaking productplant networksoffer the benefits of consolidated production and reduced transshipment costs as the product is manuf...

It has been widely recognized that agility enables manufacturing systems to respond to dynamic and unpredictable changes in today’s competitive environment. Develops a quantitative analysis framework and a simulation methodology to explore the value of agility in financial terms. Addresses the issues pertaining to the assessment of how an agile sys...

Although several studies have analyzed the interaction between the economics of production and process quality, most of them view quality from a very traditional perspective – reject when outside specified limits, or else accept. Recent views on quality have shown that such a definition greatly underestimates the costs of poor quality and leads to...

In this paper we present a mathematical model of a generic manufacturing system. The quality of the manufactured product is captured through one or more of its critical design/ process parameters. Managers often face the dilemma of which product/process is to be singled out for improvement in quality, with the limited capital outlay on hand. In thi...

Abstract , We compare the benefits and costs of two alternative manufacturing,network configurations in