[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/hassini.jpg” caption=”Elkafi Hassini”]For our grandparents, grocery shopping meant a trip of several miles, often in the snow, and of course uphill both ways. However, these days, a trip to the supermarket can be replaced by a few simple mouse clicks in front of our computers.

Technological advances have brought us to the point where nearly anything can be ordered online – and if we choose to make the trek to the store itself, we can usually do a simple online stock check to ensure the trip will be successful. These advances certainly make the daily tasks of our lives more convenient; however, they lead to significant complications with regards to the management of businesses.

Elkafi Hassini, an assistant professor at the DeGroote School of Business, specializes in developing models and tools that help managers make the complex decisions that are part of modern business practice. He notes, “I use mathematical models to help decision makers make better decisions, the best decisions. Given some constraints on your resources and given an objective that you want to achieve, I would develop a model that would help you to choose the best possible course of action.” Through this research, which is funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Hassini has found an innovative way to unite and apply his training in both engineering and management science.

Hassini has several projects on the go, both individually and with PhD students. Firstly, Hassini is investigating retailers that have both physical and online stores. Hassini is interested in managing the order and delivery process at an operational level as well as coordinating between different branches of the retailer. Ultimately, Hassini observes that the objective of the research is to, “help retailers to capture their customers and to satisfy them, even if they don't have items at some particular locations.”

Another aspect of Hassini's research deals with online auctions. Although Hassini's work has applications to public auctions such as eBay, he is primarily concerned with auctions involving manufacturers and suppliers dealing with procurements. He says, “You need to have a mechanism that would be efficient in the sense that it would meet the purpose of the manufacturer as well as the suppliers that would take part in the auction.” A good auction should allow appropriate suppliers to qualify. It should allow for the manufacturer to easily select a supplier that meets its needs in terms of prices, quantity, and delivery. Finally, the auction should also facilitate the process of placing an order. Previously, together with two computing and software undergraduate students, Hassini developed a procurement prenegotiation system and looked at ways of integrating it with major commercial enterprise resource planning systems.

Hassini is also exploring ways to integrate dynamic pricing into the field of operations management. He observes, “Traditionally, the area of operations management has mostly focused on the problem of finding how much to stock and when to stock under the assumption that prices are constant in a given period.”

However, Hassini notes that this is no longer a safe assumption to make. New software systems make it easy for retailers to change prices in very short periods of time. Indeed, some online retailers, such as Dell, have been known to change prices within a matter of hours. Furthermore, other retailers change the price of the goods they offer based on the patterns of individual consumers. For example, if a retailer observes that a customer is only interested in sale items the seller may choose to offer some products at lower costs to encourage purchases. This is an expanding practice in commerce, and many retailers are eager to adopt dynamic pricing as it can lead to increased profits. Hassini is taking the innovative step of ensuring that the management models used to run these businesses are able to deal with prices as variables rather than constants.

“Modeling of a situation and seeing that it could have some potential in real life” is an aspect that Hassini greatly enjoys about his research. He also notes, “I want to have more interaction with companies. It adds more value to the research that I do. I will feel more motivated to work on a problem when I know that the solution I will produce will be immediately put to use.”

In fact, in cooperation with St. Joseph's Healthcare and another DeGroote professor, Hassini has undertaken a project that many people are worried about – hospital wait times. This will be a complex model given the tendency of hospital visits to be very random in nature; consequently, Hassini's expertise in probability modeling will certainly come in handy. Hassini notes, “We may know how many patients come on average, but we will not know how many come at a specific time or what severity of problem they will have so there is some probability.”

Hassini's models are typically used to minimize cost or maximize profit through the mathematical techniques of optimization and probabilistic modeling. Through this partnership with St. Josephs Healthcare, Hassini plans on adapting his models. Now wait times will be minimized, patient satisfaction will be maximized, and the efficiency of the hospital will be optimized.

Hassini notes that in order to make his models usable, he must develop them into software packages that feature an appealing and simple graphic user interface. According to Hassini, “For a hospital you could actually have patients coming in a door, going to see a doctor and then leaving. We'll show the amount of time they've waited or whatever else the management would like to see – it will all be visual.”

Technology continues to grow at a remarkable rate. Innovative ideas, which make the tasks of our lives easier and more convenient, continue to be developed through the efforts of individuals like Elkafi Hassini who strive to optimize their integration. Not only does this hard work facilitate the efficient functioning of the economic world – it also helps the sick and injured feel comfortable faster and allows each of us to devote more time to the most important aspects of our lives.

(The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) program was launched in 1999 at 10 universities across Canada. Through SPARK, students with an aptitude for communications are recruited, trained and paid to write stories based on the NSERC supported research at participating universities.)