Professor Saif Benjaafar

Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Ph.D., Purdue University, School of Industrial Engineering, 1992
M.S., Purdue University, School of Industrial Engineering, 1989
B.S., University of Texas at Austin, Department of Electrical Engineering, 1987

Office: ME 130G - phone: (612) 626-7239
Email: saif@umn.edu
Bio

NSF Symposium on the Low Carbon Footprint Supply Chain, October 14-15, 2010
Organized by Saif Benjaafar and Mark S. Daskin

Designing smart supply chains: Saif Benjaafar, article in Research @ the U of M

Research

Broad interest in supply chain management, service and manufacturing operations, production and inventory systems, and applications of stochastic modeling, optimization, and game theory. Current research interests include sustainability and environmental modeling in supply chains, healthcare operations and healthcare supply chains, flexibility in service and manufacturing operations, and cooperation and resource sharing in supply chains and operations.

Research Laboratories

• Center for Supply Chain Research
  
  
• Enterprise Logistics Laboratory
  

Selected Publications

Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi, C. Y. Lee and W. Zhou, “Optimal Control of Assembly Systems with Multiple Stages and Multiple Demand Classes,” Operations Research, 59, 522-529, 2011.

Benjaafar, S., W. L. Cooper and S. Mardan, “Production-Inventory Systems with Imperfect Advance Demand Information and Updating,” Naval Research Logistics, 58, 88-106, 2011.

Yu, Y. and S. Benjaafar, "An Analysis of Inventory Systems with Concave Ordering Costs," accepted for publication with minor revisions in Operations Research, 2011.

Hua, Z., W. Zhang and S. Benjaafar, "Inventory Control with Multiple Suppliers," accepted for publication in Production and Operations Management, 2011.

Benjaafar, S. and M.Elhafsi, "A Production-Inventory System with both Patient and Impatient Customers," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions Automation Science and Engineering, 2011.

Marvin, A. L., L. D. Schmidt, S. Benjaafar, D. G. Tiffany and P. Daoutidis, “Economic Optimization of a Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-Ethanol Supply Chain,” accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Science, 2011. (Special Issue on Energy, jounal impact factor is 2.136).

Benjaafar, S., J. P. Gayon, and S. Tepe, “Production-Inventory Systems with Customer Impatience,” Operations Research Letters, 38, 267-272, 2010. 

Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi and T. Huang, “Optimal Control of a Production-Inventory System with both Backorders and Lost Sales,” Naval Research Logistics, 57, 252-265, 2010.

Gayon, J. P., S. Benjaafar and F. de Véricourt, “Using Imperfect Demand Information in Production-Inventory Systems with Multiple Demand Classes,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 11, 128-143, 2009. (M&SOM Best Paper Award, 2011).

Hu, B. and S. Benjaafar, “On Server Partitioning in Queueing Systems during Rush Hour,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 11, 416-428, 2009.

Begnaud, J., S. Benjaafar and L. A. Miller, “The Multilevel Lot Sizing Problem with Flexible Production Sequences,” IIE Transactions, 41, 702-715, 2009.

Gaglioppa, F., L. Miller and S. Benjaafar, “Multi-Task and Multi-Stage Production Planning and Scheduling for Process Industries,” Operations Research, 56, 110-1025, 2008.

Benjaafar, S., Y. Li, D. Xu and S. Elhedhli, “Demand Allocation in Systems with Multiple Inventory Locations and Multiple Demand Sources,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 4, 43-60, 2008.

Benjaafar, S., E. Elahi and K. Donohue, “Outsourcing via Service Quality Competition,” Management Science, 53, 241-259, 2007.

Lahmar, M. and S. Benjaafar, “Sequencing with Limited Flexibility,” IIE Transactions, 39, 937 - 955, 2007. (Featured Article in IIE Solutions Magazine).

Benjaafar, S. and M. El Hafsi, “Production and Inventory Control of a Single Product Assemble-to-Order System with Multiple Customer Classes,” Management Science, 52, 1896-1912, 2006.

Benjaafar, S., William L. Cooper and J. S. Kim, “On the Benefits of Inventory Pooling in Production-Inventory Systems,” Management Science, 51, 548-565, 2005. Extended abstract in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 4, 12-16, 2002 (M&SOM Best Student Paper Award, Finalist).

Lahmar, M. and S. Benjaafar, “Design of Dynamic Distributed Layouts,” IIE Transactions, 37, 303-318, 2005 (Featured Article in IIE Solutions Magazine).

Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi and F. de Véricourt, “Demand Allocation in Multi-Product, Multi-Facility Make-to-Stock Systems,” Management Science, 50, 1431-1448, 2004.

Gurumurthi, S. and S. Benjaafar, “Modeling and Analysis of Flexible Queueing Systems,” Naval Research Logistics, 51, 755-782, 2004.

Benjaafar, S., J. S. Kim and N. Vishwanadham, “On the Effect of Product-Variety in Production-Inventory Systems,” Annals of Operations Research, 126, 71-101, 2004.

Gupta, D. and S. Benjaafar, “Make-to-order, Make-to-stock, or Delay Product Differentiation? - A Common Framework for Modeling and Analysis,” IIE Transactions, 36, 529-546, 2004 (Featured Article in IIE Solution Magazine).

Strike, D. and S. Benjaafar, “Practice Abstract: Optimizing Inventory Control at 3M,” Interfaces, 34, 115-116, 2004 (INFORMS Edelman Award, Semifinalist).

Lahmar, M., Hakan, E. and S. Benjaafar, “Resequencing and Feature Assignment on a Moving Assembly Line,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 19, 23-37, 2003. Extended Abstract in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 31, 7-9, 2001 (M&SOM Best Student Paper Award, Finalist).

Benjaafar, S., “Modeling and Analysis of Congestion in the Design of Facility Layouts,” Management Science, 48, 679-204, 2002.

Benjaafar, S., S. Heragu and S. Irani, “Next Generation Factory Layouts: Research Challenges and Recent Progress,” Interfaces, 32, 58-76, 2002 (One of the most frequently cited papers in Interfaces according to research published in Interfaces in 2010).  

Bar-Cohen, A. Benjaafar, S. and M. Iyengar, “Design for Manufacturability of Natural Convection Cooled Heat Sinks,” International Journal of Transport Phenomenon, 4, 43-57, 2002.

 
Working Papers

Benjaafar, S., Y. Li and M. Daskin, “Carbon Footprint and the Management of Supply Chains: Insights from Simple Models,” in review.

Chen X., S. Benjaafar and A. Elomri, "The Carbon-Constrained EOQ," in review.

Jouini, O. and S. Benjaafar, "Queueing Systems with Appointment-Driven Arrivals, Non-Punctual Customers and No-Shows, " in review.

Yu, Y., S. Benjaafar and Y. Gerchak, “On Service Capacity Pooling and Cost Sharing among Independent Firms,” in review.

Yu, Y. and S. Benjaafar, “A Customer-Item Decomposition Approach to Stochastic Inventory Problems with Correlation,”  in review.

Elahi, E., S. Benjaafar and K. Donohue, “Optimal Service-Based Procurement with Heterogeneous Suppliers,” in review.

Hua, Z., W. Zhang and S. Benjaafar, “Optimal Inventory Policy for Capacitated Systems with Two Supply Sources,” in review.