Biography
Born in The Hague, June 10, 1958. BSc in Mathematics, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1978. BSc in Physics, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1978. MSc (drs.) in Mathematics, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1981. PhD in Mathematics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1985. OR Consultant, CQM, Philips Electronics, 1985-1990. Logistics Innovation Manager, Philips Consumer Electronics, 1990-1992. Part-time professor Industrial Mathematics, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, 1991-1997. Full-time professor Quantitative Analysis of Operational Processes, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Science (now Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences), 1992-2020. Director European Supply Chain Forum, 1996-2018, www.escf.nl. Research Director European Supply Chain Forum, 2018-2021. Member Academic Council Tias Business School, 2007-2021. Academic Director Master of Operations and Supply Chain Excellence, 2007-2021. Part-time professor Quantitative Analysis of Operational Processes, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Science (now Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences), 2020-now. General Director CWI, 2020-now
My research is derived from real-world problems in Operations Management, that any organization is faced with, in the past, present, and future. The key common denominator of these problems is uncertainty. Uncertainty comes with mathematical intractability, and with counterintuitive insights. The former is a challenge that requires creativity, a solid mathematical background, and access to people smarter than myself. The latter attracted me from the start of learning about probability theory until now, as each counterintuitive result is an opportunity to learn. Many of the solutions to real-world problems I developed, together with colleagues and students, are based on approximations and heuristics. These required careful implementation and testing.
Knowledge and tools for Operations Management
Over the years I developed tools in Excel and Pascal that I used in teaching, have been used by students in their MSc projects, and have been implemented at companies like Philips, DAF, and Office Depot, and which I make available to the public on my hobby website Knowledge and tools for Operations Management. On that website you can also download various documents that provide information about the main ideas behind the algorithms developed, as well as the main insights that resulted from my research
