PhD position in Human-centric Decision Making in Operations Management

Key takeaways

The position focuses on an ambitious and current topic: human-centric decision-making in the domains of Industrial Engineering (IE) / Operations Research (OR) / Operations Management (OM). These domains have contributed substantially to the fields of supply chain management, logistics, transportation, production planning, and healthcare management. However, approaches, methods, and models often neglect the role of humans in the development, implementation, and impact of IE/OR/OM technologies. We are looking for candidates who are willing to narrow this gap.

The challenge

Optimization methods, mathematical models, data-driven methods, decision support tools, predictive models, forecasting tools, and related solutions often do not involve humans or only involve humans in a later stage, like during testing. Also, there is often little consideration for the impact of decisions on humans, their behavior, and well-being. Instead, the focus is mostly on profit maximization. In this research, we place the human decision-maker at the center of the decision-making process and transition from the current Industry 4.0 cyber-physical system approach to a human-centric, sustainable, and resilient Industry 5.0 approach.

For this research, using case studies from supply chain planning, production scheduling, and health care management, we aim to develop new theories, methods, and modeling approaches to find answers to questions like:

• How can we use human-centric OR/AI to directly reduce manual workload (administrative burden) while leaving high-value tasks to the human decision-maker?
• Can we incorporate decision-makers’ skills and knowledge while developing decision models/tools? How can we involve a decision maker in formulating an optimization problem when the decision maker may lack the technical skills of the model/tool?
• How can we exploit the useful information embedded in the data to the maximum extent while protecting critical information or data privacy?
• Can we include human needs in a better way in the OR/AI models to distribute workloads among employees to prevent unfair work distributions, and possibly employee burnout?
• How can we help decision-makers make complex decisions with high risk, uncertainty, and ethical dilemmas?
• By involving decision makers earlier in the design process of decision support systems, can we build trust in and acceptance of users?

Are you interested in making this transition towards human-centric thinking in operations management?

We look for a highly motivated, enthusiastic researcher who is driven by curiosity and has/is:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in industrial engineering, management science, operations research, operations management, or information systems and computer science-related engineering field;
• A clear interest, yet not necessarily a proven experience, in human-centric decision-making (we particularly ask candidates to reflect on their vision regarding human-centric decision-making in their motivation letter);
• A good team spirit and like to work in an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented environment;
• Able to do independent research and willing to develop writing and publication skills;
• Able to collaborate with partners from academia and industry;
• Exhibits a strong passion and possesses outstanding skills in interdisciplinary high-tech, human-centered research in the business domain within particular applications of manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation;
• Possess good communication skills and an excellent command of English;
• Interested to collaborate with BMS Lab and the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform, and willing to contribute to the ongoing course development on Smart Industry for the IEM program.

We encourage high responsibility and independence while collaborating with colleagues, researchers, other university staff, and partners. We follow the terms of employment by the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Universities (CAO). Our offer contains: a full-time 4-year PhD position with a qualifier in the first year; excellent mentorship in a stimulating research environment with excellent facilities; and a personal development program within the Twente Graduate School. It also includes:

• Gross monthly salary of € 2.770 in the first year, increasing each year up to € 3.539 in the fourth year;
• Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• 29 holidays per year in case of full-time employment;
• A training program as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
• A green campus with free access to sports facilities and an international scientific community;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid);
• A full status as an employee at the UT, including pension, health care benefits and good secondary conditions are part of our collective labor agreement CAO-NU for Dutch universities.

The HBE department is dedicated to encouraging a supportive and inclusive working culture. Our aim is that all job applicants are given equal opportunities. When we select candidates for employment, it will be on the basis of their competence and ability. To support workforce diversity, we are open to offering flexible working conditions on an individual basis to support work-life balance, which may include a contract of employment, working hours and location, or childcare arrangements.

The High Business Entrepreneurship corporate video can be watched via this link.