Baris Ata
Sigmund E. Edelstone Distinguished Service Professor of Operations Management
Biography
Ata takes a problem-driven approach to bridge the theory and the practice of operations management, and has used stochastic models to study stochastic networks, manufacturing and service operations, revenue management, delivery of health care services and operational innovation in the social sector. His research focuses on dynamic decision making in complex settings under uncertainty. On the theory side, Ata’s current research interests include solving high-dimensional stochastic control and learning problems. On the application side, Ata currently works on identifying the right candidates for xenotransplantation, operational improvements in the criminal justice system and alleviating the logistical challenges in the last-mile delivery problems in Africa.
Ata’s research has been recognized by the Best Paper in Service Science Award, INFORMS (2009), William Pierskalla Best Paper Award, INFORMS (2015) and Wickham Skinner Best Paper Award, POMS (2019). He is also a recipient of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Young Scholar Prize, INFORMS (2015) and Emory Williams MBA Teaching Award at Chicago Booth (2021).
Ata serves as the editor for the Stochastic Models and Simulation Department of Management Science and the deputy editor for Stochastic Systems. He has also served as an associate editor for Mathematics of Operations Research, Operations Research, Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Stochastic Systems.
Working Papers
New: Congestion-Based Leadtime Quotation and Pricing for Revenue Maximization with Heterogeneous Customers
Date Posted:Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:55:48 -0500
This paper studies a queuing model where two customer classes compete for a given resource and each customer is dynamically quoted a menu of price and leadtime pairs upon arrival. Customers select their preferred pairs from the menu and the server is obligated to meet the quoted leadtime. Customers have convex–concave delay costs. The firm does not have information on a given customer’s type, so the offered menus must be incentive compatible. A menu quotation policy is given and proven to be asymptotically optimal under traditional large-capacity heavy-traffic scaling. Full paper available at ...
New: Congestion-Based Lead-Time Quotation for Heterogenous Customers with Convex-Concave Delay Costs: Optimality of a Cost-Balancing Policy Based on Convex Hull Functions
Date Posted:Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:53:52 -0500
We consider a congestible system serving multiple classes of customers who differ in their delay sensitivity and valuation of service (or product). Customers are endowed with convex-concave delay cost functions. A system manager offers a menu of lead times and corresponding prices to arriving customers, who then choose the lead-time–price pair that maximizes their net utility (value minus disutility of delay and price). We investigate how such menus should be chosen dynamically (depending on the system backlog) to maximize welfare. We formulate a novel fluid model of the problem and show that the cost-balancing policy (based on the convex hulls of the delay cost functions) is socially optimal if the system manager can tell customer types apart. If types are indistinguishable to the system manager, the cost-balancing policy is also incentive compatible under social optimization. Finally, we show through a simulation study that the cost-balancing policy does well in the context of the ...
REVISION: On Hospice Operations Under Medicare Reimbursement Policies
Date Posted:Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:08:50 -0500
This paper analyzes the United States Medicare hospice reimbursement policy. The existing policy consists of a daily payment for each patient under care with a global cap of revenues accrued during the Medicare year, which increases with each newly admitted patient. We investigate the hospice’s expected pro?t and provide reasons for a spate of recent provider bankruptcies related to the reimbursement policy; recommendations to alleviate these problems are given. We also analyze a hospice’s incentives for patient management, ?nding several unintended consequences of the Medicare reimbursement policy. Speci?cally, a hospice may seek short-lived patients (such as cancer patients) over patients with longer expected length-of-stay and the e?ort with which they seek-out, or recruit, such patients will vary during the year. Further, the e?ort they apply to actively discharge patients whose condition has stabilized may also depend on the time of year. These phenomena are unintended and ...
New: The Value of Partial Resource Pooling: Should a Service Network Be Integrated or Product-Focused?
Date Posted:Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:33:08 -0600
We investigate how network design impacts capacity requirements and responsiveness, which is a natural performance indicator of quality of service. Inspired by the contrasting network design approaches of FedEx and UPS, we study when two service classes (e.g., express or regular) should be served by dedicated resources (e.g., air or ground) or by an integrated network. We present analytic expressions for the delay distributions and the network integration value, which show how the value of ...
REVISION: On Hospice Operations Under Medicare Reimbursement Policies
Date Posted:Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:22:56 -0500
This paper analyzes the United States Medicare hospice reimbursement policy. The existing policy consists of a daily payment for each patient under care with a global cap of revenues accrued during the Medicare year, which increases with each newly admitted patient. We investigate the hospice’s expected pro?t and provide reasons for a spate of recent provider bankruptcies related to the reimbursement policy; recommendations to alleviate these problems are given. We also analyze a ...
New: Harvest: Organic Waste Recycling with Energy Recovery (B)
Date Posted:Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:30:43 -0500
This case describes the waste management industry and a clean technology solution for landfill diversion and renewable energy production. The (A) case focuses on the operational characteristics of waste management and waste to energy, and the characteristics of the waste management industry. The intent of the (A) case is to have students perform operational analysis on the organic waste to energy process to evaluate whether a potential new plant is economically feasible and attractive. The (B) ...
New: Harvest: Organic Waste Recycling with Energy Recovery (A)
Date Posted:Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:15:11 -0500
This case describes the waste management industry and a clean technology solution for landfill diversion and renewable energy production. The (A) case focuses on the operational characteristics of waste management and waste to energy, as well as the characteristics of the waste management industry. The intent of the (A) case is to have students perform operational analysis on the organic waste to energy process to evaluate whether a potential new plant is economically feasible and attractive ...