Established in 1964 and 1967 as the two Departments of Operational Research and Systems Engineering, the Departments were the first of their type in a British University and were amongst the earliest departments of the University of Lancaster. Set up under the direction of Professor Pat Rivett and Professor Gwilym Jenkins, the departments made their mark by their co-operative attitude to research and scholarship. Since then, the departments have enjoyed distinguished leadership from Professors Gwilym Jenkins, Mike Simpson, Alan Mercer, Peter Checkland, Robert Fildes, Brian Kingsman and Mike Pidd.
In 1993, the two departments merged to form the Department of Management Science. The new department brought together Professor Peter Checkland's work in soft systems methodology and its application in information systems, with the formal, quantitative modelling skills of the operational research staff. It is now an international centre of excellence for research and teaching in management science.
Full details of the
department and its activities and publications may be found on its web pages,
using the URL: http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/pages/Departments/ManSci/
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Professors |
David Brown |
MA Lancaster |
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Sue Cox |
PhD Nottingham Dean of the Management
School |
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Richard Eglese |
MA Lancaster |
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Robert Fildes |
PhD California |
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Kevin Glazebrook |
PhD Cambridge |
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Linda Hendry |
PhD Lancaster |
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Mike Pidd |
MSc Birmingham |
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Professors Emeritus |
Peter Checkland |
MA Oxford |
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Alan Mercer |
PhD London |
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Readers |
Adam Letchford |
PhD Lancaster |
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Ruud Teunter |
PhD Groningen (The
Netherlands) |
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Senior lecturers |
Jerry Busby |
PhD Lancaster |
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Michael Chiasson |
PhD British Columbia
(Canada) |
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Graham Rand |
BSc Liverpool |
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Martin Spring |
PhD Stirling |
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Mike Wright |
PhD Lancaster |
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David Worthington |
PhD Reading |
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Lecturers |
Roger Brooks |
Ph.D Birmingham |
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Paul Dunning-Lewis |
PhD Lancaster |
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Ruth Kowalczyk |
PhD Lancaster |
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Nigel Lockett |
PhD Lancaster |
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Joern Meissner |
PhD Columbia (New York) |
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Didier Soopramanien |
PhD Lancaster |
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Research staff |
Ruth Alcock |
PhD Lancaster |
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Sven Crone |
Diplom-Kaufmann (Hamburg) |
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Murat Gunal |
MSc Lancaster |
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Maria Hayes |
PhD Cambridge |
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Marian Iszatt White |
MSc London |
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Chris Kirkbride |
PhD Newcastle-Upon-Tyne |
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Will Maden |
MSc Lancaster |
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Konstantinos Nikolopoulos |
PhD Technical University of
Athens |
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Stephan Onggo |
PhD Singapore |
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Alastair Robertson |
PhD Lancaster |
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Melissa Sedmark |
MSc London |
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Eric See-To |
PhD Hong Kong U. of Science
& Technology |
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Mark Stevenson |
BSc Lancaster |
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Visiting Professors |
Robert Grubbstrom |
PhD (U. Linköpping, Sweden) |
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Michael Lawrence |
PhD (U. New South Wales) |
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Edward Truch |
DBA Brunel |
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Visiting Senior Lecturers |
John Ranyard |
PhD Lancaster |
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Jim Scholes |
PhD Lancaster |
John Ranyard is External Liaison Manager for the Department, working to further develop the Department’s links with industry, commerce and the public sector.
Robert Fildes is the current
head of department.
The Department has active research programmes in Operational Research, Operations Management, Information Management and Systems Theory. The department’s excellent research record was a major cause of the LUMS’ 5* rating for research in both the 2001 and 1996 national Research Assessment Exercise. This makes Lancaster one of only two Management Schools to be top-rated in these exercises. PhD research is also a major feature of the department and full details of the PhD programme are given in the Department's web pages, which list information about some of our large number of PhD students. Because we believe that the ultimate test of management science is its impact on the real world, most staff co-operate, in various ways, with external organisations. The common research theme is that model-based approaches are used to explore practical management problems experienced by OR specialists and operations managers. The increasing complexity of decision making in modern economic and social systems and the power of IT to collect and analyse larger amounts of data has increased the need for and use of these approaches.
Operational Research:
Discrete optimisation is an important focus of activity. Richard Eglese’s research on heuristic and exact methods for optimisation problems, particularly to vehicle routing problems, has produced advances in solving problems for public service and commercial activities. This work, undertaken in association with Adam Letchford, has attracted financial support from EPSRC and industry collaborators who support two RAs. Mike Wright’s main interest has been in the development and application of metaheuristic approaches for solving complex combinatorial problems, in particular to timetabling and to packing problems. International collaborations with the universities of Aarhus, Bologna and Valencia have resulted from the research of this group.
Mike Pidd's research in computer simulation has led to novel ways to use the distributed power of the Internet for discrete simulation and to proposals for the hierarchical modelling of large systems. A second stream has focused on ways of improving the use of simulation methods, especially for use in business process modelling. Roger Brooks also contributes to simulation research and includes applications in manufacturing. His current work concerns the use of simulation to study the properties of complex adaptive systems. It includes collaborative work with Geoff Easton (Marketing) analysing industrial networks.
Robert Fildes (in an international collaboration with Ord in Washington and Hibon at INSEAD) has been concerned with the evaluation and utility of time series forecasting models, developing further the literature on ‘forecasting competitions’. As well as being heavily cited, this research has impacted on software design of commercial packages. Applications of the work have been in method selection in manufacturing and in telecommunications, with substantial support by BT, as well as the design of forecasting support systems. The latter topic is the foundation of an EPSRC research project (with Bath) and Konstantinos Nikolopoulos as the principal member. Sven Crone joined the group this summer with an interest in Neural Network Methods.
Quantitative research
in marketing remains a research interest of the Department and the LUMS. Robert
Fildes, working with members of the Marketing department works in the area of
brand choice and segmentation using data mining and other inferential modelling
techniques. He has recently been joined by Didier Soopramanien who is developing
research in forecasting adoption rates of new technologies and the modelling of
consumer behaviour when using Information and communication technologies.
A
major issue facing organisations is the effective use of expertise in
organisations. In work sponsored by the OR Society, John Ranyard and Robert
Fildes examined the rapid changes taking place in OR practice and factors
influencing its success. This work gave
rise to a symposium and special issue of the Journal of the Operational Research Society. Graham Rand has
written on the early history of the International Federation of O.R. Societies.
The Lancaster research in this area has gained international prominence with
keynote presentations at events such as the annual conference of the US OR and
Management Science Society (INFORMS).
Operations Management:
Developments in this area owe much to the work carried out by Professor Brian Kingsman over many years, up to his sudden death at the end of August 2003. Building on successful EPSRC and ESRC projects, deeper understanding and insights to assist the management and planning of make-to-order manufacturing companies has continued to be a major activity for Linda Hendry, with particular emphasis on the marketing/production interface, order acceptance and release policies. This has been achieved via the application of and further development in Workload Control, an approach to production planning and control in which Lancaster is recognised internationally as one of the leading research centres. This approach to production planning, which has influenced many active researchers in German, Dutch, Italian, Greek and Portuguese universities and research institutes, has attracted international collaboration with the University of Lisbon and EU support for the dissemination of this work. Linda Hendry has developed definitions of world class manufacturing for make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing and service companies with particular reference to SMEs. This work has been partly funded by BAE Systems. David Worthington has successfully concluded research into discrete time modelling of queueing systems to provide means of solving mathematically intractable practical problems. He has now started research on applying these approaches to queuing models of manufacturing systems, with a view to providing better estimates for planning times to use in practical production planning systems.
Supply chain management links a number of research activities. The first is Brian Kingsman’s work on vendor selection and order allocation in purchasing, including current research on the effects of alternative ways of buyer/supplier co-operation on payment terms, costs and system performance. Working with Grubbström of Linköpping, Sweden, the research has recently been published in Management Science. Graham Rand has developed, in collaboration with colleagues at Renmin University, China, heuristics for ordering and stocking decisions under changing demand conditions. Robert Fildes continues to examine how uncertainty and forecasting errors impact such decisions in ERP and MRPII systems, showing those circumstances where improved forecasting is valuable. Two doctoral students currently research the effects of uncertainty on capacity planning and collaborative relationships across the supply chain.
David Worthington has continued his collaboration with the University’s Institute for Health Research on interdisciplinary research in health services management. The research has focused on information support for health care purchasing and management of radiology services has attracted financial support from the NHS. Ruth Kowalczyk is also developing her research in health services management and more generally in the integration of hard and soft methods in OR. Jerry Busby’s interests are in the areas of analysing risk and its management and he is working with the Dean, Professor Sue Cox in the area of safety.
The application of quality management to particular countries and organisations is a continuing research interest for Graham Rand. Recent doctoral students have investigated quality practices in Malaysia and Mexico. Current research students are studying issues in the Insurance industry in Kenya, the UK and Greece. Linda Hendry is currently also working in this area, with a doctoral student studying the Implementation of Six Sigma in Thailand.
Lancaster University Management School have recently invested in several new appoints in the area of supply chain management (SCM) to build on their existing competence of staff in the Operations Management area. These include Paul Cousins (Professor in Operations Management & CIPS Professor of Supply Chain Management), Dr Martin Spring (Senior Lecturer in Operations Management) & Dr Benn Lawson (Lecturer in Operations and Technology Management). Paul has researched and written widely on supply partnerships and is currently working on the notion of 'socialisation' in supply relationships. Martin has extended earlier work on customisation and design in supply networks to focus on hybrid service/product bundles, and on power and trust in supply networks. Benn is concerned with the operations management/technology management interface. Together with the staff members interested in modelling this makes the group one of the largest in the UK with interests encompassing all aspects of supply chain and operations. It is our aim to make Lancaster a centre of international excellence in the area of Operations and Supply Chain Management, building on our expertise and the internationally renowned skills of the Management Science Department. The aim to create a vibrant and focussed research centre covering a wide range of empirical (both qualitative and quantitative) in the area of SCM.
Information Management and Systems:
The
IS group continues to grow and broaden in Scope. The Soft Systems Methodology, pioneered at Lancaster, continues
to influence the field heavily. Peter Checkland and Sue Holwell’s book provides
a seminal contribution to the practice of systems specification. Peter Checkland’s appointment as a Senior
Leverhulme professorial fellow ensured the continuing vitality of this area of
research. Application of these and other information management concepts in the
field of E-commerce has been instigated by David Brown, in a research programme
funded by Hewlett Packard and SAP. This research explores the issues faced by
SME’s seeking to engage in E-commerce and has introduced new strategic business
models, including the concepts of Trust platforms and the roles of
intermediaries. David Brown is also working with Nigel Lockett on a new EPSRC
grant on the potential of E-Science and E-Management in the context of SMEs,
and on a new EU grant on E-business and innovation in China and Laos.. Paul Dunning-Lewis is concerned with the development,
design and evaluation of information systems and the use of Soft Systems
Methodology in information systems.
Paul’s research on systems design forms a part of recently funded EPSRC
e-scientific project (with Newcastle).
Mike Chiasson’s work is focussed on exploring the implementation of
complex IS in the professional domains, including health care. Finally, Eric See-To’s research is centred
on the management strategy of technology and innovation, in particular
electronic micro-payment based business models. Both Eric and Mike recently joined from overseas universities and
strengthen the international agenda of the IS group.
In
recent research, Mike Pidd examines the links between hard and soft OR/MS. This
important work has resulted in publications on business process modelling and
on modelling in OR. His book Tools For
Thinking – Modelling in Management Science has provided wide exposure of
the ideas. Substantial financial
support from EPSRC has recently been secured for joint work between Mike Pidd
and Lancaster’s Computing Department to look at the links between hard and soft
approaches in supporting decision making in the management of large projects.
The department offers undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience courses and most staff are active in all three types of teaching.
The Lancaster University degrees are based around major schemes of study, in which students concentrate their efforts, and which are accompanied by minor courses, that also count towards the degrees. Thus, students who major with the department might take minor courses such as accounting, marketing or industrial relations from within the Management School, or might choose topics from outside the School, such as computing, mathematics, statistics or some other suitable subject.
The department offers the
following major schemes of study.
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BSc in Management
Science
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BSc in Operations
Management
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BSc in Business
Computing & Information Systems (joint with the Department of Computing)
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BSc in Statistics,
Mathematics and Operational Research (joint with the Department of
Mathematics).
The course units that make up these degrees range from the highly technical (such as mathematical programming and computer simulation), through applications courses (such as quality management) to courses that emphasise personal transferable skills, (such as the project management courses). The units are taken by students from elsewhere in the Management School and the university as well as by the department's own major students.
Since the 1960s, the department has offered the MSc in Operational Research, which has produced many hundreds of successful operational research practitioners who have followed excellent careers in the UK and around the world. The MSc programme is supported as a Masters Training Package by the EPSRC. Its graduates are highly sought after by employers, large and small, many of whom visit the department for recruitment.
The MSc programmes have a strong applied focus and take high quality first degree graduates and hone their skills and knowledge to make them more useful. They are also intellectually challenging and very hard work! The courses include a project, usually with an external organisation, that runs for about 4 months from May each year. These projects are closely supervised by the academic staff who, with the students, find these one of the most rewarding parts of the MSc courses.
In addition, the department's staff teach on The
Management School programmes such as the full-time and part-time MBAs. The department is a principal participant in
the new MSc in E-Business & Innovation, which provides students with
the leading theory and practice required for managing increasing complexity,
driven by innovations in information and communication technologies (ICT).
The programme is inventive and exploits the existing and emerging centres
of excellence at Lancaster University. Lancaster uniquely offers a 6-star rated
Management School, a 5 rated Computing Department and InfoLab on one integrated
campus. Importantly this multidisciplinary programme offers the
opportunity for team-based organisational projects in high quality
host organisations. Overall, the programme provides students with a highly
desirable qualification, including organisational or research based experience
in order to acquire the skills and experience required in knowledge based
economies. The current programme director, Nigel Lockett, is a member of the
department.
The department also offers a range of post-experience courses. Some of these are organised through the Operational Research Society under the Lancord name. Others are organised directly for specific organisations to meet their particular needs. Staff are paid over and above the normal salary scale for this work.
The Position
The Management Science
Department is part of the 6* rated Lancaster University Management School. The
department’s emphasis is on intellectually stimulating and practically useful
research and teaching. We wish to appoint a new Lecturer in the field of
Information Systems who will revel in this approach.
The successful candidate will
join an expanding IS group to support existing and new initiatives in the field
of IS, including the MSc in E-Business and Innovation and the MSc in
Information Technology Management and Organisational Change. Teaching will be
in the main IS areas, including e-business.
Our IS research interests include: strategy;
e-business theory and applications; innovation; systems development including
soft systems methodology (SSM); social theory, and developments in new IS
infrastructures. In addition much of
our research is international and has a strong organisational focus. Current
work involves public, private and professional contexts, developing economies
and SMEs. We anticipate that the new appointment will reinforce our research
interests, or complement them in areas such as IST in marketing or innovation.
For this appointment we are
looking for an ambitious candidate. A PhD is expected (or is close to
completion) and the level of remuneration will depend on experience and
research record. More information on the department and our current research
are available at:
http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/Departments/ManSci/
http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/Departments/ManSci/Research/ResGroups/SISIntroduction/
Informal enquiries: Prof David
H. Brown email: d.brown@lancaster.ac.uk
and copy to c.l.fletcher@lancaster.ac.uk
To apply or receive further information online, please
visit http://www.personnel.lancs.ac.uk/
or, telephone Personnel Services, quoting reference
A640 on answerphone 01524 846549.
Closing date: 29th
May 2006
The Department is one of six that make up the LUMS, the others being: Accounting & Finance, Organisation Work & Technology, Economics, Management Learning and the Management Development Division. Two interdisciplinary centres, the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development and the Lancaster Centre for Management in China have recently been created. LUMS is a faculty of the university and Professor Sue Cox is the Dean. Within the School, some teaching and research is conducted solely within a single department and some is organised on a School-wide basis.
There are the following
School-wide taught programmes.
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BBA (Bachelor of
Business Administration)
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European BBA
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BSc in Business Studies
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Full-time MBA
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Consortial, part-time
MBA
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MSc in Information
Management, Technology and Organisational Change
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MSc in Management
In addition, there are many programmes run through the Management Development Division for one or more external organisations.
LUMS, and therefore the Department of Management Science, is housed in a purpose designed building at the south end of the university campus. This incorporates the Graduate Management School, completed in 1995, as well as offices, teaching rooms, computer labs, common rooms and a restaurant and cafe. All staff have networked PCs. As well as their own desk-top computer, staff can access a local unix cluster, a local high performance cluster, plus other campus resources as well as regional computers at Manchester and beyond via the Internet. Working conditions are excellent. The School is expanding further with a new major extension nearing completion in 2005.
LUMS, and all its departments, was awarded a research rating of 5* (the highest possible) in both the 2001 and 1996 RAEs. When its teaching was formally assessed, it was awarded a rating of Excellent. Only two Business and Management Schools in the UK share these joint excellent standards.
For more information about
the Lancaster University Management School, please look at the School's web
page: http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/
The university was founded in 1964 and it has established itself as one of the UK's top research-led institutions. Its main campus is situated on the southern outskirts of Lancaster and is set in 250 acres of landscaped parkland, close to the lively, friendly and historic city of Lancaster. The main campus is just 30 miles south of the beautiful Lake District and about the same distance from the Yorkshire Dales. It is about one hour's drive from Manchester International Airport and about 3 hours by train from London.
From a distance the University is identified by the brilliant white spires of the Chaplaincy Centre and by Bowland Tower, a 14-storey residence block. The Lancaster campus is designed around the "Spine" - a covered walkway which runs the length of the site, from north to south. The residences, teaching rooms, research laboratories, library, sports centre and shops extend along and either side of the Spine, which gives a large and safe pedestrian area, with all cars confined to the perimeter road.
At the heart of the campus is Alexandra Square (named after the University's first Chancellor, HRH Princess Alexandra). This provides a focus for the life of the University - the central administration building (University House), the Students' Union offices, the Library, shops and banks are close to the Square.
As well as providing accommodation and academic facilities, the campus has eating places, a newsagent, supermarket, bakery, bookshops, Students' Union shop, hairdresser, drugstore, gift shop, a Post Office, two banks, an NHS dental surgery, Health Centre and pharmacy. When our students wish to shop, eat or be entertained further afield, Lancaster city centre is only a l0-minute journey away on the regular bus service which leaves from the Underpass, directly underneath Alexandra Square.
Though its facilities are excellent, the university is, above all else, a place of academic enterprise in which its staff and students extend the boundaries of knowledge and develop their understanding of difficult issues. It has been outstandingly successful in research and teaching. In the 2001 RAE, Lancaster has been ranked joint 8th by the Times and the Guardian - making Lancaster top in the North West, and in the top ten out of 150 institutions. Lancaster achieved 71% of staff in units which have been assessed 5 or 5*, for international research excellence. It is one of only a handful of universities which returned 90% of staff as research active. The vast majority of its departments have been awarded an Excellent rating for their teaching.
The university is situated in a delightful part of the north west of England, close to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. The City of Lancaster encompasses three towns, Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham, as well as a number of villages. The rural landscape is superb, with the Lakeland fells in full view across the expanse of Morecambe Bay. The River Lune runs from the Trough of Bowland, an area of outstanding natural beauty, past many of the villages, into Lancaster and thence to the sea. Two National Parks, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, are within a few minutes drive.
Lancaster
is an historic city with a 12th Century castle dominating the hill
above the River Lune. It offers excellent shopping, a cinema, theatre and good
restaurants, with many well-preserved older buildings.
Morecambe is a seaside resort, which is undergoing something of a renaissance thanks to money spent on its regeneration. There are breath-taking views of the Lakeland mountains from its promenade. Heysham is the site of an ancient abbey, now owned by the National Trust, and ferries from its harbour sail to the Isle of Man.
The three towns and the
villages have excellent schools and enjoy easy access to the M6 motorway, as
well as to the main west coast railway line and Manchester International
Airport. Housing is affordable and varied, ranging from country cottages
through to town houses and flats. The City of Lancaster offers an excellent way
of life for those who would rather avoid the noise and hassle of a major city,
and yet who do not want to live in an isolated spot.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Post: Lecturer Position in E-Business, Information
Management (in Management Science)
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Specific
Skills, Experience, Knowledge |
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Tested by: |
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University
lecturing/teaching experience |
Desirable |
Application Form |
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Ability to contribute
to teaching in Department of Management Science |
Essential |
Application Form Interview |
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Research interests that
overlap/complement those of the Department of Management Science in the areas
of E-Business and Information Management |
Essential |
Application Form |
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Experience of making
seminar/conference presentations |
Desirable |
Application Form |
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Knowledge of
E-Business and Information Management and applications |
Essential |
Application Form Interview |
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Personal
Qualities |
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Tested by: |
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Excellent
communication and inter-personal skills |
Essential |
Application Form Interview |
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Willingness and
ability to take on administrative duties |
Essential |
Interview References |
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Ability to communicate
enthusiasm for subject |
Desirable |
Interview References |
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Willingness to involve
themselves in departmental activities |
Essential |
Interview |
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Qualifications |
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Tested by: |
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Good first degree and/or
Masters qualification in relevant discipline |
Essential |
Application form Certificate |
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PhD in area of research
interest (either completed or close to completion) |
Essential |
Application Form References |
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Capacity
for Career Development |
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Tested by: |
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RAE Grade 5*
international research profile |
Desirable |
Application Form |
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RAE Grade 5*
international research profile
potential |
Essential |
Interview References |
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Potential for
promotion |
Essential |
Interview References |
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Ability to contribute to
the development of teaching and research plans |
Essential |
Application Form References |
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Other |
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Tested by: |
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Ability to commence
appointment by July 2006 |
Desirable |
Interview |
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