Ananth Raman

Ananth Raman

UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics
Chair, OPM

UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics
Chair, OPM

Technology and Operations Management
+1 (617) 495-6937
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Ananth Raman
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(617) 495-6937
Featured Work Publications Research Summary Awards & Honors

Ananth Raman is a professor in the Technology and Operations Management area where he has taught courses on various aspects of Operational Excellence -- supply chain management, technology and operations management, and service operations -- to MBA students and executive participants. He is also actively involved in guiding multiple doctoral students at Harvard Business School.

His research focuses on supply chain management and the investors’ perspective on operations. He is co-director (with Marshall Fisher of the WhartonSchool) of the Consortium for Operational Excellence in Retailing, a research group that involves academics from numerous universities and leading retailers from around the world.

Raman’s research has been published in many leading journals including Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management. He has also authored multiple Harvard Business School case studies that are taught extensively at many schools, including Harvard. His book (co-authored with Marshall Fisher) “The New Science of Retailing” was published in June 2010.

He has consulted with, and been responsible for management education programs for executives at, a number of companies, and has also helped multiple retailers and suppliers design and develop decision-support systems for supply chain management. He serves as an advisor to multiple retail CEOs. He is co-founder of 4R Systems (www.4rsystems.com), a venture-backed startup company.

Raman serves on the board of directors at 4R Systems, and Cumberland Farms, Inc. (http://www.cumberlandfarms.com/). 4R Systems (www.4rsystems.com) uses science and technology to help retail chains maximize profit from their inventory investment. Cumberland Farms is a family-owned and family-operated chain of convenience stores in the United States.

 

Featured Work
The New Science of Retailing
How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance
Authors Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman, argue that the time is ripe for “rocket science retailing.” Just as Wall Street was transformed in the 1970’s by the influx of physicists, engineers, and “rocket scientists” with mathematical techniques that allowed the harnessing of vast, complicated transaction data, so too retailing is now ready, and in fact beginning a “rocket science revolution.”
Books
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
  • Raman, Ananth, and Noel Watson. "Managing Global Supply Chains." In The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders, edited by John A. Quelch and Rohit Deshpandé. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004. View Details
  • Raman, A., and Marshall Fisher. "Managing Short-Lifecycle Products." In Achieving Supply Chain Excellence through Technology, edited by David L. Anderson. Montgomery Research, Inc., 1999. View Details
  • Raman, A. "Managing Inventory for Fashion Products." In Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Management, edited by S. Tayur, R. Gaheshan, and M. Magazine. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. View Details
  • Hammond, J. H., Marshall L. Fisher, Walter Obermeyer, and A. Raman. "Configuring a Supply Chain to Reduce the Cost of Demand Uncertainty." In Global Supply Chain and Technology Management. Vol. 1, edited by Hau Lee and Shu Ming Ng, 76–90. POMS Series in Technology and Operations Management. Miami: Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), 1998. View Details
  • Raman, A. "Matching Supply with Demand in Supply Chains: The Impact of Factor Markets and Mismatched Incentives." In Strategic Supply Chain Alignment: Best Practice in Supply Chain Management, edited by John L. Gattorna. Gower, 1998. View Details
Working Papers
Cases and Teaching Materials
Presentations
  • Raman, A., and Zeynep Ton. "Phantom Stockouts: Problem Description, Research Design, Preliminary Results." In Proceedings of the MSOM Conference. Paper presented at the INFORMS Society on Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Conference, University of Michigan, June 01, 2000. View Details
Other Publications and Materials
  • Raman, A., and Giulio Zotteri. "A Technique to Estimate Retail Demand and Lost Sales." View Details
  • Ton, Zeynep, and Ananth Raman. "Cross Sectional Analysis of Phantom Products at Retail Stores." View Details
  • DeHoratius, Nicole, and A. Raman. "Inventory Record Inaccuracy: An Empirical Analysis." April 2001. View Details
  • Raman, A., Vishal Gaur, and Marshall Fisher. "Linking Operations and Finance in Retailing." April 2001. View Details
Research Summary
Supply Chain Coordination for Products with Uncertain Demand
Ananth Raman has been investigating supply chain coordination for products with uncertain demand in industries as diverse as apparel, power tools, computers, and footwear. Most recently he has been exploring the role of intermediaries, particularly in supply chains that transcend national boundaries. This research, spurred by the steadily rising costs of mismatched supply and demand, takes on added importance with the continuing proliferation of product models and ever-diminishing product life cycles. Raman has identified a number of operational changes that might enable a firm to better match supply with demand, and has developed tools for quantifying the impact of those changes. His findings have been reported in Harvard Business Review and Operations Research, as well as in a number of industry publications.

Awards & Honors
Winner of the 2016 Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award from the Industry Studies Association for "The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand" (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Fall 2016) with Nathan Craig and Nicole DeHoratius.
Inducted as a Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) in 2013 to recognize exceptional scholarly and pedagogical contributions.
Received the 2009 Service Award from the Production and Operations Management Society.
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