Arzum Akkas

Dr. Arzum Akkas is an expert in food supply chains. She analyzes the root causes of food waste in supply chains and develops tools to control waste through shelf space management, employee incentives, and inventory management. She collaborates with major retailers, distributors, and manufacturers in the US and in Europe to investigate how to improve operational efficiency, reduce waste, and accomplish sustainability goals. Her research has been published in leading academic journals including Management Science and Production and Operations Management.

Before turning to research, Dr. Akkas worked as an operations manager at Pepsi, a management consultant at the leading strategy and operations firm Archstone Consulting, and a business systems consultant for the supply chain software firm JDA. She has Ph.D. from MIT in Engineering Systems, a Master’s degree from MIT in Supply Chain Management, and a Bachelor’s degree from Istanbul Technical University in Industrial Engineering.

Dr. Akkas teaches Operations Management at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and is a faculty affiliate of the BU Institute for Sustainable Energy.

Education

• PhD, MIT, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, 2015
• MEng, MIT, Supply Chain Management, 2004
• BS, Istanbul Technical University, Industrial Engineering, 2000

Research Interests

Sustainable supply chains, food supply chains, food waste, reverse logistics, retailing, consumer packaged goods, direct store delivery operations, operations/marketing interface, business analytics, empirical operations management.

Selected Publications

• Akkas, A. (2019). "Shelf Space Selection to Control Product Expiration", Production and Operations Management, 28 (9), 2184-2201
• Akkas, A., Gaur, V., Simchi-Levi, D. (2019). "Drivers of Product Expiration in Consumer Packaged Goods Retailing", Management Science, 65 (5), 2179-2195
• Akkas, A., Honhon, D. (2018). "Shipment Policies for Products with Fixed Shelf Lives: Impact on Profits and Waste", Manufacturing and Service Operations Management

Selected Research Presentations

• Akkas, A. Batching For Perishable Products, INFORMS, Seattle, 2019
• Akkas, A. Shelf Space Selection to Control Product Expiration, INFORMS, Seattle, 2019
• Akkas, A. Controlling Food Waste in Retail Supply Chains, Koc University, Istanbul, 2019
• Akkas, A. , Sahoo, N. Reducing Product Expiration Through Salesforce Compensation Schemes, Seminar series, Boston College, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, 2017
• Akkas, A. Shelf Space Optimization of Perishable Products, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Houston, 2017
• Akkas, A. , Sahoo, N. Design of Sales Force Compensation Schemes to Reduce Product Waste, INFORMS Annual Meeting, Houston, 2017
• Akkas, A. , Sahoo, N. Reducing Product Expiration Through Salesforce Compensation Schemes, Empirical Research in Operations Management Workshop, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2017
• Akkas, A. , Gaur, V. Product Expiration at HealthCola, Inc., Consortium For Operational Excellence in Retailing (COER) 2017, Harvard University Business School, Harvard University Business School, Boston, 2017
• Akkas, A. , Sahoo, N. Design of Sales Force Compensation Schemes to Reduce Product Waste, POMS Annual Conference, Seattle, 2017