George Vairaktarakis

When manufacturers outsource operations to another company, coordination of the chain of production is crucial. George Vairaktarakis, PhD, William E. Umstattd Professor of Industrial Economics, professor of operations, studies the behavior of these organizations and how an environment of competition or cooperation affects results. Vairaktarakis investigates setting “fair” payments as incentives for cooperation, smart competitive rules that satisfy the companies and promote common interests, the value of information exchange, and the magnitude of production savings due to coordination. His findings often reduce production costs by 30% while improving service.

Vairaktarakis’ research focuses on production chain coordination, project management, distribution logistics, machine scheduling/flexible manufacturing, workforce planning, integer programming, network optimization, graph theory, complexity theory and game theory. His articles are published in top academic and practitioner journals including MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, and the JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT. He is on the editorial board of a number of journals including IIE TRANSACTIONS and the JOURNAL OF SCHEDULING where he acts as associate editor. Vairaktarakis has given lectures in universities around the country and is regularly invited as Visiting Scholar to Hong Kong Universities.

Vairaktarakis joined the Weatherhead faculty in 1997 and was tenured in 2004. He has developed and delivered courses to MBA and executive students at Weatherhead, Marquette University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Kasetsart University, Thailand, and the University of Athens. In 2012, Vairaktarakis received the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award. He is currently the co-Director of the Master of Science in Management - Operations Research and Supply Chain Management program.

Vairaktarakis received a BS in applied mathematics at the University of Patras, Greece, a MSc in applied mathematics at the University of South Carolina, a MSc in industrial engineering at the University of Florida where he also received a PhD in operations.

Awards

• Teaching Excellence award, Weatherhead School of Management. (2012).