The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) last night announced the award of the INFORMS Prize to Intel. The ceremony took place at an INFORMS meeting, Applying Science to the Art of Business: the 2009 INFORMS Conference on Operations Research Practice at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown.
A single outstanding organization receives the award every year.
Rangananth Nuggehalli of UPS, the INFORMS Prize Committee Chair, presented the award at the 2009 INFORMS Conference on O.R. Practice: Applying Science to the Art of Business to Intel Chair Craig Barrett.
The prize, said Dr. Nuggehalli, recognized Intel's demonstrated record of using operations research (O.R.) throughout the company's strategic, tactical, and operational levels.
"The Prize committee's task was challenging, and the quality of all the submissions we considered was high," said Dr. Nuggehalli. Intel, he said, showed how companies can drive significant value and competitive advantage by utilizing O.R. throughout an organization.
Craig Barrett, Chair of Intel, said that the operations research group at the company had contributed constantly and over an important period of time.
"Semiconductors are among the most complex things that man has ever made," he said.
To manufacture them requires the backing of little seen support groups. For the past two decades, Intel's decision technology group has worked behind the scenes to provide sound recommendations for designing factories, improving manufacturing, making accurate sales forecasts, and prioritizing the features that should be introduced during new product development, he said.
"They have literally saved Intel billions of dollars," said Barrett.
Barrett was joined by Karl Kempf, who leads the Intel Decision Technology Group.
The award committee found that Intel had an impressive track record applying operations research methods throughout the many distinctive business areas at the company.
The 2009 INFORMS Prize was awarded to the Intel Decision Technologies Group for putting O.R. inside every facet of Intel's business, the award says. By employing an extensive array of operation research disciplines and an innovative process to diffuse them, the Decision Technologies Group impacted a vast and diverse set of Intel's functions such as product design, demand forecasting, factory development, pricing structures, equipment and material acquisition, and production/inventory/logistics planning. From tactical manufacturing operations to strategic roadmap development, the myriad of operations research applications contributed more than $2 billion in improved decision making. Intel demonstrated the effectiveness of O.R. techniques by continuing to produce better products at lower prices year after year.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences annually awards the INFORMS Prize for effective integration of operations research into organizational decision making. The award is given to an organization that has repeatedly applied the principles of O.R. in pioneering, varied, novel, and lasting ways.
Past recipients of the award include UPS, HP, IBM, Procter & Gamble, and GE Research.
Operations research is the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, financial engineering, and telecommunications. The INFORMS website is www.informs.org. More information about operations research is at www.scienceofbetter.org.