Selected Publications

Benjaafar, S., Wu, H. Liu and E. Gunnarson, “Dimensioning On-Demand Vehicle Sharing Systems,” accepted for publication at Management Science, 2020.
Benjaafar, S., H. Bernhard, C. Courcoubetis, M. Kanakakis and S. Papafragkos, “Drivers, Riders, and Service Providers: The Impact of the Sharing Economy on Mobility,” accepted for publication in Management Science, 2020.
Benjaafar, S., J. Ding, G. Kong and T. Taylor, “Labor Welfare in On-Demand Service Platforms,” accepted for publication in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 2020.
Liu, H., Y. Yu, S. Benjaafar and H. Wang, “Price-Directed Cost Sharing and Demand Allocation among Service Providers with Multiple Demand Sources and Multiple Facilities,” accepted for publication in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 2020.
Benjaafar, S. and H. Ming, “Operations Management in the Age of the Sharing Economy: What is Old and what is New,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 22, 93-101, 2020 (Invited Paper for MSOM 20^th Anniversary Special Issue).
Benjaafar, S., G. Kong, X. Li and C. Courcoubetis, “Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy,” Management Science, 65, 477–493, 2019 (Featured article and Top 20 most downloaded papers at Management Science, top 1% most downloaded articles at SSRN).
Benjaafar, S., D. Jiang, X. Li and X. Li, “Inventory Repositioning in On-Demand Product Rental Networks,” under second round of review at Management Science, 2019.
Chen, X., S. Benjaafar and A. Elomri, “On the Effectiveness of Emission Penalties in Decentralized Supply Chains,” European Journal of Operational Research, 274, 1155-1167, 2019.
Yu, Y., S. Benjaafar and D. Chen, “Optimal Policies for Inventory Systems with Concave Ordering Costs,” Naval Research Logistics, 65, 291-302, 2018.
Benjaafar, S., W. Yu and D. Chen, “Managing Inventory Systems with Scarce Resources,” a Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 19, 216-229, 2017 (Winner of the INFORMS Section on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment Best Student Paper Award; POMS-HK Best Student Paper Award, Finalist).
Yu, Y., S. Benjaafar and Y. Gerchak, “On Service Capacity Pooling and Cost Sharing among Independent Firms,” Production and Operations Management, 24, 1285–1310, 2015 (Winner of the IIE Pritsker Best Doctoral Dissertation Award).
Huang, S., L. He, J. Gu, Kris Wood and S. Benjaafar, “Design of a Mobile Charging Service for Electric Vehicles in an Urban Environment,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportations Systems, 16, 787-798, 2015.
Wang, Y., O. Jouini and S. Benjaafar, “Service Systems with Finite and Heterogeneous Customer Arrivals,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 16, 365-380, 2014 (Winner of the IIE Pritsker Best Doctoral Dissertation Award).
Benjaafar, S. and M. Savelsbergh, “Carbon-Aware Transport and Logistics,” EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, 3, 1-3, 2014 (An Introduction to the Special Issue).
Chen, X. and S. Benjaafar, “The Carbon-Constrained EOQ,” Operations Research Letters, 41, 172-179, 2013 (Most cited paper among those published in 2015-2019; Most downloaded papers in 2013-2019).
Hua, Z., W. Zhang and S. Benjaafar, “Optimal Inventory Control with Heterogeneous Suppliers,” Production and Operations Management, 21, 564-575, 2012.
Benjaafar, S., Y. Li and M. Daskin, “Carbon Footprint and the Management of Supply Chains: Insights from Simple Models,” IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 10, 99-116, 2013 (Invited article for the Special Issue on Green Manufacturing; Highest cited paper in the journal). The paper has been listed as a Highly Cited Paper by ISI Thomson Reuters for receiving “enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Engineering based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year.” A feature story by Catalyst magazine can be found here.
Marvin, W. A., L. D. Schmidt, S. Benjaafar, D. G. Tiffany and P. Daoutidis, “Economic Optimization of a Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-Ethanol Supply Chain,” Chemical Engineering Science, 67, 68-79, 2012 (Special Issue on Energy). A conference proceedings version of this paper was also published in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 29, 1728-1732, 2011 (Special issue dedicated to the 21^st European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering – ESCAPE 21).
Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi, C. Y. Lee and W. Zhou, “Optimal Control of Assembly Systems with Multiple Stages and Multiple Demand Classes,” Operations Research, 59, 522–529, 2011.
Benjaafar, S., W. L. Cooper and S. Mardan, “Production-Inventory Systems with Imperfect Advance Demand Information and Updating,” Naval Research Logistics, 58, 88-106, 2011 (Winner of the Harold W. Kuhn Award, 2012).
Benjaafar, S., J. P. Gayon, and S. Tepe, “Production-Inventory Systems with Customer Impatience,” Operations Research Letters, 38, 267-272, 2010.
Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi and T. Huang, “Optimal Control of a Production-Inventory System with both Backorders and Lost Sales,” Naval Research Logistics, 57, 252-265, 2010.
Gayon, J. P., S. Benjaafar and F. de Véricourt, “Using Imperfect Demand Information in Production-Inventory Systems with Multiple Demand Classes,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 11, 128-143, 2009 (Winner of the M&SOM Best Paper Award, 2011). An article authored by Jeannette Song highlighting the contributions of the paper appeared in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 13, 419, 2011.
Hu, B. and S. Benjaafar, “On Server Partitioning in Queueing Systems during Rush Hour,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 11, 416-428, 2009 (featured in Focus on Queueing Systems, a collection of papers published by INFORMS Online in 2013).
Begnaud, J., S. Benjaafar and L. A. Miller, “The Multilevel Lot Sizing Problem with Flexible Production Sequences,” IIE Transactions, 41, 702-715, 2009.
Gaglioppa, F., L. Miller and S. Benjaafar, “Multi-Task and Multi-Stage Production Planning and Scheduling for Process Industries,” Operations Research, 56, 110-1025, 2008.
Benjaafar, S., Y. Li, D. Xu and S. Elhedhli, “Demand Allocation in Systems with Multiple Inventory Locations and Multiple Demand Sources,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 4, 43-60, 2008.
Benjaafar, S., E. Elahi and K. Donohue, “Outsourcing via Service Quality Competition,” Management Science, 53, 241-259, 2007.
Lahmar, M. and S. Benjaafar, “Sequencing with Limited Flexibility,” IIE Transactions, 39, 937-955, 2007 (Featured Article in IIE Solutions Magazine).
Benjaafar, S. and M. Elhafsi, “Production and Inventory Control of a Single Product Assemble-to-Order System with Multiple Customer Classes,” Management Science, 52, 1896-1912, 2006.
Benjaafar, S., William L. Cooper and J. S. Kim, “On the Benefits of Pooling in Production-Inventory Systems,” Management Science, 51, 548-565, 2005.
Lahmar, M. and S. Benjaafar, “Design of Dynamic Distributed Layouts,” IIE Transactions, 37, 303–318, 2005 (Winner of the Outstanding Material Handling & Logistics Research Paper Award, Material Handling Institute; Featured Article in IIE Solutions Magazine).
Benjaafar, S., M. Elhafsi and F. de Véricourt, “Demand Allocation in Multi-Product, Multi-Facility Make-to-Stock Systems,” Management Science, 50, 1431–1448, 2004.
Gurumurthi, S. and S. Benjaafar, “Modeling and Analysis of Flexible Queueing Systems,” Naval Research Logistics, 51, 755-782, 2004.
Benjaafar, S., J. S. Kim and N. Vishwanadham, “On the Effect of Product-Variety in Production-Inventory Systems,” Annals of Operations Research, 126, 71-101, 2004.
Gupta, D. and S. Benjaafar, “Make-to-order, Make-to-stock, or Delay Product Differentiation? – A Common Framework for Modeling and Analysis,” IIE Transactions, 36, 529-546, 2004 (Featured Article in IIE Solution Magazine).
Strike, D. and S. Benjaafar, “Practice Abstract: Optimizing Inventory Control at 3M,” Interfaces, 34, 115-116, 2004 (INFORMS Edelman Award, Semifinalist).
Lahmar, M., H. Ergan and S. Benjaafar, “Resequencing and Feature Assignment on a Moving Assembly Line,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 19, 89-103, 2003.
Benjaafar, S., “Modeling and Analysis of Congestion in the Design of Facility Layouts,” Management Science, 48, 679-204, 2002.
Benjaafar, S., S. Heragu and S. Irani, “Next Generation Factory Layouts: Research Challenges and Recent Progress,” Interfaces, 32, 6, 58-76, 2002 (One of the most frequently cited papers in Interfaces according to research published in Interfaces in 2010).
Kim, J. S. and S. Benjaafar, “Extended Abstract: On the Benefits of Inventory Pooling in Production-Inventory Systems,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 4, 12-16, 2002 (M&SOM Best Student Paper Award, Honorable Mention).
Bar-Cohen, A., Benjaafar, S. and M. Iyengar, “Design for Manufacturability of Natural Convection Cooled Heat Sinks,” International Journal of Transport Phenomenon, 4, 43-57, 2002.
Lahmar, M., Hakan, E. and S. Benjaafar, “Extended Abstract: Resequencing and Feature Assignment on a Moving Assembly Line,” Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, 3, 7-9, 2001 (M&SOM Best Student Paper Award, Honorable Mention).
Benjaafar, S. and M. Sheikhzadeh, “Design of Flexible Plant Layouts,” IIE Transactions, 32, 309-322, 2000.
Benjaafar, S. and D. Gupta, “Workload Allocation in Multi-Product/Multi-Facility Production Systems with Setup Times,” IIE Transactions, 31, 339-352, 1999 (Winner of IIE Transactions Best Paper Award).
Benjaafar, S. and D. Gupta, “Scope versus Focus: Issues of Flexibility, Capacity, and Number of Production Facilities,” IIE Transactions, 30, 413-425, 1998 (Winner of IIE Transactions Best Paper Award).

Saif Benjaafar

Distinguished McKnight University Professor, University of Minnesota

Selected Publications