Stanley Lim

Stanley Lim is an assistant professor of supply chain management in the Department of Supply Chain Management and faculty affiliate with the Evolution and Future of Work Research Initiative at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Cambridge, a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.B.A. from Warwick Business School. His research examines operational challenges in downstream, or so-called "last-mile," supply chains. He is recognized for his practical and managerial approach, grounding his work in real-world applications. His work has been recognized as a finalist for the INFORMS' Daniel H. Wagner Prize for excellence in the practice of advanced analytics and operations research. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that combines operations management, marketing, and economics and utilizing customer behavior analytics, Stanley's aim is to advance the theory and practice of operation. He strives to provide businesses with practical insights on how to distribute their products and services to end consumers efficiently, under various conditions.

In doing so, he contributes to the understanding of the economics of distribution services in digital and nondigital retail. This encompasses the four core services (or the four A's) that retailers provide to reduce consumers' search and transaction costs: (1) accessibility of product and information, (2) availability of product and information, (3) assurance of product delivery, and (4) assortment planning. His current research applications of interest include local package delivery, retail operations (particularly omni-channel retail), and food waste reduction.

Based on this research agenda, Stanley has developed analytical models for store network and facility location design, service zoning, workload and job assignments, and new service policies. These include, for example, models to predict failed delivery attempts and incorporating the predictions in routing, estimate the opportunity cost of product stockouts for inventory planning, determine the optimal return window for consumer return policies, and evaluate spatial competition to guide store market area design. Additionally, he has explored the impact of contract terms on the bargaining power and economic outcomes of retailers and suppliers, the relationship between drivers' workload and delivery performance, the influence of subscription models on consumer behaviors, and consumers' sensitivities to lead times and their product return behaviors across digital and nondigital channels. 

Stanley reviews for Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Naval Research Logistics, and Service Science. He serves as an associate editor at Journal of Operations Management and Decision Sciences Journal and as a guest associate editor for a special issue on responsible retail operations at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. He has also served as a co-editor for a special issue on innovations, technologies, and the economics of last-mile operations and as a guest associate editor for a special issue on omni-channel retailing at Journal of Operations Management. For his reviewing activities, he received the 2024 Decision Sciences Journal Best Reviewer Award, 2023 Management Science Distinguished Service Award, 2023 M&SOM Meritorious Service Award, and the 2022 Academy of Management's Operations and Supply Chain Management Division Outstanding Reviewer Award. He frequently organizes and chairs invited sessions on empirical retail operations and economics of retail distribution services at INFORMS and POMS annual conferences. He served as Chair of Research (Research Tracks) for the 2024 DSI Annual Conference and co-chaired the Retail Operations track at the 2024 Annual POMS Conference, the POM-Economics Interface track at the 2023 Annual POMS Conference, and the Supply Chain Management track at the 2023 DSI Annual Conference. He is Co-Chair of the Empirical Research in Operations Management track for the 2025 Annual POMS Conference. Stanley welcomes opportunities for new collaborations.

*** I am actively looking for post-docs/visiting PhDs/research assistants to work with me across causal inference, optimization and machine learning with applications in retail, logistics, and food supply chains. Please contact me if you are interested. ***

Zhao, Y., Luo, Z., Lim, S.F.W.T., Chen, C. and Sim, M. 2024. Service oriented considerate routing: Data, predictions and robust decisions. Management Science (Under revision after major revision decision).Huang, J., Lim, S.F.W.T. and Akturk, M.S. 2024. Third-party delivery platforms. Management Science (Under revision after reject and resubmit decision).Lim, S.F.W.T., Rabinovich, E., Sousa, R. and Park, S. 2024. Omnichannel grocery retail: Fulfillment revenue models and operational impact. Management Science (Under second-round review after reject and resubmit decision).Wang, L., Lim, S.F.W.T. and Rabinovich, E. 2024. Stem distance and impact on courier choices. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (Under revision after reject and resubmit decision`).Lim, S.F.W.T. 2024. Cutting last-mile delivery costs: New tactics can boost profitability and satisfaction with subscription services. MIT Sloan Management Review, 66(2): 15–17.Lim, S.F.W.T., Rabinovich, E., Lee, S. and Park, S. 2024. Estimating stockout costs and optimal stockout rates: A case on the management of ugly produce inventory. Management Science, forthcoming.Lim, S.F.W.T., Gao, F. and Tan, T.F. 2024. Channel changes choice: An empirical study about omnichannel demand sensitivity to fulfillment lead time. Management Science, 70(5): 2954–2975.Lim, S.F.W.T. 2023. Research: Why so many packages don’t get delivered. Harvard Business Review. Available  at https://hbr.org/2023/11/research-why-so-many-packages-dont-get-delivered.Lim, S.F.W.T., Wang, Q. and Webster, S. 2023. Do it right the first time: Vehicle routing with home delivery attempt predictors. Production and Operations Management, 32(4): 1262–1284.
Lim, S.F.W.T., Richards, T.J., Rabinovich, E. and Choi, M. 2022. Scan based trading and bargaining equilibrium: A structural estimation of supply chain profit. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(4): 2328–2348.Lim, S.F.W.T., Rabinovich, E., Park, S. and Hwang, M. 2021. Shopping activity at warehouse club stores and its competitive and network density implications. Production and Operations Management, 30(1): 28–46.Lim, S.F.W.T. and Winkenbach, M. 2019. Configuring the last-mile in business-to-consumer e-retailing. California Management Review, 61(2): 132–154.