Dr. Ayham Jaaron, Head of the Industrial Engineering Department at An-Najah University, participated in the 25th Production and Operations Management (POMS) Annual Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, between the 9 – 12May.

This year represented a milestone for the POMS society, celebrating a quarter of a century since their first conference. To honour the impact POMS members have made to the profession, the theme of the conference was: Impact and Vision: Reaching New Heights.

The conference provided the opportunity to share academic research through a series of presentations. Additionally, the conference provided a forum for industry speakers to challenge and motivate future academic research to be relevant to implementation.

The majority of participants were higher education professionals. The Conference, held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis hotel, included more than 1400 researchers from all over the world. The conference was presented through 23 tracks and 2 Plenary Sessions. Teaching was of particular interest at this year’s conference. In addition, half of the plenary sessions showcased the increased level of influence practicing managers exert on POM research.

Dr. Ayham Jaaron presented a paper co-authored with Professor Chris Backhouse, Vice President of Loughborough University for Strategic Planning in the UK. The paper, entitled “Mass Customization in Higher Education: the Advent of the Vanguard Method,” presented a novel form of service operations design, investigating its impact on the way the higher education system delivers customized services to students on a real-time basis. Using a case study methodology, the paper addressed benefits of applying this design in terms of student experience and administrative efficiency.

Dr. Jaaron’s success at the conference represented a step forward on previous extensive collaboration with researchers in the POM field. The conference, organized by the American Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), is considered one of the most significant events organized yearly to discuss production and operations management (POM) related research issues.