Yao Zhao

Dr. Yao Zhao is a professor at the Department of Supply Chain Management at Rutgers – the State University of New Jersey. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University. He was a visiting scholar at MIT Operations Research Center and a visiting professor at Duke Fuqua School of Business. His research interests lie in Supply Chain Management, Analytics, and Healthcare. He published on leading operations research and operations management journals such as Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (M&SOM), Production and Operations Management, and served as an associate editor for Operations Research and M&SOM. He is the recipient of honorable mention in M&SOM student paper competition in 2001, the National Science Foundation Career Award on Manufacturing Enterprise Systems in 2008, and is nominated as the Dean’s Research Professor for 2019-2022. His MIT System Design Management webinar on the 787 Dreamliner received world-wide attention with 307 attendants from 29 countries and 50+ companies or organizations. His PhD graduates hold tenured (tenure-track) faculty positions in research universities such as the University of Delaware, the University of Scranton, the College of William and Mary, and NJIT, as well as quantitative research positions in JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. He taught core operations / supply chain management courses for all levels at Rutgers Business School, and won the Dean’s Meritorious Teaching Award in 2016. He is a prolific case writer and won the 1st place award of INFORM Case Writing Competition in 2014. His cases and online games were adopted by many institutions in North America and Asia. He designed and taught new core courses such as Supply Chain Analytics and Healthcare Operations Analysis for Rutgers graduate programs. He consulted extensively with companies and governmental agencies such as General Motors, Estee Lauder, Verizon, MTA – NY Transit, Special Olympics, Johnson and Johnson, Fannie Mae, Defense Logistics Agency, Korean Air-Cargo, Robert Wood Johnson hospitals, and Water and Power Development Authority of Pakistan. His work on energy supply chain helped the Pakistan government to achieve a significant economic and social impact. He designed the shuttle system for 2014 Special Olympics USA Games and achieved 100% customer satisfaction with a meager budget of $600,000. His research was reported by industry media such as The European Business Review, Aviation Week & Space Technology, International Innovation and Pharmaceutical Executive.

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Inventory Analytics (Coursera)

Inventory analytics is the corner stone of supply chain analytics. A company in trade industries may have 30-50% of their assets tied up in inventory. An effective inventory management can improve revenue by increasing product variety and availability, and reduce cost and speed up cash cycle by reducing excessive [...]

Demand Analytics (Coursera)

Welcome to Demand Analytics - one of the most sought-after skills in supply chain management and marketing! Through the real-life story and data of a leading cookware manufacturer in North America, you will learn the data analytics skills for demand planning and forecasting.

Supply Chain Analytics Essentials (Coursera)

In this introductory course to Supply Chain Analytics, I will take you on a journey to this fascinating area where supply chain management meets data analytics. You will learn real life examples on how analytics can be applied to various domains of a supply chain, from selling, to logistics, [...]

Sourcing Analytics (Coursera)

From 2007 to 2010, Apple made $27 billion from iPhone with a profit of $15.6 billion. Apple could not achieve this success without its global sourcing strategy. However, one of Apple’s key suppliers, Samsung Electronics, became a competitor and used its cost advantage to over-take Apple in the global [...]

Business Intelligence and Competitive Analysis (Coursera)

By the end of 2019, it is clear that American Airlines (AAL), the world’s largest airline group, is in trouble. With the growth rate of its stock price ranked at the bottom of all major US airlines and going in the opposite direction from the SP500 index, AAL needs [...]

Supply Chain Analytics (Coursera)

Welcome to Supply Chain Analytics - the art and science of applying data analytics to assess and improve supply chain performance! A supply chain is a complex system with conflicting objectives of cost efficiency and customer satisfaction. Supply chain management is becoming increasingly data driven. Through the real-life story [...]