Vax Ensemble: Six Core OM Applications Drawn from the COVID Vaccination Effort

This presentation describes six OM applications drawn from actual COVID vaccination clinic data that help students learn the concepts and application of forecasting, facility design, inventory management, aggregate planning, MRP, and lean. This teaching approach won the 2021 Instructional Innovation Competition and offers several benefits to faculty. Further, all of the teaching materials, including teaching notes, instructor’s PowerPoint slides, spreadsheet templates, etc., are available from the author. For those considering adopting these assignments, this presentation offers a video walk-through that will streamline the adoption process.

Author:  Natalie Simpson, University at Buffalo 

About the Author

Dr. Natalie Simpson is the Chair of the Operations Management and Strategy Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  She assumed leadership of the Operations Management and Strategy Department in August 2017, completing a faculty-driven redesign of the undergraduate and masters programs year.  She is the 2022-2023 President of the DSI Board of Directors, after serving other roles on the Board.

Dr. Simpson’s interests include emergency services and emergency response, operations management in disorganized environments, supply chain logistics, and the digital distribution of conventional instruction. She has published in several journals, including the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education. She is the recipient of the DSI Instructional Innovation Award (2021),  POMS Wickam Skinner Teacher Award (2013), UMA Teacher of the Year (2011) and Dean’s Teaching Fellow SUNY Buffalo (2010).