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Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Published by Alvin Nicolas at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On July 18, 2024

Introduction

Selecting an appropriate topic is   perhaps the most important aspect of the dissertation module. Students spend months and years (in the case of a PhD) on their dissertation projects. Therefore, it is critical to choose an interesting but manageable topic of research. Selecting the right topic can also help complete the paper to the highest quality and within the allocated deadline framework.

This article aims to provide comprehensive support in the selection of a suitable operations management dissertation topic. All the topics presented in this piece are carefully short-listed on the basis of the following important factors;

  • A topic must have a recent research interest/popularity in academics
  • Data must be available to analyse the recent research to develop a case of research in the form of a step forward (contribution factor)
  • The topic must be manageable with respect to the availability of time and resources
  • The chosen topic should encourage the students to explore and investigate to further the research in their preferred area

Writer’s suggestion : Before selecting a topic, outline the type of research you intend to undertake given the available time and monetary resources; such as whether to perform primary or secondary and qualitative or quantitative. For example, you might not be able to conduct a cross-national survey based on primary research, as it can turn out to be a difficult and unmanageable task.

Therefore, it is important to select a topic which you can manage within the given resources; to produce high-quality results that would eventually lead to a high academic score. The following topics are much emphasised in today’s academic world, and you can rely on these topics with utmost trust.

Some of these topics can also include primary research, which may include conducting interviews and/or questionnaires with industry practitioners to suggest the most efficient systems and to present the pros and cons of each system based on the data obtained through primary research.

These operations management dissertation topics have been developed by PhD-qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question, aim and objectives, literature review, and the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

You may want to read about our business writers to see how we can help ease your workload. Check our  free example dissertations and free business and business management dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation.

Review the full list of  dissertation topics here.

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  • Management Dissertation Topics

Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 1: investigating the risks associated with green technology in the chinese construction industry..

Research Aim: This research study aims to investigate the challenges that project managers face while managing Chinese green technology construction projects and the risks associated with it. This study will also examine the relationship between the challenges related to green construction and its impact on its success and will also find improvement in the development of green technology.

Topic 2: Analysing the operational risk in outsourcing software projects for international companies.

Research Aim: The concept of outsourcing is a trending topic nowadays. This research study aims to find the operational risk perceived in the process of outsourcing software projects in international companies and how they eliminate operational risks during the process.

A conceptual framework will be used to investigate the risks for strategic IT system development outsourcing projects.

Topic 3: How do the merger and acquisition of a company affect the performance of its employees? An exploratory study identifying the factors that affect employee's performance. A case study of (Any company or companies can be studied)

Research Aim: This research aims to find the impact of the merger and acquisition of a company on its employees’ performance. This research will use a company or companies as a case study that went through a merger and acquisition. To identify different factors that affect the performance of employees during and after merger and acquisition. And after identifying those factors and their impact on the performance of employees. The research will also recommend possible ways to minimise the impacts of those factors on employees’ performance.

Topic 4: Impact of strategic management on the financial performance of companies

Research Aim: This research aims to find the impact of companies’ strategic management on their financial performance. This study will use indicators suggested by extensive literature in strategic management to gauge the strategic planning done by these companies. The study will then identify to what extent those indicators affect the companies’ financial performance under observation. Based on the results, the study will recommend improvement in the areas that can improve the strategic management of those companies. That, in consequence, will improve the financial performance of those companies.

Topic 5: Analysing the operational risks associated with the manufacturing of automobiles and the role of plant managers in reducing these risks.

Research Aim: This research study aims to identify and analyse the risks that businesses face during the manufacturing of automobiles and vehicles. And how plant managers proposed effective strategies to reduce these risks.  In this study, a conceptual framework of the operational model of management will help increase the overall effectiveness of automobile industries.

Topic 6: An assessment of the Company's tradeoff between innovation and uniformity- A case study of UK IT sector.

Research Aim: The primary goal of this study is to conduct an analysis of a company’s tradeoff between innovation and uniformity. This study will explore different components of the United Kingdom’s IT sector. It will give us an understanding of the importance of innovation and uniformity from a theoretical perspective and also examine the risk factors involved in the United Kingdom’s IT sector.

Topic 7: Operation Management- Comparison between different forecast approaches.

Research Aim: The main goal of this study is to examine various forecasting methodologies used in operation management.   Furthermore, this research offers insight into product operation management and what contributes to making it more effective. In addition, this study will look at the aspects and effects of various approaches utilised in product operation management.

Topic 8: An examination of the Effectiveness of RBT in strategic operation management in the UK manufacturing industry.

Research Aim: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of RBT in strategic operation management in the United Kingdom’s manufacturing industry. This study highlights the effectiveness and also discusses the benefits and drawbacks of strategic operation management in the UK manufacturing industry. Furthermore, it also highlights the importance of RBT in the UK manufacturing industry.

Topic 9: Humanitarian operation management- A review of Literature

Research Aim: In this study, we will analyse different previous studies on humanitarian operation management to find its importance. This study will also look at different methodologies used in humanitarian operations. Different scientific advancements and technologies will also be covered in this study.

Topic 10: A study to Determine if Operations Management Solutions Effectively Meet the Needs of Home Care Organisations- An International Perspective.

Research Aim: The main goal of this research is to perform a comprehensive analysis of operational management activities in order to properly comprehend and evaluate them in order to determine the efficiency of various regularly employed strategies. It will also identify key methods utilised in operational management activities, how these solutions are implemented worldwide by home care companies, and how these methods will have an impact on home care organizations, and determine if they will have a favourable or bad impact.

Topic 11: A Study to Understand the Role of Data Analytics in Improving Operational Decision-Making

Research Aim: This research investigates the impact and significance of data analytics on improving operational decision-making processes. It will examine various methodologies, tools, and applications of data analytics and understand the role of data analytics in optimizing operational efficiencies and enhancing overall performance across diverse industries.

Topic 12: Analysing the Effects of Lean Six Sigma Methodologies on Reducing Patient Wait Times in Different Healthcare Settings

Research Aim: To investigate the effectiveness of Lean Six Sigma methodologies in reducing patient wait times within various healthcare settings. Through a comprehensive analysis of case studies, statistical data, and qualitative research methods, this study aims to evaluate the impact of Lean Six Sigma principles on improving operational efficiency and patient satisfaction. 

COVID-19 Operations and Management Research Topics

Topic 1: impacts of coronavirus on global supply chains.

Research Aim: The coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a shortage of essential supplies, including safety equipment and diagnostic and clinical management. WHO (World Health Organisation) has organised a supply chain task force team (COVID supply chain system). This study will identify the details of this supply chain system and discuss how it works.

Topic 2: Intelligent operation management during COVID-19

Research Aim: As a result of COVID-19, industries are facing a lack of resources and staff. This situation calls for intelligent operation management to ensure the continuity of the operation during this challenging situation. This study will analyse how Intelligent operation management works during COVID-19, discussing its advantages, challenges, and possible solutions to improve it.

Topic 1: Impact of JIT on improving supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the impact of JIT on improving the supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Topic 2: Operation management strategies B2B and B2C business model

Research Aim: This research aims to assess and compare the operation management strategies B2B and B2C business model

Topic 3: The role of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in SCM (Supply Chain Management)

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the role of Information and Communication Technology in Supply Chain Management.

Topic 4: TQM (Total Quality Management) as a competitive advantage

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the role of total quality management as a competitive advantage.

Topic 5: A Big Data Approach to Optimizing Last-Mile Delivery in Online Retail

Research Aim: This research aims to identify the role of big data in optimizing last-mile delivery in online retail. 

Original Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: analysing the impact of enterprise resource planning (erp) on improving business operations of multinational companies..

Research Aim: The main purpose of this research will be to highlight the major benefits of ERP, which can facilitate multinational organisations to help in conducting business operations productively and effectively. The researcher will identify major factors of ERP that can be related to the effective execution of business operations while increasing the overall productivity and efficiency of the business.

Topic 2: Impact of Just-in-time (JIT) inventory on improving supply chain efficiency of large retail outlets

Research Aim: The researcher will identify the major advantages as well as disadvantages of using Just-in-time (JIT) inventory in the supply chain operations of the major retail outlets. In this study, the researcher will highlight major factors of Just-in-time (JIT) inventory that may directly or indirectly influence the effectiveness of the supply chain of large retail outlets while proposing recommendations to retail companies to increase the effectiveness and productivity of the company.

Topic 3: Analysing the pros and cons of outsourcing logistic operation activities in the construction industry of the UK

Research Aim: The main purpose of this qualitative-natured study will be to identify the major advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing logistic operation activities while focusing on its implementation in the UK construction industry.

Topic 4: Assessing and comparing the operations management strategies of B2B and B2C business models

Research Aim: The researcher aims to discover prompt operations management strategies that are being utilised by major B2B and B2C companies while taking examples of major key players in each of the business models. After identification, the researcher will compare those strategies and recommend the best strategies and practices that can be utilised by each of the business models discussed in the study.

Topic 5: Analysing the operational risks involved in the manufacturing of automobiles and how can minimise these risks

Research Aim: The main aim of this study will be to identify and analyse the major risks that can be experienced by companies during the manufacturing of automobiles and vehicles while proposing effective strategies that can be used by plant managers to reduce these risks. In this study, the researcher will use a conceptual model of operational management, which helps increase the overall effectiveness of automobile industries.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service !

Supply Chain Management Dissertation Topics

The supply chain is considered one of the most important aspects of business in any organisation, as optimum management in the supply chain leads to successful business operations. Therefore, it is pivotal for organisations to constantly enhance processes and techniques of the supply chain, which involve control, measurements, troubleshooting, adaptability, and innovation of new solutions. The following research topics are suggested for dissertation writing in the field of supply chain management;

  • Supply chain management and the related legal frameworks; Investigating the practices of the UK’s industrial sector
  • The strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain are large and diversified business organisations.
  • The role of supply chain in manufacturing industry of the UK: A comprehensive study to evaluate the impact of supply chain management
  • Influence of state-of-the-art technology-aided systems on supply chain management.
  • Impact of information technology on supply chain management
  • Case study of Dell, IMB and other supply chain control management systems being employed worldwide by large-scale organizations
  • Supply chain management and e-commerce
  • The role of ICT in supply chain management

Lean Manufacturing Dissertation Topics

The lean concepts are still young and in the stage of steady development. New concepts are coming into practice as the efficacy of the old ones continues to diminish. Research ideas that have been much emphasised in recent research studies include Total Quality Control (TQC), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just in Time (JIT), and Total productivity maintenance (TPM). Some interesting topics on this subject are listed below;

  • The influence of lean manufacturing techniques in operations management
  • Analyses of lean manufacturing techniques; Review of the most influential techniques currently being employed in the UK manufacturing Industry; an inside perspective (This may include primary research in which the actual users of different techniques will be requested to provide their views on the impact of different techniques and to recommend which of the techniques can be best used to enhance industry productivity and performance)
  • Total quality management as a competitive advantage: A case study of the UK’s industry (Dell/HP/Other)
  • The relationship between quality management and client Satisfaction: A case of the UK’s construction/manufacturing Industry (This can also include primary research from the perspective of clients/buyers who can be questioned regarding their experience of the construction quality they obtained. The data could then be used to provide key recommendations for quality management)
  • Practical implementation of lean manufacturing techniques: A review of how business organisations have successfully adopted various techniques
  • Influence of new technology on lean manufacturing techniques, such as the use of Business Information Modeling (BIM), SAP, and other tools for enhancement of quality and productivity
  • Evolution of quality from the perspective of the development of lean manufacturing techniques: A study on how industries have been shaped by lean concepts in the past and visualizing the future SOPs

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Inventory Management Dissertation Topics

Inventory Management is another important component of supply Chain Management. A considerable amount of research has been conducted in this field of study in recent times, which highlights the need to establish effective processing techniques and systems so that business organisations can effectively measure/manage the operations of their respective industries.

Optimum inventory management enables control of costs, time, productivity, and delivery, which are considered to be the pillars of any industry. The following topics are presented for dissertation writing on inventory management:

  • The influence of optimum inventory management on supply chain management: A study on how effective inventory management systems can help to establish high-performing supply management systems in an industry
  • Analyses of inventory management systems being employed in the UK industries
  • The impact of latest technological developments on inventory management systems; A case study of the UK’s manufacturing Industry
  • Inventory management systems in the manufacturing industry: Methods, benefits, challenges and opportunities
  • Case study on inventory management in retail; A case study of ASDA/TESCO/SAINSBURURY. (Primary research-based: Data from different stores can be collected and compared)
  • The impact of Just in Time (JIT) on the UK’s inventory management systems
  • Adaptability of JIT inventory management in the UK
  • E-commerce inventory management systems

Product Development Dissertation Topics

New Product Development (NPD) and the role of Research and Development (R&D) in the process of product development have remained a focus of research and a trigger for intense academic debate in the last many years.

The most notable elements of product development include new concept developments, new product designs, product engineering, and market analyses and research.

Many organisations continually strive to develop new products and add these to their product pipelines to earn additional profits. From the consumer perspective, NPD enhances the brand image and provides a research and development edge to business organisations.

  • Evaluating the process of product development: The need and implications
  • Strategies of Product Development and the Product Mix
  • Strategies of product development in various Industries – A case study of a company of your choice. This can also include primary research where different systems can be compared and data analysed.
  • The role of latest technological advancements and computer-aided systems in product development; A case study of the UK’s research and development industry

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Production Planning / Scheduling Dissertation Topics

Production planning and scheduling are considered one of the most crucial aspects of the manufacturing industry because it helps to maintain optimum levels of productivity in accordance with the production plans.

Moreover, Production scheduling has a direct influence on the production business, as it impacts the fundamental elements of production and services, such as production lead times, quality maintenance, and maintenance of supply & demand, and overall client satisfaction. Therefore, research in the field of production planning has been prioritised in modern times, and efforts have been made to develop integrated systems that incorporate various variables and elements of the production plan. Following are some of the selected topics that can be chosen for further research and dissertations;

  • Production Scheduling Analysis: A review of techniques employed in the UK’s Manufacturing Industry
  • Analyses of Production Scheduling/Planning Techniques in Different Manufacturing Industries (Car Industry/Process industry/Steel Industry/Cement Industry)
  • Production Scheduling/Planning Techniques and Profitability of Different Manufacturing Industries (Car Industry/Process industry/Steel Industry/Cement Industry)
  • The Role of Latest Technological Advancements and Computer Aided Systems in Production Scheduling
  • The Role of Information Technology and Innovation in Production Scheduling

Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing Strategy Dissertation Topics

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a systematic operation that facilitates the manufacturing of a product from raw materials. The manufacturing strategy includes the methods of producing goods and is designed in accordance with the business objectives. Some of the latest supply chain management and manufacturing strategy dissertation topics are given below;

  • Manufacturing strategy: Investigating the importance of optimised manufacturing strategy for successful business operations
  • Review the manufacturing strategies of the UK’s automobile industry/ process industry/ manufacturing industry / any other industry of your choice.
  • The impact of new technologies on the development of optimised manufacturing strategies and techniques
  • Supply chain management: Investigating the importance of optimised supply chain management techniques for successful business operations
  • Examining supply chain management strategies of the UK’s automobile industry/process industry/manufacturing Industry / Any other industry of your choice
  • Use of latest technologies for efficient supply chain management over the last decade (This may include primary research where data would be obtained from the practitioners of manufacturing/other industries via e-mail, interviews and/or questionnaire)

Risk Management Dissertation Topics

Industrial risk management is one of the most researched topics of recent times. Almost every engineering or financial activity involves risks in terms of their consequences and probabilities. The course of the future cannot be fully predicted. Of course, however, various actions can be undertaken to manage/mitigate these risks.

Analysis of various factors that can contribute to the risks, such as political influence, oil prices and exchange rates, equipment performance characteristics, availability of resources, local conditions/environment, etc., can lead to the development of optimised risk management systems for improved project performance.

  • Investigating the risk management systems of the construction industry/automobile Industry/pharma Industry/banking Industry / retail Industry
  • Risk management in the construction industry: How the construction industry can mitigate different types of risks
  • Analyses of factors that contribute to risk in industrial operations; Developing guidelines/best practices to manage industrial risks
  • Risk management and the use of advanced technological tools: Is technology really helping to mitigate risks? (This may include the Use of primary data to find out if the use of computer-aided tools has helped the industry mitigate risks)
  • Risk management methodologies: A review of different methods of risk management employed in the UK
  • Risk Management for Contractors in the Saudi Arabian Construction Industry
  • Examining risks associated with Green technology in the Chinese construction industry
  • Managing Environmental risks in Chinese construction industry

Service Design Dissertation Topics

The efficient management of infrastructures, communications systems, components, materials, and human resources holds the key to improved quality of services. Therefore, it is extremely important to optimise service planning because it can ensure profitability as well as productivity for the service provider. Following are some service design dissertation topics that may concern the students;

  • The impact of future technology on service design
  • Service design analyses of Dell/HP/Other
  • Service design analyses of the UK’s food chain Industry
  • E-commerce web services design and implications
  • Service organisation’s fundamental design requirements & marketing strategies
  • Innovative solutions in service design

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Logistics Dissertation Topics

Logistics is a critical operations management system that helps to manage the flow of goods or services from start to end. Logistics involves operations such as supply chain management, procurement, transportation, inventory, material handling, packaging, and integration of information between different teams. Some interesting topics for Logistics dissertations are listed below:

  • Logistics operations: An evaluation of the logistics management systems in the UK’s construction/manufacturing / another sector of your choice
  • Impact of intermodal international logistics on the operation of the UK’s construction/manufacturing / another sector of your choice
  • Review of logistic management principles and practices employed by the UK‘s industrial sector
  • Optimization of logistics management systems; A review of best practices and procedures
  • Case study analyses: A review of the Logistics Management in TESCO/ASDA/Sainsbury/Other; Is there a competitive advantage?
  • Impact of the latest technology on logistics management

Other Popular Topics in Operations Management

  • Analyses of different methods of procurement systems
  • The Role of government in the development of sustainable operations management
  • The key to Success: Analyses of vision 2030 and vision 2050 with respect to operations management practices of the future
  • Comparison of operations management techniques used in both developed and developing countries; Lesson learnt from the past
  • The role of operations management in the successful completion of projects
  • How BIM has influenced the modern operations management systems in the construction industry

Important Notes:

As a student of operations management looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing operations management theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.

The field of operations management is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like business , management , marketing , project management , and more. That is why it is imperative to create an operations management dissertation topic that is particular and sound and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong: your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in a cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best operations management dissertation topics that not only fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper but also add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample operations management dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure Your Operations Management Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

  • A Title Page
  • Acknowledgements
  • Declaration
  • Abstract: A summary of the research completed
  • Table of Contents
  • Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems to be addressed. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
  • Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic in light of the research questions to be addressed. The purpose is to highlight and discuss the relative weaknesses and strengths of the selected research area whilst identifying any research gaps. A breakdown of the topic and key terms can have a positive impact on your dissertation and your tutor.
  • Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
  • Findings and Analysis : The findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
  • Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regard to the implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
  • References : This should be completed in accordance with your University’s requirements
  • Bibliography
  • Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, or graphs that were used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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How to find dissertation topics about operations management.

To find operations management dissertation topics:

  • Study recent industry challenges.
  • Investigate supply chain innovations.
  • Examine technology’s impact.
  • Explore lean management strategies.
  • Analyse sustainability in operations.
  • Select a topic aligning with your expertise and research interests.

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Operations Management Thesis Topics

Academic Writing Service

This page provides a comprehensive list of operations management thesis topics , designed to assist students in choosing impactful and research-driven topics for their thesis projects. Operations management is a critical field that focuses on optimizing processes, resource allocation, and efficiency to enhance organizational performance and customer satisfaction. This list of 200 thesis topics, divided into 10 distinct categories, covers a broad spectrum of current issues, recent trends, and future directions in operations management. Whether students are interested in quality control, supply chain management, or sustainable practices, these topics provide valuable insights and a strong foundation for meaningful research.

200 Operations Management Thesis Topics and Ideas

Operations management is a fundamental area in management that focuses on maximizing efficiency, quality, and productivity within organizations. By examining processes, resource management, and technology, operations management enables businesses to optimize their operations, meet customer demands, and maintain a competitive edge. This comprehensive list of operations management thesis topics covers a wide range of subjects, from supply chain management and quality control to emerging trends like automation and sustainability. These topics provide students with opportunities to research real-world challenges and explore innovative solutions, offering a solid foundation for impactful academic contributions in the field.

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Get 10% off with 24start discount code, supply chain and logistics management.

  • Exploring the role of supply chain management in enhancing competitive advantage.
  • The impact of globalization on supply chain resilience.
  • Sustainable supply chain practices and their impact on organizational performance.
  • The role of logistics in e-commerce and online retailing.
  • The challenges of implementing green supply chains.
  • Examining the effectiveness of supply chain risk management strategies.
  • The impact of blockchain on transparency in supply chain operations.
  • Supplier relationship management and its role in optimizing logistics.
  • The role of technology in improving supply chain efficiency.
  • Analyzing the impact of transportation management systems on cost savings.
  • The importance of demand forecasting in supply chain planning.
  • Lean logistics: Reducing waste in supply chain operations.
  • Inventory management strategies in global supply chains.
  • The impact of COVID-19 on global supply chain disruptions.
  • Analyzing the role of reverse logistics in the circular economy.
  • The use of big data in supply chain decision-making.
  • The role of third-party logistics providers in the modern supply chain.
  • The effect of lead time variability on supply chain performance.
  • The role of warehousing in supporting supply chain agility.
  • Future trends in supply chain management and logistics.

Quality Management and Control

  • The role of Six Sigma in improving quality control in manufacturing.
  • Implementing total quality management (TQM) in service industries.
  • The impact of quality management systems on customer satisfaction.
  • Lean management and its influence on operational efficiency.
  • Examining the effectiveness of quality circles in organizational improvement.
  • The role of statistical process control in quality management.
  • ISO 9001 certification and its impact on business performance.
  • The use of quality audits to enhance process reliability.
  • Comparing quality management practices in different industries.
  • The role of quality control in reducing production costs.
  • The impact of continuous improvement initiatives on employee morale.
  • Integrating quality management with environmental sustainability practices.
  • The role of quality metrics in evaluating supplier performance.
  • Exploring the challenges of implementing quality management in small businesses.
  • The role of customer feedback in quality improvement initiatives.
  • Quality management in healthcare: Ensuring patient safety.
  • The impact of employee training on quality performance.
  • The role of leadership in fostering a quality-oriented culture.
  • Using root cause analysis to identify quality issues.
  • Future directions in quality management and control.

Sustainable Operations Management

  • The role of sustainable operations management in reducing environmental impact.
  • Examining the impact of green manufacturing practices on organizational performance.
  • Sustainable waste management practices in operations management.
  • The influence of government regulations on sustainable operations.
  • Exploring the challenges of implementing sustainable supply chains.
  • Analyzing the benefits of energy-efficient processes in manufacturing.
  • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable operations.
  • The role of green logistics in reducing carbon emissions.
  • Sustainable packaging practices and their impact on consumer perception.
  • The use of renewable energy sources in operations management.
  • Circular economy principles in sustainable operations.
  • Integrating sustainability into strategic operations planning.
  • The role of environmental management systems in manufacturing.
  • Challenges of implementing sustainable practices in emerging markets.
  • Sustainable sourcing and its impact on supply chain relationships.
  • The role of technology in promoting sustainable operations.
  • Employee engagement in sustainability initiatives.
  • Sustainable water management practices in industrial operations.
  • Analyzing the financial implications of sustainable operations.
  • Future trends in sustainable operations management.

Technology and Automation in Operations

  • The impact of automation on operational efficiency in manufacturing.
  • Robotics in operations management: Enhancing productivity and accuracy.
  • Artificial intelligence applications in operations management.
  • The role of IoT in improving supply chain visibility.
  • Exploring the benefits and challenges of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing.
  • The role of digital twins in predictive maintenance.
  • Cybersecurity challenges in automated operations systems.
  • The impact of big data analytics on operations decision-making.
  • Comparing manual vs. automated processes in quality control.
  • The influence of machine learning on demand forecasting.
  • Exploring the impact of automation on employee roles and job satisfaction.
  • The role of automation in reducing production costs.
  • Using RFID technology for inventory management optimization.
  • The role of augmented reality in training operational staff.
  • Predictive analytics in maintenance and asset management.
  • The challenges of integrating new technologies into existing operations.
  • Exploring the potential of cloud computing in operations management.
  • The role of autonomous vehicles in logistics and transportation.
  • Blockchain technology for enhancing supply chain traceability.
  • Future directions in technology and automation for operations.

Project Management in Operations

  • The role of project management tools in enhancing operational efficiency.
  • Examining the importance of risk management in project success.
  • Agile project management methodologies in operations.
  • The role of project planning in reducing operational bottlenecks.
  • Exploring the impact of project management software on team collaboration.
  • Lean project management practices in manufacturing.
  • The influence of project leadership on project outcomes.
  • Risk assessment techniques in project management.
  • Resource allocation strategies in multi-project environments.
  • The role of communication in project management success.
  • Comparing traditional and agile project management approaches.
  • The impact of project scheduling on operational performance.
  • Analyzing the benefits of stakeholder engagement in project management.
  • Cost control techniques in project management.
  • Exploring project management best practices in construction.
  • The role of project management in innovation and product development.
  • Using key performance indicators (KPIs) to track project progress.
  • Project management challenges in remote work environments.
  • The impact of project management certification on career advancement.
  • Future trends in project management for operations.

Production and Manufacturing Operations

  • The impact of lean manufacturing on production efficiency.
  • Just-in-time production and its effect on inventory management.
  • The role of total productive maintenance (TPM) in reducing downtime.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of automation in manufacturing processes.
  • Analyzing the role of Six Sigma in minimizing production defects.
  • Capacity planning strategies in high-demand industries.
  • The influence of flexible manufacturing systems on production agility.
  • Examining waste reduction techniques in manufacturing operations.
  • The impact of sustainable practices on manufacturing cost savings.
  • The role of production scheduling in meeting customer demand.
  • Exploring the effectiveness of quality control in large-scale production.
  • The impact of material requirements planning (MRP) on production efficiency.
  • Robotics in assembly lines: Benefits and challenges.
  • The role of predictive maintenance in extending equipment life.
  • Batch production vs. continuous production: A comparative analysis.
  • Implementing Kaizen principles in production operations.
  • The impact of production bottlenecks on supply chain performance.
  • Exploring agile manufacturing in a competitive market.
  • Strategies for managing production lead times.
  • Future trends in production and manufacturing operations.

Inventory Management and Optimization

  • The role of demand forecasting in inventory management.
  • Analyzing the impact of stockouts on customer satisfaction.
  • Just-in-time inventory management: Benefits and limitations.
  • The role of safety stock in mitigating supply chain disruptions.
  • Exploring the use of AI in inventory optimization.
  • Seasonal demand forecasting and its impact on inventory levels.
  • The impact of RFID technology on inventory accuracy.
  • Inventory management challenges in multi-location warehouses.
  • Exploring the economic order quantity (EOQ) model for inventory control.
  • Strategies for minimizing inventory holding costs.
  • ABC analysis in inventory management: A case study.
  • The impact of inventory turnover on profitability.
  • Warehouse management systems and inventory accuracy.
  • The role of vendor-managed inventory in retail.
  • Exploring the benefits of inventory centralization vs. decentralization.
  • The impact of backordering on customer loyalty.
  • Inventory optimization in the healthcare industry.
  • The role of forecasting accuracy in managing perishable inventory.
  • Comparing fixed-order quantity and periodic review systems.
  • Future trends in inventory management and optimization.

Operations Strategy and Decision Making

  • The role of operations strategy in achieving competitive advantage.
  • Aligning operations strategy with organizational goals.
  • Decision-making frameworks for effective operations management.
  • The impact of operations strategy on customer satisfaction.
  • Exploring the role of scenario planning in operations decision-making.
  • The influence of operations strategy on product innovation.
  • Risk management in operations strategy development.
  • The role of operations research in strategic decision-making.
  • Comparative analysis of cost leadership vs. differentiation strategies.
  • The impact of strategic outsourcing on operational efficiency.
  • Decision-making in uncertain environments: A case study approach.
  • Operations strategy for managing resource constraints.
  • Analyzing the role of competitive benchmarking in operations strategy.
  • The influence of globalization on operations strategy.
  • Environmental sustainability as an operations strategy.
  • Decision-making models in crisis situations.
  • The role of customer-centric operations strategies.
  • Exploring strategic capacity planning in manufacturing.
  • Using key performance indicators (KPIs) in strategic decision-making.
  • Future directions in operations strategy and decision-making.

Service Operations Management

  • Service quality management in the hospitality industry.
  • The role of customer feedback in improving service operations.
  • Service blueprinting for enhanced customer experience.
  • Lean service operations in healthcare.
  • The impact of technology on service delivery efficiency.
  • Managing capacity and demand in service operations.
  • Strategies for minimizing service waiting times.
  • Service recovery strategies for improved customer satisfaction.
  • The role of employee training in service quality improvement.
  • The impact of self-service technologies on customer perceptions.
  • Queue management techniques in high-traffic service environments.
  • Comparing traditional vs. digital service delivery channels.
  • The role of CRM systems in managing service operations.
  • The impact of customer expectations on service quality.
  • Service operations management in the gig economy.
  • Optimizing resource allocation in service industries.
  • The role of artificial intelligence in personalized service delivery.
  • Exploring the concept of service innovation.
  • Service standardization vs. customization: A case study.
  • Future trends in service operations management.

Future Trends in Operations Management

  • The role of digital twins in optimizing operations.
  • Predictive analytics in operations: Enhancing decision-making.
  • The impact of blockchain on supply chain transparency.
  • Autonomous robots in warehouse management.
  • The influence of the Internet of Things (IoT) on operations.
  • Exploring the potential of 3D printing in manufacturing.
  • Real-time data analytics for dynamic operations management.
  • Sustainable sourcing practices and their impact on operations.
  • The future of remote work in operations management.
  • Artificial intelligence in operations: Opportunities and challenges.
  • Using machine learning for demand forecasting.
  • The impact of advanced robotics on job roles in operations.
  • Exploring green logistics as a sustainable operations strategy.
  • The role of cloud computing in integrated operations.
  • E-commerce logistics trends and their influence on operations.
  • The future of ethical operations in a globalized world.
  • Data-driven decision-making in next-generation operations.
  • Anticipating the impact of quantum computing on operations.

This extensive list of operations management thesis topics provides students with a variety of research opportunities, covering essential aspects of operations management such as supply chain optimization, quality control, sustainable practices, and technology integration. Each category reflects the evolving nature of the field, highlighting current challenges, innovative practices, and forward-looking developments. By choosing a relevant topic, students can develop valuable insights and contribute meaningfully to the field of operations management, equipping themselves with the knowledge and skills for successful careers in this critical area of business.

The Range of Operations Management Thesis Topics

Operations management is a vital area of study in business, focusing on the efficient organization, management, and optimization of processes and resources within companies. It plays a critical role in achieving business objectives, enhancing productivity, and meeting customer demands. This article explores a variety of operations management thesis topics, covering current issues, recent trends, and future directions. By examining challenges in areas like quality control, supply chain management, and sustainability, students can make significant contributions to the field and better understand the strategies and innovations that shape effective operations.

Current Issues in Operations Management

Today’s business landscape presents numerous challenges for operations managers as they strive to improve efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction. One pressing issue in operations management is quality control, which directly impacts product reliability, customer trust, and brand reputation. Many organizations implement Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), or Lean principles to reduce defects and improve quality. Operations management thesis topics related to quality control could explore the effectiveness of these approaches in different industries, the role of quality management systems (QMS), or how quality improvement efforts impact employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

Resource allocation is another critical area in operations management. In industries like manufacturing and logistics, operations managers are tasked with distributing resources effectively to avoid bottlenecks and minimize costs. Resource allocation strategies can include optimizing labor, managing raw materials, and planning for contingencies. Operations management thesis topics on resource allocation may focus on the challenges of managing resources in multi-site operations, the impact of resource constraints on production output, or comparing resource optimization models across industries.

Inventory management also remains a core focus in operations, as companies strive to balance stock availability with cost efficiency. Poor inventory management can lead to stockouts, excess inventory, or even customer dissatisfaction. Techniques like just-in-time (JIT) inventory, economic order quantity (EOQ), and safety stock calculations are commonly used to improve inventory management. Operations management thesis topics on inventory management could explore the advantages of JIT in reducing waste, the role of demand forecasting in determining inventory levels, or the impact of technology, such as RFID and automated tracking, on inventory accuracy.

Supply chain management (SCM) has also become increasingly complex due to globalization, evolving customer expectations, and recent disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Operations managers must adapt supply chains to be resilient, cost-effective, and responsive to demand fluctuations. This has led to an increased focus on risk management, supplier relationship management, and logistics optimization. Operations management thesis topics in SCM might include the role of digitalization in enhancing supply chain transparency, strategies for mitigating supply chain disruptions, or the benefits of multi-tier supplier management.

Finally, the pressure to maintain customer satisfaction is ever-present in operations management. As customer expectations evolve, organizations must deliver high-quality products and services efficiently. This requires a strong focus on customer-centric operations, efficient service delivery, and continuous process improvement. Thesis topics that explore customer satisfaction in operations management could include the role of service quality management in the hospitality industry, lean service operations in healthcare, or strategies for reducing waiting times in high-traffic service environments.

Recent Trends in Operations Management

Operations management is continuously evolving to adapt to emerging technologies, environmental concerns, and a changing workforce. One of the most significant trends is the integration of technology and automation into operations processes. From robotic process automation (RPA) to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, technology is transforming operations by reducing manual labor, increasing accuracy, and enabling data-driven decision-making. Operations management thesis topics in technology and automation could include the impact of robotics on production efficiency, the use of AI in predictive maintenance, or the influence of machine learning on demand forecasting and inventory management.

Sustainability has also become a prominent trend in operations management. With increasing awareness of environmental issues, companies are adopting sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint, minimize waste, and improve energy efficiency. Sustainable operations can involve initiatives such as green supply chains, renewable energy usage, and eco-friendly packaging. Operations management thesis topics on sustainability may explore the financial impact of green practices, challenges in implementing sustainable supply chains, or the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in operations.

Data analytics is revolutionizing the field of operations management, providing managers with insights that enable better decision-making and forecasting. Big data and business intelligence tools allow organizations to analyze vast amounts of information to optimize inventory levels, predict demand, and improve production schedules. Operations management thesis topics on data analytics might include the role of predictive analytics in inventory optimization, the use of big data for capacity planning, or the influence of real-time data on supply chain agility.

Another emerging trend is the adoption of agile methodologies in operations management, especially in project-based environments like product development and service delivery. Originally developed for software development, agile methodologies emphasize flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback. In operations management, agile practices allow organizations to respond quickly to changes and improve process adaptability. Thesis topics related to agile methodologies could include the application of agile principles in manufacturing, the role of agile in project management, or comparing agile and lean practices in operations.

The integration of customer relationship management (CRM) with operations management is another noteworthy trend. With CRM systems, organizations can better understand customer preferences, personalize services, and improve customer retention. This trend is particularly relevant in industries like retail, hospitality, and healthcare, where customer satisfaction directly impacts business success. Operations management thesis topics on CRM could include the role of CRM in improving service operations, CRM analytics in demand forecasting, or the impact of customer feedback on process improvement initiatives.

Future Directions in Operations Management

As technology continues to advance, the field of operations management is poised for significant transformations in the coming years. One anticipated development is the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in operations management. IoT-enabled devices can provide real-time data on equipment performance, environmental conditions, and inventory levels, which enhances monitoring, maintenance, and operational decision-making. Operations management thesis topics on IoT might explore its role in predictive maintenance, the benefits of IoT in logistics tracking, or how IoT can optimize resource utilization in manufacturing.

Digital twins, which are virtual models of physical assets, processes, or systems, are also expected to play a larger role in operations management. Digital twins enable operations managers to simulate different scenarios, predict outcomes, and optimize performance without disrupting actual processes. Operations management thesis topics related to digital twins could include the application of digital twins in production scheduling, their use in predictive analytics, or their potential to improve quality control in manufacturing.

Blockchain technology has already shown promise in enhancing transparency, security, and efficiency in supply chains. Blockchain allows for secure and traceable transactions, which can improve supplier accountability and reduce fraud. Operations management thesis topics on blockchain might examine its application in tracking the origin of goods, its impact on supply chain transparency, or its potential for enhancing trust in complex, global supply chains.

Autonomous vehicles and drones are other technologies that could reshape logistics and transportation in operations management. By automating transportation tasks, companies can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and address labor shortages. Operations management thesis topics on autonomous vehicles and drones could explore their feasibility in last-mile delivery, their role in warehouse automation, or their impact on logistics efficiency.

Finally, sustainability will continue to influence the future of operations management, as companies increasingly prioritize environmental and social responsibility. Sustainable operations strategies will encompass waste reduction, energy efficiency, and eco-friendly materials. Future-focused operations management thesis topics might include the financial benefits of circular economy practices, the role of renewable energy in manufacturing, or how consumer expectations for sustainability are shaping operational strategies.

Operations management is a dynamic field that evolves to address both the practical and strategic challenges faced by organizations. This exploration of operations management thesis topics highlights the wide range of areas students can explore, from foundational issues like quality control and inventory management to cutting-edge technologies like IoT and blockchain. By selecting a topic that aligns with current trends, emerging challenges, or forward-looking innovations, students can contribute valuable insights to the field of operations management while building a solid foundation for their future careers. Whether focused on sustainable practices, data-driven decision-making, or process automation, these topics offer a path for impactful and meaningful research in operations management.

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99 Operations Management Dissertation Topics | Research Ideas

By Adam in Management , Operations Management

If you are a student searching for captivating dissertation thesis topics in operations management, you have landed in the perfect spot. With our extensive collection of research questions and ideas, you will find the inspiration you need to embark on your unique dissertation journey. We’ve compiled some common questions students ask about Operations Management dissertation […]

operations management dissertation topics

If you are a student searching for captivating dissertation thesis topics in operations management, you have landed in the perfect spot. With our extensive collection of research questions and ideas, you will find the inspiration you need to embark on your unique dissertation journey.

We’ve compiled some common questions students ask about Operations Management dissertation topics across various platforms. Whether you’re brainstorming or finalizing your proposal, these FAQs will guide you through the most important considerations.

  • What are some trending dissertation topics in operations management for a PhD student in 2024?
  • Can you suggest unique researchable thesis ideas for MSc operations management students in the UK?
  • What are some potential project topics for an undergraduate operations management research proposal?
  • What are recent research paper topics in operations management for BA students looking to publish?

Introduction:

Operations management is the management of company operations through a standardized set of business practices. It is a vital field that focuses on the effective planning, coordination, and control of business processes to optimize efficiency and productivity. Research proposals in operations management often examine interesting and good ideas related to business processes, making it an engaging area for students in the UK or elsewhere to explore examples of operational strategies.

Operations management dissertation topics relate to various aspects of the operations management process, ranging from the initial strategy to final implementation and outcomes of those strategies. These research questions can result in a compelling research paper or a robust research proposal.

The following is a list of dissertation project topics in operations management, useful for an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral degree levels, and particularly for the MBA level. This compilation aims to provide unique, good, and interesting examples to allow the reader to gain creative ideas for conducting research. Our diverse range of research questions and project topics in operations management for your dissertation will cater to your academic level and unique research interests.

Download operations-management Dissertation Example Pdf

List of operations management dissertation topics, sustainable operations management research paper topics.

  • The role of sustainable operations in enhancing brand reputation: A case study of a food and beverage company.
  • Analyzing the adoption of green operations practices in the fashion industry: A case study approach.
  • Sustainable sourcing and procurement strategies in the post-COVID era: Lessons learned and future directions.
  • Sustainable operations management: A review of environmental and social responsibility practices.

Lean manufacturing and process improvement dissertation ideas

  • The impact of lean manufacturing practices on operational performance: An empirical analysis of manufacturing firms.
  • Lean six sigma in healthcare: A review of its implementation and outcomes.
  • Implementing lean management principles in a manufacturing company: A case study analysis.
  • A systematic review of lean management principles and their application in various industries.

Supply chain management strategies thesis topics

  • Managing supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of a retail company.
  • Comparing the sustainability practices of global supply chain networks: A case study of multinational companies in different industries.
  • The evolution of supply chain management practices: A comprehensive literature review.
  • The use of blockchain technology in enhancing supply chain transparency and traceability post-COVID.

Technology integration in operations management project ideas

  • Analyzing the impact of technology adoption on operational efficiency: A case study of an e-commerce company.
  • The impact of digital transformation on operations management: A systematic review.
  • The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in optimizing operational decision-making post-pandemic.
  • The implications of remote operations and digitalization on workforce management in the post-COVID world.

Quality management systems dissertation research questions

  • The role of quality management systems in improving product reliability: An empirical analysis in the electronics sector.
  • A review of quality management practices and their influence on organizational performance.
  • Comparing different approaches to quality management in service industries: A case study of healthcare and hospitality sectors.
  • Improving quality control processes in the automotive industry: A case study of a car manufacturing plant.

Risk management in supply chain dissertation titles

  • A systematic review of supply chain risk management strategies and their effectiveness.
  • Managing supply chain disruptions and building resilience in the face of future pandemics or crises.
  • Assessing the effectiveness of risk management practices in ensuring business continuity post-pandemic.
  • A comparative analysis of risk management strategies in the construction and energy sectors: Assessing their impact on project success.

Inventory management practices research proposal examples

  • Examining the effects of inventory management techniques on customer satisfaction: An empirical study in the e-commerce industry.
  • A comparative analysis of inventory management techniques: Assessing the benefits of traditional methods versus advanced data-driven approaches.
  • Optimizing warehouse layout and inventory management: A case study of a logistics company.
  • A review of inventory management techniques and their impact on supply chain performance.

Agile project management research paper research questions

  • Agile project management in operations: A literature review of its principles and applications.
  • The adoption of remote work and virtual collaboration tools in managing operations post-COVID.
  • Implementing agile project management in software development: A case study of an IT company.

Operations strategy in global markets thesis titles

  • Exploring the role of operations strategy in achieving sustainable competitive advantage.
  • The scope and context of operations management in the tourism and travel industry- evidence from the top ten global travel destinations worldwide.
  • Operations management in the era of globalization: A systematic review of the literature.
  • Operations management in times of crisis- a review of possibilities based on current literature.

Logistics management challenges research proposal ideas

  • Enhancing supply chain visibility and traceability: A case study of a global logistics company.
  • The science of supply chains and procurement functions in the management of construction operations.
  • Analyzing the effects of supply chain integration on firm performance: An empirical study in the retail industry.
  • The role of collaborative partnerships in building resilient and sustainable supply chains post-pandemic.

Operational efficiency in healthcare systems thesis research questions

  • How can value be maximized for patients in the UK healthcare sector?
  • The adoption and implementation of total quality management: A literature review.
  • Exploring the application of Six Sigma methodology in healthcare operations: A case study analysis.
  • The role of company employee base in effective strategy implementation- lessons from the US healthcare sector.

New heading: Emerging trends in operations management

  • Strategies for managing demand volatility and uncertainty in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Adopting circular economy principles in operations management to promote sustainability and resilience.
  • Exploring innovative approaches to inventory management and demand forecasting in the post-COVID era.
  • Enhancing operational flexibility and agility to cope with sudden changes and disruptions post-COVID.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, operations management is a critical field of study that equips students with the skills to optimize business processes and improve efficiency, making it an essential area for research questions, ideas, and thesis topics. Students pursuing undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees in business administration, supply chain management, or industrial engineering often explore interesting, unique, and good project topics in this field. Whether crafting a research proposal or a comprehensive research paper, the diverse range of examples and project topics available ensures that students in the UK and beyond can find inspiration to advance their academic and professional goals.

There you go. Use the list well and let us know if you have any comments or suggestions for our topics related blog posts for the future or looking to get help with dissertation writing , send us an email at [email protected] .

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Operations Management Dissertation Topics

Choosing a great topic for your graduate, master or doctoral dissertation can often feel more challenging than actually undertaking the study. Knowing that the time spent on this work, which may be months, or in some cases years, on a PhD or Master’s Degree is so critical to success can making the topic choice seem daunting. Our advice is to always choose a topic that you love, or an area you find interesting because this makes the whole process much less arduous. It’s also often a good idea to look into the areas where your advisor has knowledge and experience so that they can guide and focus your work. Most importantly the topic should be focused and manageable. If these factors are taken into account when choosing a topic in the field of Operations Manager, the overall task will be much easier, interesting and can lead to new routes for you in your professional or academic development. To help in preparing for this great challenge, this article provides suggestions for Operations Management topics in a range of key areas such as the supply chain, scheduling, inventory management and design of services, all of which are current areas in the field.

  • Supply chain design and control Dissertation Topics

Inventory Management Dissertation Topics

Production scheduling dissertation topics, product development dissertation topics, design of services dissertation topics, dynamic pricing dissertation topics, industrial risk management dissertation topics, logistics dissertation topics, manufacturing and supply-chain dissertation topics.

  • Total quality management Dissertation Topics

Supply Chain Design and Control Dissertation Topics

The development and maintenance of effective Supply chains is one of the most crucial organisational elements of any manufacturing organisation and their achievement of competitive advantage and the building of good customer relationships. The planning, design and effective control of the supply chain and its various elements and stakeholders is of utmost importance to the success of the organisations. Organisations need to evaluate continuously improve and evolve their supply chains, and there is an increasing use of technology and other digital solutions to support control, measure and evaluation of this important facet of the organisations systems. With the development of automation, data analytics and a focus on corporate social responsibility effective and innovative supply chain design and control is moving forward into a new era. For up to date, timely operations management dissertation topics within this area please see the suggestions below.

  • What does “Legality” mean in reference to supply chain design?
  • The virtual supply chain and its role in streamlining short-term business partnerships
  • Supply chain management: Is autonomous transportation a reality and how effective can it be?
  • Blockchain technology and its effect on the UK supply chain: Issues and challenges
  • Supply chain management and impact of information technology: An analysis of manufacturing firms in UK.
  • E-commerce for supply chain management.
  • Supply chain management: Case study on Amazon.com and innovative solutions for packing, picking and delivering
  • Big Data and its role in revolutionising the supply chain for online retailers
  • How the supply chain differs on a B2C site compared to a B2B environment.
  • Supply chain control management: A case study on HP, UK.
  • Track and trace technology and its contribution to competitive advantage at Johnson and Johnson
  • I Robot : the use of Robotic picking and automation by Alibaba and the effect on supply chain efficiencies
  • How important will crowd-sourced transportation like Uber and Deliveroo be for reducing costs and increasing efficiency during “last mile delivery”

Inventory management is the supervision of non-capitalized assets (inventory) and stock items. A component of supply chain management, inventory management supervises the flow of goods from manufacturers to warehouses and from these facilities to point of sale.

As an integral component of supply chain management, inventory management refers to the systems of supervision for inventory and stock items, managing and monitoring the flow of goods from manufacturers to distributors and retailers. The processes can be complex and an inventory management system requires clear planning and concise and closely measured processes and technologies to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Suggestions for operations management dissertations topics on inventory management are:

  • Inventory management is still the backbone of supply chain management: True or False?
  • The influence of big data analytics in effective inventory management.
  • The importance of RFID in inventory management at Toyota UK.
  • How Smart is Smart Inventory in the grocery retail sector : Analysis of Smart inventory management at Tesco.
  • The internet of things and inventory management : how IoT is connecting customers to suppliers in a more efficient way
  • Inventory management or logistics solutions: how just in time approaches and inventory technology are changing traditional inventory management processes
  • Inventory management for e-commerce.
  • Inventory management with multiple procurement modes: A case study in UK.
  • Analytical study of inventory management in a car manufacturing organisation.
  • Warehouse drones and how they could change the face of inventory management : Examination of Sony and Amazon’s plans for connecting robotic automation with inventory management software
  • Are wearable scanning devices more time efficient than hand-held units – examination of wearable scanners in a FMCG warehouse setting
  • AI and inventory management : The role of artificial intelligence in making accurate stock decisions at Amazon.com

Production planning refers to the organisational function of establishing an overall level of output, called the production plan. The process also includes any other activities needed to satisfy current planned levels of sales, but should also incorporate the the firm’s general objectives in terms of profit, productivity, lead times, and achievement of customer satisfaction, defined with the strategic plan for the organisation. From a managerial perspective production planning requires the development of an integrated strategy where the operation element is the foundation and a crucial element of the production plan. Dissertations in production scheduling could cover any of the following topics.

  • Production scheduling techniques in a manufacturing environment.
  • Production scheduling techniques in a car manufacturing industry.
  • Toyota production scheduling techniques: A case analysis in UK.
  • The significance of theory of constraints in production scheduling.
  • Production scheduling in steel industry: A case study on Mittal Steel.
  • Fuzzy theory applied to production planning as a means of improving the accuracy of planning decision making processes
  • How integrated production planning and cross-employee communication increases productivity and employee motivation
  • Using AI to improve quality control : A case study of Amazon.com
  • Production scheduling optimisation within the Pharmaceutical industry through technology
  • Real time communication between multi-site manufacturers and the impact on productivity scheduling

Product development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved in the product development process: one involves the idea generation, product design, and detail engineering whilst the second path involves market research and marketing analysis for the proposed new product. NPD is the first operational stage in generating and bringing to market new products when looked at from the perspective of product life cycle management. If your area of interest is NPD, the following dissertation topics may be useful:

  • Fitting in: The world of the techno eco-system and what it means for NPD
  • Product development and how the process has been hijacked by consumers wanting to collaborate and innovate with food companies
  • Product mix and New Product Development strategies to meet consumer’s ethical and CSR demands
  • How do they do it? Critical analysis of Apple’s NPD strategy and process
  • Product development strategy In the automotive industry: Toyota’s lean thinking and its effectiveness in launching new products
  • Is technology like 3D printing changing the NPD process and what does this mean for small businesses?
  • Product life cycles in the digital age – is a new approach needed?
  • Product development strategy: case study Amazon.com.
  • Impact of information technology on product development strategy: case study on organisations based in UK.
  • Crowd-funding, new product development and people powered innovation: a new theory of NPD and its place in the product life cycle

Service Design is the activity of planning and organising people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service, in order to improve its quality, the interaction between service provider and customers and the customer’s overall experience. The increasing relevance of the service sector, both in terms of people employed and economic importance, requires services to be accurately designed. An operations dissertation on the design of services could include:

  • Customer service in e-business : Case study of Amazon.com
  • Spirituality, investment and motivation: Why Starbucks services design is a major contributor to its success.
  • Service design in fund management company.
  • Design and implementation of e-commerce web services.
  • Four major characteristics of services and the marketing strategies available for the service organisation.
  • Impact of big data analytics in creating effective service design.
  • Solutions and experience are the new service mantras, or are they just old wine in new bottles?
  • Future technology impact on service design.
  • The principles of service design thinking and how to apply them in a small restaurant business
  • Applying service design in the NHS: Sequencing a customer journey to improve experience
  • Co-creation of the service journey in manufacturing, from order through processing to delivery: examination of the integration of service design at BMW
  • Tesla motors and co-creation of a full service journey for customers through partnerships and alliances

Variable, dynamic pricing allows the retailer to change or fluctuate prices due to different variables, conditions, and situations. Being able to manage dynamic pricing strategies is a key ability for companies wishing to succeed in the world of e-commerce in particular. The forces of supply and demand are leading variables that dictate pricing. An operations dissertation on dynamic pricing would make for very interesting reading.

  • E-business models of dynamic pricing.
  • Dynamic pricing: A case study of the travel industry.
  • Consumer responses to dynamic pricing in the airline industry
  • Dynamic pricing: A case study of the insurance industry.
  • Comparing the use of dynamic pricing in the airline and retail industries
  • The importance of dynamic pricing in ‘auctioning’.
  • Analysis of the current issues, future trends and opportunities associated with dynamic pricing.
  • The significance of dynamic pricing in online retailing
  • Dynamic pricing: A case study on easyJet.
  • Dynamic pricing in a B2B environment in the UK.
  • Dynamic pricing in the UK service industry
  • Competition-based dynamic pricing in e-commerce
  • Price guarantees and dynamic pricing strategies

The majority of industrial and engineering operations are in the risk world. Almost everything done involves probabilities and consequences. Within these industrial settings, there are many factors contributing to uncertainty, for example, external influences (oil prices, political changes, etc.), equipment characteristics (reliability, availability), materials, contractors’ performance, suppliers, organization complexity, and human error. This is a very important issue within the business world and makes for an excellent operations dissertation.

  • Risk management in the UK construction industry: A case study
  • Risk management in the pharma industry: a case study analysis in the UK.
  • Is risk management different in the banking industry?
  • Risk management in the retail industry
  • Internal and external factors affecting industrial risk management
  • The impact of rapidly advancing information technology on industrial risk management: A case study if the automobile industry
  • Big data analytics and risk management for improving business operations
  • Risk management in the aviation industry
  • Human factors affecting industrial risk management
  • Industrial risk management in rural part of the UK.
  • The impact of risk management on production decisions
  • How can firms proactively manage supply chain risk?
  • Critical success factors in supply chain risk management in industrial firms in the UK

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources, including energy and people, between the point of origin and the point of consumption. The aim is usually to meet the requirements of consumers. To achieve its goals, logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material-handling, and packaging. Operations management dissertation topics for your logistics management dissertation could include:

  • Is the rise of intermodal international logistics affecting the operations of manufacturing companies?
  • Transport and logistics
  • Evaluation of the logistics operations carried out within manufacturing organisations
  • The logistic industry and corporate social responsibility: A closer look.
  • The impact of recent improvements in information technology on the logistics industry.
  • Principles of logistic management: an evaluation in a practical environment using Amazon as a case study
  • Anticipatory logistics on supply chain management.
  • Logistics management as a competitive advantage: A comparative analysis of Tesco and Asda
  • Value chain strategy of the logistic industry in the UK.
  • Optimising third party logistics using Big Data
  • Vehicle route optimisation in London
  • Decision-support systems to tackle the challenges of last mile logistics
  • Last mile logistics for the delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables in cities

Manufacturing strategy is a functional strategy, which means that manufacturing objectives should be derived from business objectives, and then manufacturing policies developed to address these objectives. Supply chain management (SCM) is the combination of art and science that goes into improving the way a company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. Possible topics for your operations dissertation are:

  • Is manufacturing strategy the key to business success?
  • Manufacturing strategies of automobile OEMs in China
  • Comparing the manufacturing strategies of automobile OEMs in China and the UK
  • A case study of Boeing’s manufacturing strategy
  • How Dell changed the computer world with its supply chain strategy: A retrospective case study
  • Combining environmental management with supply chain management: A case study on BMW
  • Examining continuous production as a manufacturing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry
  • E-supply chain management: An examination of the use of technology to build superior supply chains
  • ERP: A boon to supply chain strategy?
  • The impact of information technology on manufacturing strategy
  • Using information technology to support an integrated supply chain strategy
  • The potential of the Cloud for enhancing manufacturing strategy
  • Using an agile supply chain strategy to support supply chain performance
  • The impact of manufacturing flexibility on financial performance in the fashion industry

Total Quality Management Dissertation Topics

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organisational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centres, government and service industries, as well as NASA space and science programs. If you are looking at the area of Total Quality Management for your operations dissertation, the following topics may be useful:

  • Is Total Quality Management enough for competitive advantage?
  • Can TQM be a factor of sustainable competitive advantage for SME organisations?
  • Evolution of quality: First fifty years of production and operations management in the UK
  • Implementation of Total Quality Management: an empirical study of UK manufacturing firms.
  • Total Quality Management and customer satisfaction in homebuilding.
  • The application of Total Quality Management in construction field operations.
  • The impact of TQM on innovation
  • TQM: Theory and the practical implementation in the UK.
  • Creating synergies between TQM and information technology.
  • To what extent can TQM be applied in the public sector?
  • Using Quality Management to develop excellence in UK’s third sector
  • Barriers to the implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model in the UK

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Thirteen years of Operations Management Research (OMR) journal: a bibliometric analysis and future research directions

  • Published: 02 July 2021
  • Volume 14 , pages 235–255, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

operation management research topics

  • Mohamed M. Dhiaf 1 ,
  • Osama F. Atayah 2 ,
  • Nohade Nasrallah 3 &
  • Guilherme F. Frederico   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5330-4601 4  

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The journal of Operations Management Research (OMR) is a rigorous journal that started its publication in 2008. It publishes short, focused research studies that advance both the theory and practice of operations management. Considering the relevant OMR’s contribution to the field of Operations Management in the last years, this study provides an overall assessment of the journal performance by conducting a retrospective review. To elaborate on OMR's temporal development in terms of publications, authors, affiliated institutions and countries, citation patterns, and conceptual structure, we extract publications from Scopus database for the period 2008–2020. We rely on bibliometric techniques in addition to bibliographic coupling, keyword analysis, and content analysis. 166 documents were analyzed using RStudio, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Findings emphasize OMR’s steady productivity growth (3.24%). Narrowly, Olhager J. is the most productive authors while Kalchschmidt M. and Stentoft J. are the most influential authors (H-index of 4). Furthermore, USA contributes to the highest number of publications while UK is the most influential country in terms of citations. Cranfield School of Management, UK stands as the top cited university. The analysis of the thematic evolution concludes to three main clusters: "Manufacturing and Supply chain Performance", "Six Sigma and Lean Management", and "Reshoring, Backshoring and Offshoring". This study recommends to further investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution and the sequels of COVID-19.

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1 Introduction

Operations research and management science has amplified in the scientific community since the official establishment of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) in 1952, the Operational Research Society (ORS) of the United Kingdom in 1953 and The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) in 1953 (Merigó et al.  2019 ). Originally, it sought to embrace the industrial and manufacturing methods and procedures (Buffa  1980 ), and has then expanded to permeate service systems and a myriad of functional organizational areas such as marketing, accounting, purchasing/ logistics, information management, engineering and human resources (Craighead and Meredith  2008 ). In as much, the field evolved with time and merged from relatively high reliance on mathematical techniques to more sophisticated ones. Such diversely and wealthy discipline contributed to OR journals’ surge that attracted many scholars and analysts. Among them, Operations Management Research (OMR) that was launched as a hybrid and transformative journal aiming to publish original, high-quality research that are shorter and more sharply focused than existing Operational Management (OM) ones. The journal started publication in 2008 in Springer New York L.L.C, United States and provided relevant contributions to the field of operations management, being one of the most outlets sought by researchers. Its expansive and wealthy scope engendered many multidisciplinary approaches and robust conceptual integration such as: "Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering", "Management of Technology and Innovation", "Management Sciences and Operations Research" and "Strategy and management". Its current editors are Matteo Kalchschmidt, and Daniel A. Samson.

As OM is a functional field with enormous strides in the last decades, OMR flourished in both publication activities and citations. Though it is a young journal, it succeeded to be included in Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge in 2012 and managed to position itself well among the operations management journals, promoting research that is relevant to both practitioners and researchers (Olhager and Shafer  2018 ). This reflects its impactful presence and continual prominence as it is targeted by prolific researchers who kept on promoting its excellent intellectual base and disseminating knowledge. According to SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), this journal is ranked 1.313 and has an H-index of 18. The best quartile for this journal is Q1 and its best quartile by subject area is Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (Q1), Management of Technology and Innovation (Q1), Management Sciences and Operations Research (Q1) and Strategy and management (Q1). OMR has total citations of 3,033. Its overall rank is 2,855 and its impact factor is 5.95.

Factually, the publication quest to target top ranking journals is a major sticking point where common metrics are used to assess overall journal quality and find the suitable niche. Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is one of the most used metrics. It is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. However, many journals/authors self-cite their own articles. Actuality, journal quality is assessed by three main factors: citation analysis, peer analysis (reviewer selection criteria), and circulation and coverage (international audience and electronic copies). Yet besides the fact that such criteria should be collectively considered, scholars should account for other factors such as: relative thickness and frequency of publication, co-authorship, thematic trends and co-occurrence, and acceptance/rejection rates.

In 2019 editorial, 14 hot topic areas were recommended in operations and supply chain management (O/SCM) that deserve scholars’ attention and practical work (Samson and Kalchschmidt  2019 ). Much more, in 2020 editorial, Samson ( 2020 ) drew on major changes in O/SCM context and the consequential disruptions caused by COVID-19 as the pandemic effect has touched macro and microeconomic levels. New mitigating strategies are proposed to reduce reliance on long international supply chains that lead to reconsider reshoring and other risk mitigation strategies. Thus, the journal transcendental and reversal changes are worth commenting and based to our knowledge, prior studies to assess OMR’s performance are not conducted yet. In parallel, the emergence of scientific databases such as Scopus and Web of Science has facilitated the acquisition of large data to pursue a complete bibliometric analysis in addition to the powerful software such as VOS and Biblioshiny (R studio) that permit to objectively perform quantitative analysis to decipher and map the cumulative scientific knowledge.

To cope with the above gaps, we conduct this study to analyze OMR history, benchmark it and highlight its performance. In this sense other studies were previously conducted in order to understand the journal development and provide readers with rich and valuable information (Rialp et al.  2019 ; Wang et al.  2019 ; Kumar et al.  2020a , b ). Also, some specific areas have been thoroughly explored such as: Entrepreneurship (Moya-Clemente et al.  2021 ; Servantie et al.  2016 ); Knowledge Management (Zha et al.  2020 ; Noor et al.  2020 ); Operations Management (Pilkington and Meredith  2018 ; Laengle et al.  2017 ; Liao et al.  2019 ; Caputo et al.  2019 ; Schulz and Nicolai  2015 ; Oliveira et al.  2018 ).

Therefore, our analysis aims to highlight OMR’s high reputation and its extensive contribution where we draw on its influential impact, relevant insights, ongoing changes, future direction, and innovative methodologies. It is an in-depth analysis of the annual citation structure and trend along with an inter-temporal analysis its focus and attempts to anticipate potential developments and new research paths. It provides insights into the journal's past, present and future trends by offering a retrospective analysis of the journal's content (Laengle et al.  2017 ). It addresses the following research questions: (1) What is OMR publications and citations trend over the last 13 years? (2) Which are OMR top-cited papers? (3) Who are the most productive and influential authors, institutions, and countries? (4) What are OMR thematic patterns? (5) Which are the persistent, hot, and cold topics?

We aim to achieve the following objectives: (1) shed light on OMR major theoretical and empirical contributions, (2) identify top and most influential scholars in terms of journals, countries and affiliations, (3) describe co-authorship relations and collaboration status in order to highlight their preponderance to curb citation trends, (4) benchmark OMR to build its competitive capabilities in terms of technology, quality, delivery, and productivity (Dertouzos et al.  1989 ; Hines et al.  1998 ), (5) provide hot topics and develop future directions in OR by revealing the current research trends and frontiers of various disciplines through keywords and co-citation analyses, (6) map and visualize results to have more intuitive presentation, and (7) pinpoint OMR critical issues and motivational strategies to further improve its ranking and visibility. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive and broad review that encourages the scientific community and researchers in OR to engage in further discussions.

As the methodological support, we have used VOSviewer, R studio, and Microsoft Excel to derive insightful metrics to assess OMR influential impact, benchmark it relatively to peer journal in the same field and analyze its performance and temporal development.

The organization of this paper is as follows. Section  2 introduces the study's methodology, while Sect.  3 reports the results, which are divided into three major parts (publication analysis, citation analysis and network analysis). Section 4  provides the content analysis of each cluster. Section 5  provides a future agenda and Sect. 6  concludes to a summary of findings.

2 Methodology

The bibliometric analysis is gaining popularity as it is commonly used to analyze and evaluate the performance of scientific community in specific knowledge area (Barber and Mancall  1978 ; Bookstei  1979 ; Ferrante  1978 ). It becomes a fundamental tool to weigh the research impact and depict patterns of scientific contribution. To track the evolution of OMR and to identify yearly trends, we apply quantitative analysis to facilitate our interpretation. The bibliometric analysis leverages the authors' ability to manage, analyze, and extract insights from massive data, including intellectual structure, influential actors and contributors, as well as authors (Zagos and Brad  2012 ), affiliations (Boardman  2008 ), countries (Rey-Martí et al.  2016 ) sources, (Loh and Venkatraman  1992 ), and references (Tang et al.  2020 ). In addition, bibliometric approach is helpful to accurately identify the quantitative and qualitative indicators to develop reliable and relevant knowledge structure (Fagerberg et al., 2012 ).

Specifically, in the domain of journals' performance analysis, the bibliometric analysis has been commonly used in several studies to analyze different journals in various discipline; for instance Finance (Baker et al.  2021 ; Linnenluecke et al.  2020 ; Paule-Vianez et al.  2020 ); Accounting (Martínez-Blasco et al.  2016 ; Muehlmann et al.  2015 ; Yamaguchi et al.  2015 ); Management (Mishra et al.  2018 ), and Economic (Goyal et al.  2021 ).

To analyze OMR's performance, we consulted the Scopus database and extracted 166 published documents over 13 years (2008 to 2020). They consist of 149 articles, 16 editorials, and 1 erratum (Table 1 ). Despite that this data was manually refined and cleaned to avoid the risk of redundant author and affiliations names, it is still possible to have some duplicated data due to various types of writings and spelling. The study employs several bibliometric indicators to provide a comprehensive view and insightful analysis. First, the VOSviewer was employed to carry the mapping analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrences analysis, and co-authorship. VOSviewer is an efficient software that constructs and visualizes bibliometric networks for scientific actors, such as authors, journals, affiliation, citations, countries and other aspects (Chygryn et al.  2020 ; Evans  2019 ; Ferasso et al.  2020 ). Second, R studio has been applied to analyze several aspects, including the conceptual structure, productivity, most influential scientific actors, Lotka's law, and topics trend.

Along with descriptive analysis, the study identifies the thematic structure of the journal using bibliometric coupling analysis. Kessler ( 1963 ) proposes that documents citing an identical third document tend to form a bibliographic couple and that bibliographic couples discuss similar intellectual themes (Martyn  1964 ).

The count of publications is the measure of productivity and the count of citations is the measure of influence (Kumar et al.  2020a , b ). Specifically, we have used "biblioshiny" package, which consists of tools designed for quantitative studies in the field of both bibliometric and scientometrics. This package is helpful in converting the dataset into R format, carrying accurate bibliometric analysis, and developing matrices for various aspects, including co-citation, scientific actors’ collaboration, words analysis, and multiple correspondence analyses. Third and finally, Microsoft Excel was used to develop editable figures and tables, and to verify several tests such as citations, journal productivity, and affiliation production.

Bibliometric data and analysis provide information on the scientific orientation and dynamism of a journal, and on its impact on both the national and the international community (Okubo  1997 ). It uses numerous parameters such as: (1) performance analysis and (2) sciences mapping. The performance analysis serves to depict journal constituents’ performance (authors, affiliations, and countries) while the sciences mapping addresses constituents’ relationship. The below part provides a thorough analysis of the journal productivity, performance, benchmarking, and citation analyses.

3.1 Performance analysis and benchmarking

Benchmarking is an important strategic tool that reflects a qualitative orientation toward journals performance. It identifies future research to achieve a more systematic and quantitative analysis conducive to sharing a base of knowledge. Over the past 13 years, OMR productivity noticeably grew and contributed to 166 articles in the operations management discipline with an emphasis on contemporary issues that enhanced the industry efficiencies. It has an H-index of 28 which indicates that 28 papers have each received 28 citations or more. This measure is useful because it considers both the quality and the quantity of a set of publications. OMR earned 3,033 citations over 13 years and averaged 18.27 citations per document. The journal realized 3.24% annual growth rate over its lifespan which implicates a steady growth in the number of publications. Its collaboration index is 2.54 which suggests that each author cooperates with more than 2 authors to contribute a research work in the journal. It showcases the need for technical and scientific cooperation between scholars from different countries, universities, and backgrounds.

3.1.1 Distribution of publications over years

In this section, we provide a detailed overview of OMR temporal activity to measure the volume and impact of OMR research over prolonged periods of time as a means of identifying trends. Figure 1 visualizes the yearly publication trend. At its early beginning (2008–2012), the journal witnessed a volatile productivity depicted in a peak in 2010 (18 publications) and a trough in 2009 (8 publications). Over the subsequent 5 years (2013–2017), the publication trend was steady with an average of 11 publications per year. The last three years were remarkable as OMR productivity rate jumped by 71.43% (2018–2019) and then by 83.33% (2019–2020). The last year (2020) was exceptional with a striking increase in OMR productivity that led to the publication of the third issue. Moreover, the average publication per issue ranges between 5 and 8. Two exceptions are worth commenting. In 2010, the average publication per issue was the highest (9) while in 2018 this average was at its lowest level (3.5). 52% of total publication took place in the first issue publication while the remaining 48% are published in the second one.

3.1.2 Most relevant scientific actors (authors, affiliations, & countries)

The below section gathers a variety of dimensional indicators that analyze the number of publications, citations, and authors production over time. Table 2 shows the top 20 authors in terms of different metrics. The number of publications measures the academic contributions of OMR, the standard forms of influence and impact such as the h-index, g-index, and m-index (Egghe and Rousseau  2006 ; Hirsch  2005 ). Broadly, the h-index (h) indicates h number of publications cited at least h times, the g-index (g) accounts for the g number of highly cited publications receiving at least g 2 citations. While, h-index is independent of the date of an academic's career, the m-index aims at weighing the period of academic endeavor so to reduce the bias in favor of scientists with longer careers. Thus, if  n  = number of years since the first published paper of the scientist, the m-quotient = h-index/ n . We also account for citation per publication as the number of publications is a sign of condense productivity while the number of citations is an indicator of impactful influence. Olhager J. ranks first with 7 documents while Shafer S. ranks second with 5 documents. 5 publications for Olhager J. and Shafer S. are 5 editorials which explicate the low number of citations. The paper “Manufacturing backshoring: a systematic literature review” for Stentoft J., Olhager J., Heikkilä J., Thoms L. published in 2016 earned 65 citations at the time we extracted the data. Although Holmstrm J, Kalchschmidt M. and Stentoft J. contributed to 4 papers each, they earned the highest H-index of 4. Distinctly, the top 20 authors approximately contributed to 36% of total publications.

From another perspective, Neely A. stands as the most influential scholar among the top 20 authors with 719 citations and 359.50 average citation per document. Vinelli A., Stentoft J. and Holmstrm J. ranked in the next positions with total citations of 122,121, and 116, respectively.

Moreover, Fig. 2  elaborates on the top 20 author's production over time where we closely notice that Olhager J. published its first paper “Internal and external suppliers in manufacturing networks-An empirical analysis” in 2008, while the bigger node implicates higher contribution that stands for 2012 editorials. Shafer S. extensively contributed to OMR in 2012 and 2018 while Holmstrm J. contributed to OMR since 2012. Notably, the year 2012 retraces a wealth of contribution from the top twenty authors. As for Stentoft J. who stands one of the most influential scholars, he started publication in 2014 and ended in 2016 with highly cited articles (bigger and darker node) which reflect his highest H-index of 4.

Furthermore, Lotka's law is used to determine the frequency of publication by authors in any given field (Talukdar  2015 ) (Table 3 ). It predicts that minority of authors usually publish the majority of articles and that a high frequency rate is an indicator of authors’ satisfaction to repeat their experience and publish with the same journal. The relative frequency distribution of author productivity is hyperbolic or follows an inverse square function, such that the minority of the authors are publishing the majority of the articles. More specifically, it states that the number of authors making “n” contribution is about 1/n 2 on those making one “C”. The deviation of the observed function from the predicted inverse square function acts as a metric for the inequality in productivity of the field.

88.46% of OMR active authors published 1 single paper. Based on Lotka’s law, the relative proportion of the authors that have published 2 papers should have been 22.12% while 8.90% of OMR scholars have published 2 papers. Though there is negative deviation, Pao ( 1985 ) proposed a generalization to find both values (C and n), known as distribution of generalized inverse power or Lotka’s inverse-power law.

On another scale, Table 4 highlights the top 10 universities in terms of publications. Wake Forest University, USA ranked at the top with 12 articles followed by Lund University, Sweden and The Pennsylvania State University, USA that equally contributed to 7 publications each. Out of the top 10 performing universities, 60% are American and 20% are Swedish. Interestingly, Cranfield School of Management, UK is ranked as top cited university with 727 (23.97% of total citations) followed by the University of Cambridge, UK that earned 724 citations (23.87% of total citations). The top 10 universities have total 2,308 citations (76.10% of total citations). Out of the top 10 cited universities, 20% of the universities (UK) secured 62.86% citation while the remaining universities hold 37.13% citations. It is worth mentioning that USA stands as the leading contributor in terms of publications whereas UK is the leading in terms of citations. In their bibliometric analysis of the “International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications”, Wang et al. ( 2019 ) found that Cranfield School of Management is the most productive and influential university. This finding is grounded by the fact that the latter university is playing a pivotal role in the publication field in the areas of operation management and supply chain.

On a country level, USA contributed to the highest number of publications (68) followed by Italy (20), Sweden (15) and United Kingdom (15) as showed in Table 5 . The top 4 ranking countries contributed to 71.08 % of total OMR publications. From the citation perspective as UK topped the list with 1,003 citations that account for 33.06 % of total citations. USA secured the second place (859) with 24% of total citations while Italy earned the third position (294). UK and USA contributed to more than 61% of total citations.

In their bibliometric analysis of “The International Journal of Production Research”, Wang and Sun ( 2019 ) emphasized how the journal gained prominence over time. More than 99 countries/regions contributed to shift the journal ’dependency from its top ten authors to a wider array of authors. This fact has increased the journal ability to widen its scope of research and to expand the number of its authors.

Thus, OMR should initiate new policies to attract scholars from Asian countries to amplify its productivity and magnify its diversity. More specifically the journal should coordinate with international universities to conduct conferences and roundtables with market analysts and policy makers. The editorial board can play a significant role in setting future guidelines and strategies for OMR path such as increasing the thickness of publication, widening the scope along with suggesting formal and informal market campaign. Samson ( 2020 ) suggested hot topics to be investigated in the future such as: the disruptive effect of COVID-19, the impact of ageing population and its impact on the labor market, supply chain and OM habits, the inequality among OECD and developing countries, modern slavery, the low interest rates, industry 4.0 and digitalization effect, risk and resilience, CSR/ESG and many interesting topics. This drew attention on the effort put by editors to attract top scholars and the need to assess and study the new and disruptive changes in O/SCM trends and in other related functional areas.

3.2 Citation analysis

Figure  3 shows the citation growth of the journal measured by the yearly citation and the accumulated citation indicators. The yearly citation swings from a high of 943 citations in 2008 to a low level over the last 3-year periods where it plummeted to 30, 55, and 45 in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Notably, OMR publications were specifically influential in 2016 with 422 earned. Though the accumulated yearly citations displayed an uptrend steady growth, the last three years record the lowest number of citations as such trends have been common across journals due to the time specific nature of citations (Baker et al.  2020 ).

Table 6 provides an in-depth analysis of the yearly citation trend. Out the 166 total publications, 140 documents or 84.3% received at least one citation. Only 26 articles were not cited out of which there are 5 editorials and 22 articles published in 2020–2021. In the past few years, the total cites per publication (TC/TP) and total cites per cited publication (TC/TCP) were experiencing a downward trend. For example, in 2008, TC/TP was 62.9 which sharply dropped during the last three years and reached the lowest level (2 citations) in 2020. Similarly, TC/TCP depicted 67.4 in 2008 which fell to 5 in the last two years 2019–2020. Indeed, the citations of the latest publications need time to accrue. Moreover, it is discernable that 86 articles or 61.43% were cited only from 1 to 9 times, 47 articles 33.57% received 10–49 citations, 6 articles received 50–99 citations while only one article received more than 100 citations. Figure  4 provides a clear reflection on the trend of published articles versus cited ones. It compares the number of total publications (TP) with the number of cited publications (TCP) where at the beginning (2008–2011), both indicators co-walked at approximately the same pace which indicates the equilibrium between OMR productivity and influential impact. The gap widened in 2020 where the number of cited articles (9) shrunk to 40.9% of total published ones (22). This latter finding is very normal since citations of recent publications need time to accrue.

To investigate OMR influential publications, we extract the top 15 papers in terms of yearly citations presented in Table 7 . Neely’s publication in 2008 titled “Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing” earned the highest citations per year. The second document (Holmström et al.  2016 ) titled “The direct digital manufacturing (r)evolution: definition of a research agenda” achieved the 2nd rank while the yearly citation of (Pont et al.  2009 ) publication “Interrelationships among lean bundles and their effects on operational performance” earned 87 citations. In fact, there is some specific references that are most frequently cited by OMR articles. The most cited article is “Building Theories from Case Study Research Published by: Academy of Management Stable” (6 citations) published by the “The Academy of Management Review” (Eisenhardt  1989 ). Likewise, “Offshoring, reshoring and the manufacturing location decision” published by the “Journal of Supply Chain Management” (Ellram  2013 ) was also cited 6 times in OMR.

Table  8 show most frequently cited journals by OMR articles. The most cited journal is the Journal of Operations Management (Q1 and ABDC rating of A*) from which 560 articles were cited by OMR documents. Other impactful journals are the International Journal of Production Economics and The International Journal of Operations & Production Management from which 280 and 224 articles were respectively cited by OMR authors. This fact pinpoints the wealth of resources, and the high-quality journals OMR authors are relying on.

3.3 Network analysis

The network analysis is extracted from VOSviewer software. It aims at developing the connectivity between keywords based on their occurrences. A total of 576 author's keywords appears in OMR 166 documents with an average of 3.47 per document. Figure  5  shows that keywords are classified into three clusters. The red cluster represents the impact of operation strategy and the purchasing on the sustainability and firm performance, and it is investigated through empirical studies and surveys. The second cluster in the blue one which discusses the supply chain management in the reshoring, offshoring and backshoring and is mainly investigated in case studies and surveys. Finally, the green cluster tackles the supply chain and performance with regards to the six sigma, lean, and city logistics. It is mainly investigated in the healthcare and hospitals. To capture deeper insights, we employ VOSviewer to visualize the time span for each topic, the lighter nodes indicate more recent topics. Figure  6  clearly demonstrates that the oldest topics are emphasized in the areas of six sigma, purchasing, quality, and performance. In 2013–2016, topics such as “the manufacturing supply chain management and operational performance” gained popularity. While the most recent topics focus on the reshoring, offshoring, operations strategies, city logistics, and sustainability. OMR structural and temporal themes serves to highlight persistent research themes, cold and hot ones. “Supply chain”, “Operations management”, “Operational performance”, “Efficiency” and “Strategy” are persistent themes. The journal calls for the emphasis of reshoring and relocating as many multi- and transnational companies are rethinking about the supply chain system in disruptive times. Many analyses are worth studying such as top management resilience and agility in times of constraints and major events.

Likewise, the countries co-authorship was developed. Figure  7  presents that USA is the journal lead contributor within the red network that includes Sweden, Finland, Canada, and India. While UK is at the center of the green network that includes China, Pakistan, Oman, and Singapore. Lastly, Italy is at the center of the blue network, which highlights the influential collaboration with other countries such as Australia, Spain, Denmark, and Germany. The country collaboration network conveys a clear message on the necessity to account for other countries. Figure  8  presents countries’ network by seniority. The oldest network stands as Hong Kong, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Japan while the recent collaborative network includes India, Pakistan, Ghana, and United Arab Emirates. Nowadays, there is a surge in research productivity coming from these latter countries and OMR should strategize the next moves to capture wider areas that might positively curb its publication and lead to improve its benchmarking on the ABDC list.

4 Content analysis

This section offers a general overview for the nature of topics discussed in OMR over its life. It includes keywords analysis, topics trend, conceptual structure, and cluster discussion.

4.1 Keywords analysis/topics trend

R studio is used to visualize the words cloud, based on the authors’ keywords in OMR published documents. The most frequent keywords (KW) are supply chain, reshoring, manufacturing, and empirical studies (Fig. 9 ). The yearly keywords trends retrace the themes path over the period 2008–2020. While the hottest years for some specific themes are very apparent, the years of loss for some other topics are also depicted. For instance, the research in “Reshoring” theme soared between 2015–2017 which matches the claim of Samson in his 2020 editorial note to revisit the reshoring topic and address the ensuing impact of COVID-19 disruption.

4.2 Conceptual structure and clusters overview

We advanced our analysis and use R studio to reveal the main OMR clusters through conceptual structure. Figure  10  segregates the topics into three main groups: “Manufacturing and supply chain performance” (pink), “Six sigma and lean management” (blue) and “Reshoring, backshoring and offshoring” (green).

4.2.1 Cluster 1: manufacturing and supply chain performance

The first cluster is named “Manufacturing and Supply Chain Performance”. It consists of 101 OMR publications accredited with 2,108 citations. It ranks first in terms of publications and citations (Fig. 11 ). As shown in the figure above, the cluster is a conglomerate of three sub-clusters that present views on performance, manufacturing, supply chain and operations management. Therefore, the topics represented in the cluster tend to focus on central models such as: assessing performance, managing supply chain, and manufacturing and operations management practices. Neely ( 2008 ) article titled "Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing" is the most cited (719) with an average cites per year (359.50). The author seeks to fill the gap in the literature by presenting empirical evidence on the range and extent of servitization based on database of 10,028 firms incorporated in 25 different countries. Holmström et al. ( 2016 ) article ranks second (92 citations). Their work offers a wealth of opportunities for product and process innovation and is often touted to 'revolutionize' today's manufacturing operations and its associated supply chains structures. As such, we conclude that direct digital manufacturing will increasingly challenge operations management researchers to question established practices such as scheduling, batch sizing and inventory management in low-volume, high-variety contexts. Furthermore, an increasing adoption of direct digital manufacturing will drive structural shifts in the supply chain that are not yet well understood. We summarize these challenges by defining the research agenda at factory, supply chain, and operations strategy levels. Rolland et al. ( 2010 ) article occupies the third slot with 63 citations in the cluster. The study proposes a decision-support system for disaster response and recovery using hybrid meta-heuristics. Decision-support systems used in disaster management must cope with the complexity and uncertainty involved with the scheduling and assignment of differentially skilled personnel and assets to specific tasks. Other important works in the cluster include Choi & Hwang ( 2015 ) article, cited 56 times, and Kuhn and Sternbeck ( 2013 ) article, cited 55 times.

4.2.2 Cluster 2: six sigma and lean management

The second cluster is under the “Six Sigma and Lean Management”. It consists of 42 OMR articles published between 2008 and 2020 (cited 617 times) (Fig. 12 ). It ranks second in the number of publications and citations. Major covered topics are process improvement, operations strategy, six sigma hospital, lean management in healthcare, supply chain management, and service quality. Chakravorty ( 2009 ) article is the most influential in the cluster (87 citations). His paper is titled "Six Sigma failures: An escalation model" in which he describes a Six Sigma failure in an electrical components company. The research contributes to both practice and theory as it provides a new direction to academic research and has the potential to impact the theory of Six Sigma. It practically uncovers important factors for the successful implementation of the Six Sigma and it theoretically reflects on its definition by pinpointing its commonalities and divergences. Langabeer et al. ( 2009 ) article is the second most influential work in the cluster (73 citations). This article is a cross-sectional analysis that relies on mixed research methods (survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews). It aims to investigate the implementation of two quality-improvement methods (Lean and Six Sigma) in the context of hospitals. The research concludes to important findings about the impact of such methods on goal and value attainments in the healthcare industry. Robinson and Hsieh ( 2016 ) article is the third highly cited work in the cluster (42 citations). The study contributes to the emerging literature on reshoring by taking a value-driven enquiry into the renewal of supply chain strategy. It enhances the understanding of reshoring as a changing business model. An iconic British high-end clothing brand, Burberry, is the chosen case study to explore its recent move towards reshoring while accounting for different metrics such as: change in leadership, business model and evolving supply chain strategy from 1997 to early 2016. These findings suggest that the renewal of supply chain strategy through reshoring and increasing control can enhance the firm value and competitiveness. The other influential works subsumed in the cluster include Lifvergren et al. ( 2010 ) article and Zeng et al. ( 2013 ) which are cited 38 times each, respectively. The first study presents key applications not earlier described in prior Six Sigma healthcare fields. However, the second paper proposes a conceptual framework to study the relationships among three dimensions of supply chain quality management (SCQM)—in-house quality management practices (internal QM), quality interaction with suppliers on the upstream side of supply chain (upstream QM), and quality interaction with customers on the downstream side of supply chain (downstream QM)—and their impact on two metrics of quality performance (conformance quality and customer satisfaction).

4.2.3 Cluster 3: reshoring, backshoring and offshoring

The last cluster is called “Reshoring, Backshoring, and Offshoring”. This cluster consists of 23 OMR articles cited 308 times, thus ranking third in terms of both publications and citations (Fig. 13 ). Key topics deliberated in the cluster include reshoring, backshoring, location decisions, and captive offshoring. Stentoft et al. ( 2016 ) article is the most cited work (65 times) where they conduct a systematic review of all prior research related to backshoring of manufacturing and conclude to provide a research agenda for further research. Bals et al. ( 2016 ) essay is the next most influential work (cited 64 times). It aims to clarify the decision-making processes related to two distinct phenomena of reshoring and insourcing and present a conceptual framework of all theoretically possible reshoring and insourcing decisions. Ashby ( 2016 ) article, cited 42 times, is the third most influential work in the cluster. He attempts to explore the effect of sustainability on reshoring strategy by studying the case of a UK-based clothing SME. Other important works in the cluster include Joubioux and Vanpoucke ( 2016 ) article and Zhai et al. ( 2016 ) article, cited 31 times each, respectively.

5 Future agenda

This section addresses themes publication gap. Emergent topics such as the implication and consequences of the fourth industrial revolution and the influences of COVID 19 on the business practices and operation style are not yet extensively investigated in OMR. To address this issue, we have separately carried two queries on the Scopus database (Industry 4.0 and COVID 19).

Considering the introduction of industry 4.0 in 2013 by the German government, this subject has received significant attention from scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and governments. Industry 4.0 advent has fostered several emerging technologies such as: Machine Learning (ML), Data Sciences, Cloud Computing, Robotic Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT) (Dalenogare et al.  2018 ). These novel technologies prompt dramatic disruptions in the manufacturing and business practices: management style, business environment, marketing, labor market, competition environment, and customer behavior (Maresova et al.  2018 ; Moll and Yigitbasioglu  2019 ). Accordingly, several studies are carried to explore and investigate the potential opportunities and challenges in different knowledge domains in the fourth industrial revolution era such as: Economy (Goryachikh et al.  2020 ); Sustainability and Accounting (Meseguer-Sánchez et al.  2021 ); Industrial performance (Dalenogare et al.  2018 ); Business practices (Maresova et al.  2018 ) and Industrial practices (Zhang and Chen  2020 ).

Nevertheless, OMR traces shy attempts in this knowledge area. We carry a query Footnote 1 on the industrial revolution terminologies from the Scopus database and limit our search to the OMR documents. The query concludes to 10 documents as shown in Table 9 .

We also carried a query to depict the contribution in the COVID 19 knowledge area. Footnote 2 The query revealed eight papers distributed equally over 2020 and 2021. Novel coronavirus COVID-19 carried serious consequences to several aspects including human being and industries. The Oxford business group examined the consequences of COVID-19 on the supply chain industry. The outcomes documented that the sector was severely affected due to a drop in population mobility and quarantine policy which led to a sharp change in consumers behavior. Also, countries lockdown and airports and borders’ closure placed a significant strain on the global supply chains (Elnahass et al.  2021 ; Shen et al.  2020 ). Interestingly, Yadav et al. ( 2020 ) examined the rule of Internet of Things (IoT) in overriding disasters such as COVID 19 (Table 10 ). They found that (IoT) enhances the efficiency of information sharing by supporting top management and leveraging their ability to develop accurate and timely decisions.

We thus recommend OMR to encourage more publications relevant to the fourth industrial revolution and to the sequels of COVID-19.

6 Conclusion

This study provides an in-depth analysis of OMR’s publications, annual citation structure and trend, and its intellectual evolution over the period 2008–2020. We have conducted a bibliometric analysis where we drew on OMR influential impact, ongoing changes, future direction, and innovative methodologies. We were motivated by the fact that there is lack of discussion on hot topics and future directions based on keywords analysis.

We have used VOSviewer, R studio, and Microsoft Excel to derive insightful metrics to benchmark OMR relatively to peer journal in the same field and analyze its performance and temporal development. VOSviewer was used to carry out the mapping analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrences analysis, and co-authorship while R studio was applied to analyze the conceptual structure, productivity, most influential scientific actors, Lotka's law, and topics trend.

Over the years, OMR published 166 articles Out of which, 140 documents or 84.3% received at least one citation. OMR has an H-index of 28 and earned 3,033 citations over 13 years with 18.27 as average citations per document. The journal achieved a steady productivity growth (3.24%) over its lifespan.

Olhager J. was the most productive authors with 7 documents while Kalchschmidt M. and Stentoft J. were the most influential authors with an H-index of 4 and total citations of 116 and 121, respectively. Vinelli A. earned the highest citation per publication (40.67).

Cranfield School of Management, UK was ranked as top cited university with 727 (23.97% of total citations). The top 10 universities had a total 2,308 citations (76.10% of total citations). Out of the top 10 cited universities, 20% of the universities (UK) secured 62.86% citation while the remaining universities hold 37.13% citations.

On a country level, USA contributed to the highest number of publications (68) followed by Italy (20), Sweden (15) and United Kingdom (15). The top 4 ranking countries contributed to 71.08% of total OMR publications. From the citation perspective, UK topped the list with 1,003 citations that account for 33.06% of total citations. USA secured the second place (859) with 24% of total citations while Italy earned the third position (294). UK and USA contributed to more than 61% of total citations.

Bibliographic coupling of articles reveals three major thematic clusters: Manufacturing and supply chain performance, reshoring, offshoring and backshoring and the six sigma and lean management. OMR achieved excellence and remarkably positioned itself in the academic and scientific world. It constantly attracted prolific researchers and kept on disseminating knowledge and enlightening researcher to explore the vast field of contemporary management. In the end, we again relied on bibliometric techniques and prepared two queries to investigate two hot topics that are: Industry 4.0 and COVID-19. In addition, the inclusion of risk metric, the practicality to include preset operational buffers and the implication of top- management resilience and agility in pandemic and extreme events would constitute a main focal area for future research.

To better benchmark OMR, we concluded to the below remarks where OMR is invited to:

Revisit its scope as a means to more include related functional areas.

Continue to adhere to rigorous scholarly peer reviewing process.

Increase its publication thickness while maintaining its inherent quality of research.

Intensify its formal and informal marketing campaign.

Encourage scholars and countries collaborations.

Cooperate with government policymakers, market analysts, and researchers to foster the practical emphasis of existing management theories that should be amalgamated to account for the recent disruptive events.

Foster forum discussions on the journal platform.

Strategize the next moves to capture wider areas that might positively curb its publication and lead to improve its benchmarking on the ABDC list.

figure 1

OMR's yearly publication by issue between 2008 and 2020

figure 2

The top 20 OMR authors' production over time

figure 3

OMR citation growth between 2008 and 2020

figure 4

Gap between total publications and total cited publications between 2008 and 2020

figure 5

Author keywords network of OMR articles

figure 6

Author keyword timeline of OMR article

figure 7

Network of countries affiliated with OMR

figure 8

Network of countries affiliated to OMR per year

figure 9

OMR Keywords cloud

figure 10

Conceptual Structure Map of OMR major themes

figure 11

Cluster 1: Keyword cloud and yearly growth

figure 12

Cluster 2: Keyword cloud and yearly growth

figure 13

Cluster 3: Keyword cloud and yearly growth

Availability of data and material

All data are included in the article.

Query: ((SOURCE-ID (15,700,154,705)) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY("emerging information technolog*" OR "emerging technolog*" OR "Forth industr*" OR "industr* 4.0" OR "intelligenc*" OR "intelligent" OR "industry 4.0" OR "information system*" OR "machine learnin*" OR "deep learning*" OR "deep mining*" OR "fuzzy" OR "Fuzzy logic" OR "Big*data" OR "bigdata" OR "data*mining" OR "block*chain" OR "Blockchain" OR "Distributed Ledger Technology" OR "collaborative databases" OR "Natural Language Processing" OR "cognitive technologies" OR "augmented reality" OR "automat*" OR "Smart contracts" OR "busines* intelligen*" OR "cloud" OR "cloud*computing" OR "cognitive*" OR "Disruptive technology" OR "decision*support*" OR "digita*" OR "disruptive*technolog*" OR "electronic* accounting*" OR "electronic data interchang*" OR "EDI" OR "expert system*" OR "grid comput*" OR "image process*" OR "image recognit*" OR "industrial revolution*" OR "integrated application*" OR "integrated system*" OR "internet of things" OR "IOT" OR "neural network*" OR "neuro" OR "quantum comput*" OR "robotic*" OR "robots" OR "smart contract*" OR "text mining*")).

Query: ((SOURCE-ID (15,700,154,705)) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ( "epidemic" OR "covid-19" OR "coronavirus" OR "corona-virus" OR "corona virus" OR "pandemic" OR "covid19")).

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Dhiaf, M.M., Atayah, O.F., Nasrallah, N. et al. Thirteen years of Operations Management Research (OMR) journal: a bibliometric analysis and future research directions. Oper Manag Res 14 , 235–255 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-021-00199-8

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