The mission of IEMS is to conduct high-quality interdisciplinary research and education in Industrial Engineering and Management Science. We closely collaborate with industry, knowledge institutes, healthcare organisations and government agencies. We focus on research that has a substantial impact in practice while significantly contributing to the international scientific knowledge base.
Our research focuses on the design, optimisation and support of complex systems in e.g. logistics, manufacturing, healthcare and services. We study how organisations and networks can make better decisions, improve operational performance, respond to uncertainty and ensure sustainable and resilient operations. For that we develop and apply a wide range of quantitative methods combining our expertise from Operations Research, Machine Learning and Data Analytics.
We teach in the bachelor’s and master’s programmes in Industrial Engineering and Management, as well as in related programmes across the University of Twente. We bring our research approach into the classroom by training students to analyse complex systems, develop model-based and data-driven solutions, and address real-world decision-making challenges.
The following are focus application areas of IEMS:
- Logistics, transportation and mobility systems: We advance the planning, coordination and optimisation of logistics and transportation systems, including freight transport, urban logistics, aviation, last-mile delivery and autonomous mobility solutions.
- Healthcare operations and public services: We develop knowledge and decision-support approaches to improve healthcare and public service operations, with a focus on capacity planning, patient flows, emergency response, disaster response and the organisation of complex care processes. These activities are part of the cross-faculty Center for Healthcare Operations Improvement & Research (part of the TechMed Centre).
- Resilient supply chains, manufacturing and maintenance systems: We investigate how supply chains, production systems and maintenance networks can be designed and managed to become more efficient, adaptive and resilient to disruptions.
- Sustainable and circular systems: We contribute to sustainable operations through our work on circular economy systems, sustainable supply chains, renewable energy, industrial symbiosis, circular construction and sustainable business models.
- Optimisation in finance: We support organisations through proposing new methods for financial decision-making, trading and risk mitigation. For this application area, we closely collaborate with our colleagues from the Section Financial Engineering & Business Information Systems.
