OpEra Stories: operations research in industry https://operatechnologies.com/stories Documented cases where a model took over a planning decision, with the original papers. en Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Molslinjen forecast every ferry departure a year ahead and estimated up to $3.2M a year in extra profit https://operatechnologies.com/stories/molslinjen-ferry-forecasting https://operatechnologies.com/stories/molslinjen-ferry-forecasting Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Danish ferry line Molslinjen forecasts each departure up to a year ahead to set fares and pack car decks: an estimated 15–20M DKK extra profit a year. Ferry revenue management Chevron has planned its seven refineries with one linear program for 30 years and values it near $1B a year https://operatechnologies.com/stories/chevron-refinery-planning https://operatechnologies.com/stories/chevron-refinery-planning Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Chevron plans crudes, products and unit operation at seven refineries with one linear program: near $1B of value a year, by its own estimate. Refinery planning Meituan cut delivery time per order by 21% with a model that assigns a whole city's orders every 30 seconds https://operatechnologies.com/stories/meituan-courier-dispatch https://operatechnologies.com/stories/meituan-courier-dispatch Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Meituan assigns 60M+ daily orders to couriers citywide every 30 seconds: delivery time per order down 21% and distance down 24%, 2022 vs 2019. Courier dispatch Air New Zealand replaced two weeks of hand-built rosters with an hour of computing, saving an estimated NZ$15.7M a year https://operatechnologies.com/stories/air-new-zealand-crew-scheduling https://operatechnologies.com/stories/air-new-zealand-crew-scheduling Mon, 19 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Air New Zealand and the University of Auckland built eight crew planning and rostering systems: about NZ$15.7M saved a year, by the authors' count. Crew scheduling Intel planned its products and factories as one problem and credits it with $25.4B since 2009 https://operatechnologies.com/stories/intel-product-supply https://operatechnologies.com/stories/intel-product-supply Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Intel links product design to supply planning across 200+ factories: $1.9B more revenue and $1.5B lower costs a year on average, by Intel's count. Product supply planning Walmart took 108,000 truck routes off the road in a year by planning routes and loads together https://operatechnologies.com/stories/walmart-load-planner https://operatechnologies.com/stories/walmart-load-planner Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Walmart's Load Planner plans each route and trailer load together: 108,000 routes and 33M miles cut, $91.5M saved in fiscal 2023 by Walmart's count. Routing and loading Microsoft moved its cloud hardware planning from spreadsheets to a model and cut cycle times in half https://operatechnologies.com/stories/microsoft-cloud-supply-chain https://operatechnologies.com/stories/microsoft-cloud-supply-chain Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Microsoft plans hardware for 400+ data centers with an optimization model and a language layer: cycle times halved, answers in near real time. Cloud hardware fulfillment CSX let a model assign its empty railcars and estimated it saved over $51M a year https://operatechnologies.com/stories/csx-empty-railcars https://operatechnologies.com/stories/csx-empty-railcars Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How CSX assigns empty railcars to customer orders in real time: $51M+ saved a year and $1.4B of railcars it never had to buy, by CSX's estimate. Empty railcar distribution UPS changed the order of its drivers' stops and expected to save $300M to $400M a year https://operatechnologies.com/stories/ups-orion https://operatechnologies.com/stories/ups-orion Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How UPS built ORION to sequence the stops of 55,000 drivers: about 100 million fewer miles a year and $300M to $400M in expected annual savings. Route sequencing Waste Management took 984 collection routes off the road in nine months https://operatechnologies.com/stories/waste-management https://operatechnologies.com/stories/waste-management Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT WasteRoute re-sequenced every stop in a district and cut 984 collection routes in nine months, about $18M saved in 2003 by WM's estimate. Sources inside. Collection routes Coca-Cola Enterprises cut $45M a year by changing how its dispatchers build routes https://operatechnologies.com/stories/coca-cola-enterprises https://operatechnologies.com/stories/coca-cola-enterprises Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Coca-Cola Enterprises put a routing model under 300+ dispatchers and about 10,000 delivery trucks, for a $45M annual cost saving. Sources inside. Fleet routing Schneider National tested a driver policy in a model and avoided a $30M-a-year plan https://operatechnologies.com/stories/schneider-national https://operatechnologies.com/stories/schneider-national Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Schneider and Princeton built a fleet simulator that reproduces how dispatchers decide, then used it to test policies before rollout. Sources inside. Fleet policy Zara added an estimated $586M in revenue from stock it already had https://operatechnologies.com/stories/zara https://operatechnologies.com/stories/zara Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Zara and MIT researchers rebuilt the size-by-size allocation of stock to 1,500 stores, for an estimated 3–4% sales lift. Paper and sources inside. Store allocation Kroger took $120M of inventory out of 1,950 pharmacies and ran out of stock less often https://operatechnologies.com/stories/kroger https://operatechnologies.com/stories/kroger Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Kroger set reorder levels per drug and per store with simulation-optimization: $120M less inventory, 1.6M fewer out-of-stocks a year. Pharmacy inventory Kellogg has planned its cereal plants with one optimization model since 1990 https://operatechnologies.com/stories/kellogg https://operatechnologies.com/stories/kellogg Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT The Kellogg Planning System, a weekly linear program across 5 plants and 7 DCs: $4.5M saved in 1995, $35–40M a year projected from one capacity decision. Production planning Procter & Gamble redrew which plant makes what and saved over $200M a year https://operatechnologies.com/stories/pg-plant-network https://operatechnologies.com/stories/pg-plant-network Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How P&G and the University of Cincinnati used integer programming and maps to redesign its North American plant network: almost 20% fewer plants, $200M+ a year. Plant network design Taco Bell saved over $53M of labor by scheduling staff in 15-minute slots https://operatechnologies.com/stories/taco-bell https://operatechnologies.com/stories/taco-bell Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Taco Bell's labor system: 15-minute forecasts, a queue simulation and an integer program for shifts. Over $40M saved in 1993–96 and $53M through 1997. Labor scheduling Hartford Hospital's emergency department cut overtime shifts by 85% with a scheduling model https://operatechnologies.com/stories/hartford-hospital https://operatechnologies.com/stories/hartford-hospital Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How Hartford Hospital and MIT automated emergency department nurse scheduling: 85% fewer overtime shifts, 8–25% better coverage, about $720K a year projected. Nurse scheduling A snowstorm cancelled 112 Continental flights. The crews were re-planned in minutes https://operatechnologies.com/stories/continental-crew-recovery https://operatechnologies.com/stories/continental-crew-recovery Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT CrewSolver re-planned Continental's crews after major disruptions in minutes instead of hours, about $40M saved in 2001 by Continental's estimate. Crew recovery Google cut a data centre's cooling energy by up to 40% by letting a model pick the settings https://operatechnologies.com/stories/google-datacenter-cooling https://operatechnologies.com/stories/google-datacenter-cooling Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT How DeepMind's models first recommended, then directly controlled, Google's data centre cooling: up to 40% less cooling energy in 2016, about 30% in 2018. Cooling control