When service and manufacturing firms subcontract part of their operations to a third-party, coordination of the chain of production is crucial. George Vairaktarakis, PhD, William E. Umstattd Professor of Industrial Economics, professor of operations, studies the behavior of these organizations and how an environment of competition or cooperation affects results. Vairaktarakis investigates setting “fair” payments as incentives for cooperation, smart competitive rules that satisfy the companies and promote common interests, the value of information exchange, and the magnitude of production savings due to coordination. His findings often reduce production costs by 30% while improving service.
Vairaktarakis’ research focuses on managing time/cost-sensitive projects, subcontracting and outsourcing, production chain coordination, distribution logistics, machine scheduling/flexible manufacturing, workforce planning, integer programming, network optimization, graph theory, complexity theory and game theory. His articles are published in top academic and practitioner journals including Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management and the Journal of Operations Management. He is currently Senior Editor for the POMS journal and Associate Editor for Naval Research Logistics. Vairaktarakis has developed project management courses at all levels at the WSOM and has trained individual clients and firms on modern project management methods including the Critical Chain Method. He has developed or co-developed all Lean and Service Operations courses offered at the Weathehead School of Management and has given lectures in universities around the country and is regularly invited as Visiting Scholar to Hong Kong Universities.
Vairaktarakis joined the Weatherhead faculty in 1997 and was tenured in 2004. He has developed and delivered courses to MBA and executive students at Weatherhead, Marquette University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Kasetsart University, Thailand, and the University of Athens. In 2013, Vairaktarakis received the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award. He is currently the Director of the Master of Science in Management - Operations Research and Supply Chain Management program.
Vairaktarakis received a BS in applied mathematics at the University of Patras, Greece, a MSc in applied mathematics at the University of South Carolina, a MSc in industrial engineering at the University of Florida where he also received a PhD in operations. He is currently Senior Editor for the Production & Operations Management journal in the area of Manufacturing, and Associate Editor for the journal Naval Research Logistics in the area of Project Management and Scheduling. In the past he has served at many editorial boards including IIE Transactions and the Journal of Scheduling.
Initially Appointed: 1997
Education
Teaching Information
Teaching Interests
- Project Management
- Service Operations
- Operations Management
- Lean Operations
- International Operations Management
- Operations Strategy
- Management of Technology
- Graph Theory and Combinatorial Optimization
- Production Planning and Control
- Quality Management
- Business Statistics
Courses Taught
- Lean Services Operations
- Operations Management
- Project Management
- Supply Chain Management
Office Hours
By Appointment Only
Research Information
Research Interests
- Project Management
- Third-Party Logistics
- Subcontracting and Outsourcing
- Production Chain Coordination
- Distribution Logistics
- Machine Scheduling/Flexible Manufacturing
- Workforce Planning
- Integer Programming
- Network Optimization
- Graph Theory
- Complexity Theory
- Game Theory
Awards and Honors
- Umstattd Professorship2014Alcoa, Inc.
- Teaching Excellence award2013Weatherhead School of Management
External Appointments
- Committee Chair, Faculty Council, 2016 - 2019
- Secretary, Appointments Committee, 2013 - 2019
- Committee Chair, Academic Integrity Office, 2011 - 2014
- Committee Member, Faculty Council, 2005 - 2008
Publications
- Venkateshan, P. , Szmerekovsky, J. , Vairaktarakis, G. (2020). In Springer (Ed.)
A Cutting-plane Approach for the Multi-Machine Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (vol. 285, issue Special Issue on Project Management & Scheduling, pp. 247-271) Annals of Operations Research - Vairaktarakis, G. , Aydinliyim, T. (2017).
Coordinating the Scheduling of Subcontracted Operations: Centralization, Competition and First-Come-First-Served Processing (vol. 48, issue 4, pp. 657-690) Decision Sciences Journal - Vairaktarakis, G. , Szmerekovsky, J. , Xu, J. (2016).
Level Workforce Schedules for Paced Assembly Lines (vol. 63, issue 7, pp. 577-590) Naval Research Logistics - Emmons, H. , Vairaktarakis, G. (2013). In Frederick S. Hillier, Stanford University, A, USA (Ed.)
Flowshop Scheduling: Theory, Algorithms, and Managerial Insights (vol. ISOR 182, pp. 334) New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ISOR 182 - Vairaktarakis, G. (2013).
Non-Cooperative Games in Outsourcing Operations (vol. 15, issue 1, pp. 148-158) Manufacturing and Services Operations Management - Cai, X. , Vairaktarakis, G. (2012).
Coordination of Outsourced Operations at a Third-Party Facility Subject to Booking, Overtime, and Tardiness Costs (vol. 60, issue 6, pp. 1436-1450) Operations Research - Aydinliyim, T. , Vairaktarakis, G. (2010).
Coordination of Outsourced Operations to Minimize Weighted Flow Time and Capacity Booking Costs (vol. 12, issue 2, pp. 236-255) Manufacturing and Service Operations Management - Vairaktarakis, G. , Szmerekovsky, J. (2006).
Maximizing Project Cash Availability (vol. 53, issue 4, pp. 272-284) Naval Research Logistics - Chen, Z. , Vairaktarakis, G. (2005).
Integrated Scheduling of Production and Distribution Operations (vol. 51, issue 4, pp. 614-628) Management Science - Vairaktarakis, G. (2003).
The Value of Reseource Flexibility in the Resource Constrained Job Assignment Problem (vol. 49, issue 6, pp. 718-732) Management Science - Solow, D. , Vairaktarakis, G. , Piderit, S. , Tsai, M. (2002).
Managerial Insights into the Effects of Interactions on Replacing Members of a Team (vol. 48, issue 8, pp. 1060-1073) Management Science - Vairaktarakis, G. (1999).
Optimization Tools for Design and Marketing of New/Improved Products Using the House of Quality (vol. 17, issue 6, pp. 645-663) Journal of Operations Management, Special Issue on Breakthrough Product Development - Vairaktarakis, G. , Winch, J. (1999).
Worker Cross-Training in Paced Assembly Lines (vol. 1, issue 2, pp. 112-131) Manufacturing and Service Operations Management - Lee, C. , Vairaktarakis, G. (1997).
Workforce Planning in Mixed Model Assembly Systems (vol. 45, issue 4, pp. 553-567) Operations Research
Presentations
- Vairaktarakis, G. (Panelist/Discussant) INFORMS 2019, "Teaching Modern Project Management", INFROMS, Seattle, WA. (2019).
- Vairaktarakis, G. (Author Only) Research Seminar, "The Subcontracting Problem", Texas A&M University, Mays School of Business, College Station, TX. (2019).
- Vairaktarakis, G. (Presenter & Author) Informs 2018, "A Cutting-Plane approach for the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem", INFORMS, Phoenix, AZ. (2018).
- Vairaktarakis, G. (Discussant) INFORMS 2018, "Junior Faculty Interest Group Panel", INFORMS, Phoenix, AZ. (2018).
- Vairaktarakis, G. INFORMS 2008, "Teaching Modern Project Management: Strategic Issues", Institute for OR and OM, Washinghton DC. (2008).