Dr Yuan Huang
Senior Lecturer in Operations Management

Profile

Biography

Yuan Huang is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management. She joined the School for Business and Society in July 2024. She previously worked in Cardiff University and University of Southampton.

Yuan has developed a strong foundation in action- and intervention-based research over the past 18 years, focusing on how Operations Management theories (e.g. production planning and control, process improvement, supply chain collaboration) interact with complex social systems. This work has led to her growing international reputation in the field of Operations Management Practice Contingency Research (OM PCR).

Yuan’s passion for and interest in OM PCR originated from her doctoral research project, “Workload control: success in practice” at Lancaster University. Yuan has collaborated with a wide range of industry sectors, including the National Health Service (especially Accidents and Emergency departments), conventional bespoke manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and mountain rescue services. Her research increasingly embraces a multidisciplinary approach, driven by practical experience. For example, her most recent research explores the impact of emotions on the performance of human-centred operations, combining knowledge from operations management, organisation studies, and psychology and behaviour. This includes a project working with mountain search and rescue teams across the United States and the United Kingdom.

Research

Overview

My research focuses on improving processes where high-variety/be-spoke products and services are produced with short lead times. These processes typically involve chaos and stress, where human factors (e.g. emotions, behaviours), both individually and collectively, are found to be highly influential in operations performance. These factors are traditionally overlooked in process control theories. While the existing operations management literature on its own might not prescribe definitive solutions for these challenges, I have increasingly found answers and extraordinary performance in practice. What can we learn to improve theories or use them better?

Research areas

• Human-centred operations
• Customised production/services
• Health care operations (emergency care)
• Mountain rescue
• Additive manufacturing
• Process/flow improvement
• Resilience

Projects

I am currently working with mountain search and rescue teams across the UK and US to understand what enables resilience. 

Grants

• Principle investigator in project titled ‘Reducing waiting times in Emergency Departments by an integrated rapid assessment and treatment approach’ funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (£9,374.81), University of Southampton, 2016
• Co-investigator in project titled ‘network for antimicrobial resistance action’ funded by EPSRC (£868,703), University of Southampton, 2015
• Principle investigator in project titled ‘Business Engagement in Regional Development’ funded by Postgraduate Research Vice Chancellor's Scholarship (£21,000), University of Southampton, 2014
• Principle investigator in project titled ‘Business engagement in regional development: an exploratory study on operations and performance’ funded by Faculty Strategic Research Fund (£11,980), University of Southampton, 2014

Supervision

I have supervised PhD students in supply chain collaboration/resilience, lean operations, health care operations.

I am available for supervising research into resilient operations and supply chains.  

Teaching

Undergraduate

Project & Operations Management

Publications

Full publications list

• Huang, Y., Eyers, D., Stevenson, M. and Thürer, M. 2021. Breaking the mould: achieving high volume production output with additive manufacturing. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 41(12), pp. 1844-1851. (10.1108/IJOPM-05-2021-0350)
• Chen, C., Demir, E. and Huang, Y. 2021. An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows and delivery robots. European Journal of Operational Research 294(3), pp. 1164-1180. (10.1016/j.ejor.2021.02.027)
• Han, W., Huang, Y., Hughes, M. and Zhang, M. 2021. The trade-off between trust and distrust in supply chain collaboration. Industrial Marketing Management 98, pp. 93-104. (10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.08.005)
• Demir, E., Eyers, D. and Huang, Y. 2021. Competing through the last mile: strategic 3D printing in a city logistics context. Computers and Operations Research 131, article number: 105248. (10.1016/j.cor.2021.105248)
• Thürer, M., Huang, Y. and Stevenson, M. 2021. Workload control in additive manufacturing shops where post-processing is a constraint: an assessment by simulation. International Journal of Production Research 59(14), pp. 4268-4286. (10.1080/00207543.2020.1761038)
• Chen, C., Demir, E., Huang, Y. and Qiu, R. 2021. The adoption of self-driving delivery robots in last mile logistics. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 146, article number: 102214. (10.1016/j.tre.2020.102214)
• Eshtehadi, R., Demir, E. and Huang, Y. 2020. Solving the vehicle routing problem with multi-compartment vehicles for city logistics. Computers and Operations Research 115, article number: 104859. (10.1016/j.cor.2019.104859)
• Zhang, M., Geng, R., Huang, Y. and Ren, S. 2020. Terminator or accelerator? Lessons from the peer-to-peer accommodation hosts in China in responses to COVID-19. International Journal of Hospitality Management 92, article number: 102760. (10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102760)
• Huang, Y., Han, W. and Macbeth, D. K. 2020. The complexity of collaboration in supply chain networks. Supply Chain Management 25(3), pp. 393-410. (10.1108/SCM-11-2018-0382)
• Han, W., Huang, Y. and Macbeth, D. 2018. Performance measurement of cross-culture supply chain partnership: a case study in the Chinese automotive industry. International Journal of Production Research 56(7), pp. 2437-2451. (10.1080/00207543.2017.1377357)
• Huang, Y. 2017. Information architecture for effective Workload Control: an insight from a successful implementation. Production Planning and Control 28(5), pp. 351-366. (10.1080/09537287.2017.1288278)
• Demir, E., Huang, Y., Scholts, S. and Van Woensel, T. 2015. A selected review on the negative externalities of the freight transportation: modeling and pricing. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 77, pp. 95-114. (10.1016/j.tre.2015.02.020)
• Hendry, L., Huang, Y. and Stevenson, M. 2013. Workload control: successful implementation taking a contingency‐based view of production planning and control. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 33(1), pp. 69-103. (10.1108/01443571311288057)
• Stevenson, M., Huang, Y., Hendry, L. C. and Soepenberg, E. 2011. The theory and practice of workload control: A research agenda and implementation strategy. International Journal of Production Economics 131(2), pp. 689-700. (10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.02.018)
• Stevenson, M., Huang, Y. and Hendry, L. C. 2009. The development and application of an interactive end-user training tool: part of an implementation strategy for workload control. Production Planning & Control 20(7), pp. 622-635. (10.1080/09537280903034313)