Forum Proves OR to Be a Powerful Tool for Real-Life Messes by Elise Del Rosario
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www.orsp.org.ph November 2019 Forum Proves OR To Be A Powerful Tool for Real-Life Messes by Elise del Rosario The 2019 ORSP technical forum ties as loading a pallet and a truck, cess, he shared some experiences held last September 28, 2019 configuring a sales force, display- and lessons from his more than filled the Ateneo de Manila Uni- ing products on a store shelf, exe- 30 years of experience in the IT versity Leong Hall with profes- cuting price promotions and esti- field, capping his presentation sionals eager to hear recent ap- mating total market size based on with a song, which was a hit with plication updates and students a sample. He went through each his audience. wanting to hear how their OR problem type, a general formula- subject is relevant to real life in tion, and outcome of the applica- Rex Briones followed, this time the Philippines. tions. talking about the most well- known company where OR prac- The four-hour forum was opened The second speaker, founder and tice is alive and continuously cre- by ORSP Director Malu de Guz- CEO of Cyber Optimus Philippines ating value, the San Miguel Corpo- man U who introduced ORSP Past Inc and Director of the Computer ration. As a veteran OR analyst President Francis Miranda. An Science and Graduate Programs in of 15 years, Briones talked about Asia Pacific Director for Re- IT Education at the Asia Pacific a representative sample of facili- search, Data Science and Quality College Ernesto Boydon present- ties planning applications among at GfK Asia who possesses over ed the overall framework on the multifarious businesses of 20 years’ experience in OR and which his company, Pinoy Biznet SMC, namely, the beer, feeds and Analytics, Miranda went through has been built: its paradigms, packaging industries. In contrast Market Research applications strategies, and implementation to the mathematical program- that showed how OR has helped trajectory towards creating a glob- ming tools used in these projects, optimize such marketing activi- al marketing platform. In the pro- his fourth example touched on a From left to right: Francis Miranda shows how mathematical formulations translate to better marketing of products; Ernesto Boydon's experience and lessons in setting up a business resonates with students; Rex Briones discusses some applications among the wide array of OR applications in San Miguel. 1 cont. on page 2 cont. from page 1 traffic simulation methodology ORSP president and currently Lec- OR work. It was key to helping the that is being applied in an SMC in- turer at the Department of Quanti- audience realize the powerful tool frastructure project. With their tative Methods and Information that OR is. This learning was punc- long trip to the forum still fresh in Technology Department at the tuated with raffle draws won by their minds, the students paid par- John Gokongwei School of Manage- more than 20 participants, major ticular attention to how OR could ment at the Ateneo de Manila Uni- prizes being three P5,000 vouch- potentially help traffic woes. versity. He started his talk with ers donated by Informatics. ORSP facts about the 12 to 16 tropical Directors Malu U, Jacky Chan and While everyone braces up for traf- cyclones entering the Philippine Elise del Rosario moderated the fic, disaster can only be dealt with area of responsibility, with an av- proceedings. by preparedness and mitiga- erage of 2-3 cyclones per month tion. OR is still active in this area, from June to December. He then Almost five hundred participants as presented by the fourth speak- related how OR tools have been comprised of students and profes- er, a former President of SVI Tech- developed to mitigate, prepare and sors from UST, University of Ma- nologies and Sr. VP of Home Devel- respond to the aftereffects of ty- kati, Holy Angel University, De La opment Mutual fund, among oth- phoons. Crucial in this effort is the Salle University-Dasmarin as, Que- ers. Vic Reventar was also past preparation and distribution of zon City Polytechnic University, UP relief goods to those who have Los Ban os, Malayan Colleges La- been affected and displaced by the guna, Mapua, Mondriaan Aura Col- disaster. He demonstrated how the lege, St. Dominic College of Asia, use of OR tools can greatly facili- Colegio de San Juan de Letran Ca- tate the proper design and struc- lamba, San Sebastian College- ture of supply chain, the acquisi- Recoletos de Cavite, UP Diliman tion, storage, assembly, as well as and professionals from companies the timely distribution of relief such as Maynilad Water Services items (called family packs) at a Inc., Social Security System, Rare- time when quick response is key. job Philippines, Inc. and Lockton Apart from this talk, he also shared Philippines Insurance and Rein- with the students some open surrance Brokers, Inc. found the source optimization resources technical forum very informative available in the cloud and how and gave it a very good feedback. Vic Reventar explains how OR figures they could access them. A lot of students came to ask ques- in humanitarian logistics, especially tions and had fun taking turns at during the Ondoy catastrophe. He also The afternoon put together the having their pictures taken on discusses how to access optimization collective experience of speakers stage way after the forum was tools in the cloud for free. spanning more than 100 years of over. Audience absorbs wealth of information presented prior to the snack and raffle that followed. 2 12th Conference Highlights OR Contributions to Public Service by Janni Boydon The 12th annual ORSP National the Metro Manila Development Conference held last November 23, Authority, gave a quick run 2018 at the Eastwood Richmonde through of the 7 mandates of Hotel, Quezon City was themed MMDA and what they are doing “Raising the Bar for Public Ser- particularly to improve opera- vice”. The event attracted 110 par- tions. She emphasized that analy- ticipants coming from both the in- sis on MMDA operations are on- dustry and the academe, all of going but there is really a need for whom eagerly awaited an answer leadership and political will to to their question of whether OR actualize the change people want Angelo Tanchoco goes over techniques can be applied to the public sector. to see. and applications of OR in the media sector. The event had four plenary speak- This was also one of the points ers sharing experiences and in- research and actuarial science to sights on how Operations Research optimize the benefits received by had helped in the efficiency and SSS contributors considering also effectiveness of the systems they all associated risks. While briefly work with and how it has contrib- delving into the mathematics be- uted to better public service. hind investment decisions, among others, he showed how results of Celine Pialago, current Spokes- studies translate into actions person and Assistant Secretary of which benefit the organization. To one of the questions from the au- dience, he replied that leadership plays a huge role in getting scien- Rizaldy Capulong, amid success at tific methods applied and imple- providing the correct investment deci- mented in the public service sec- sions through scientific methods, still tor. emphasizes the important role of top management in successful project im- plementation. Angelo Ramon A. Tanchoco, con- sultant at ABS-CBN, dwelt on the made by Rizaldy Capulong, Exec- theoretical and practical parts of utive Vice President and Head of applying operations research in media services. His extensive dis- Celine Pialago of MMDA admits to the the Investments Sector for the difficulty of implementing well- Social Security System. In his cussion included various tech- thought out plans. work, he combines operations niques applicable to this industry. A fully-engaged audience listens to the plenary speaker as they get ready to ask their questions. 3 cont. on page 4 cont. from page 3 Paper presentations in two paral- lel sessions covered OR in Public Service and OR in Business Opti- mization. Both sessions had nu- merous attendees with papers be- longing to fields ranging from lo- gistics, risk management, invento- ry theory, finance, system dynam- ics, cooperative models, manufac- turing, quality management, to analytics. These papers highlight- ed efforts to incorporate opera- tions research in public service and business optimization, some Francis Miranda keeps OR profession- A. Tanchoco receives his Plaque of Ap- with proven results. als updated on technical trends and preciation from Board Member Vic Reventar. industry shifts. The last plenary speaker was Dr. of goal programming to support through the activities for the year Leorey Marquez, DOST Balik- decisions in optimizing the reset- and ended by inducting into mem- tlement of informal settler families bership those that were present, in Quezon City. The model he pre- sented was comprehensive and complete with in-depth analysis of possible alternatives. Many partici- pants were delighted to learn how Solver could be used to do goal programming in Excel. Finally, a technology update was given by Francis Z. Miranda spe- President Shella Mariscal inducts new cifically on digital trends in the re- members to ORSP. Balik-Scientist Leorey Marquez shows search industry. The update ex- how goal programming using Excel plained how the industry is shift- namely: Mariaangela Obviar, Ga- can easily be applied to help in the ing from digitized to being digital, briel Villareal and Leonard Cuento. resettlement of informal settler fami- from subscription-based solutions lies in Quezon City. to customized solutions, and the At the end of the conference, par- use of new technologies such as ticipants were given real-life in- Scientist and Senior Research Sci- Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and sights and perspectives from those entist with the Natural Hazards Augmented Reality, Chatbots, in the front-line of OR in the public Modelling Group at the Common- Blockchain, and more.