Vincent Wiers writes about the lack of empirical research in logistics; research based on actual data. "Many articles in the top journals are rather unworldly and will never find application in practice."
On Linkedin, I recently started a discussion about the gap between theory and reality in logistics. Scientific research largely takes place under the headings of Operations Research or Management, and Management Science. The research is strongly quantitative in orientation, usually reasoning from a model suggesting an application in practice. In other words, a normative and model-driven approach.
Little focus on empirical data
Now, such an approach is sometimes very useful, but there needs to be a balance with research that is driven by empiricism - i.e. reality. And I don't mean simulation on a computer. The 'annoying' thing about empirical data, however, is that it doesn't do what the researcher wants. It takes a long time to collect good data, and to develop a model that can do something with that data. Since scientists in this zeitgeist are judged hard on the number of publications in top journals, it is understandable that empirical research gets less attention. But this means, the gap between theory and practice will remain for a long time. Many articles in the top journals are rather other-worldly and will never find application, because the models assume huge simplifications.
Exceptions
Fortunately, there are also exceptions. I see researchers working in my immediate environment who manage to combine mathematical modelling with practical relevance. But there are still far too few of them, and studies on change processes in logistics are even rarer. Now, not all research has to be practically directly relevant, but the distribution is now very skewed. The pure pursuit of numbers of publications should no longer be leading - a university should also have its own vision of what kind of publications those should be. And scientists writing about logistics processes should have spent at least a few years in practice.
Vincent Wiers - expert planning & scheduling
