Bogdan Bichescu joined the faculty at the Haslam College of Business in 2006, attracted by a culture of applied research. “Being part of this department has helped focus my research on areas that are practically relevant and impact wide audiences,” he says. “It’s been an interesting journey.”

Originally from Romania, Bichescu studied management science and project management at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. After obtaining his graduate degree, he worked for the Romanian Copyright Office for a few years, designing information systems and using process automation and digitization to streamline business processes. “I realized that an ineffective process won’t necessarily become more efficient through automation, so I wanted to learn more about process improvement,” he says. “A business must understand how its processes relate to performance outcomes.”

Bichescu enrolled in the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a doctorate in operations management. Using his training, he has pursued research in a range of areas since coming to Haslam. “Working on practical, relevant problems is a great way to contribute to society,” he says. “For example, I started doing more work in healthcare, trying to understand how operations and process improvement can help healthcare providers advance patient outcomes and reduce costs.”

Recently, Bichescu co-authored a paper on how leveraging technologies such as RFID and EDI for asset tracking can help hospitals increase supply chain cost efficiency and quality of care. The paper was recently accepted by the Production and Operations Management journal. He’s also been conducting research on using traditional supply chain models to understand open-source software development.

In addition to research, Bichescu teaches operations management to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as an MSBA course focusing on how computer simulation modeling can be used to improve decision-making. The MSBA course partners with local companies to address real-world problems using analytics and simulation. Last spring, the students tackled an inventory management problem a manufacturer of surgical spine implants.

“They built computer simulation models using data the company shared with us and determined how many surgical kits would be needed,” Bichescu says. “At the end of the semester, they presented their findings to the company’s founders, and the feedback to students was very positive. This kind of experience helps students realize that analytics is not just an academic exercise – it’s relevant and meaningful in practice.”