Faculty Directory
Contact Information
Office:
Washburn Shops, 301
Phone: +1-508-831-5467
Fax: +1-508-831-5720
jzhu@wpi.edu
Joe Zhu
- Professor, School of Business
- Affiliated with:
Professor Zhu is an expert in methods of performance measurement, and his research interests are in the areas of operations and productivity, and performance evaluation and benchmarking.
The Industrial Engineer magazine spotlighted research, conducted by Professor Zhu and his collaborators, in which they developed an optimization methodology for measuring efficiency of multistage networks such as supply chains, where certain outputs from the process feed back into the system (e.g., empty bottle returns).
This efficiency-measurement tool can provide manufacturers with the ability to evaluate the performance of the supply chain and reverse supply chain, and thereby identify where improvements in the process can be undertaken. The research was partially motivated by the need for tools that will allow companies to become more cost competitive, to reduce waste going to landfill sites, and to be perceived as being responsible businesses. The research was also motivated by issues related to highway resurfacing; for many years, asphalt removed from roadways in the repair process was simply stockpiled, which created an environmental hazard. But as technologies for reusing discarded asphalt have become commonplace, the need has arisen for efficiency measurement methods to determine best feedback practices.
Professor Zhu has published and co-edited seven books on performance evaluation and benchmarking using data envelopment analysis (DEA). He also developed the DEAFrontier software used in this analysis. He is recognized as one of the top 12 authors of DEA-related articles and is among the top 10 authors in DEA with respect to h-index and g-index.
Professor Zhu has published more than 80 articles in publications such as Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Operational Research Society, IIE Transactions, Annals of Operations Research, OMEGA, Computers and Operations Research, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Naval Research Logistics, and Management Science. He is co-editor of the Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis (2nd edition), published by Springer.
Research Interests
- Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking
- Sustainable Design and Performance
- Service Operations
- Data Envelopment Analysis
Education
-
PhD, Industrial Engineering
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1998
Featured Publications
- Zhu, Joe, Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking: Data Envelopment Analysis with Spreadsheets. 2nd edition. Springer Science, Boston. 2009
- Liang, L., Wu, J., Cook, W.D. and Zhu, Joe, The DEA game cross efficiency model and its Nash equilibrium, Operations Research, 56 (2008), 1278-1288.
- Cook, W.D. and Zhu, Joe, Context-dependent assurance regions in DEA, Operations Research, Vol. 56, No. 1 (2008), 69-78.
- Cook, W.D. and Zhu, Joe, Incorporating multi-process performance standards into the DEA framework, Operations Research, Vol. 54, No. 4 (2006), 656-665.
- Zhu, Joe, Imprecise DEA via standard linear DEA models with a revisit to a Korean mobile telecommunication company, Operations Research, Vol. 52, No. 2 (2004), 323-329.
Professional Highlights
- William Evans Visiting Fellow, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellow, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Japan
- Area Editor, OMEGA journal
- Associate Editor, INFOR
- Editorial Board Member, Computers & Operations Research
