IISE Lean Systems Track Best Student Paper Competition presented by the Operational Excellence (OpEx) Division

This competition is held to honor outstanding papers in the field of lean research and practices. The papers should demonstrate or describe the use of techniques such as simulation, lean principle implementation, alternative designs, kaizen implementation, etc. Both undergraduate and graduate students and design teams are invited to submit papers. The award will be given each year at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo, if there is a suitable recipient.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The applicant (first author) MUST be a full time undergraduate or graduate level student at the time of submission
  • Research must have been conducted while the applicant was a student and the paper must present original results.
  • The paper must not have won or been considered for an award in another competition.

Application/Submission Guidelines

  • All student papers submitted to the Lean Systems track will automatically be considered for this award.
  • To be considered for the award review process, the paper MUST be accepted for publication in the annual conference proceedings, and publication requirements MUST be met.
  • Authors will be asked to sign an ethics statement stating they are full time students and the research and writing are their own work.
  • The paper may have co-authors that are not students. But the first author and the presenter MUST be the student. Although the paper may have faculty authors, it must be predominantly the work of a student or student team. A FORMAL STATEMENT by the student's advisor must be submitted to the committee via email affirming that the majority of the original results presented in the paper are due to the student's efforts.

Important Dates (Deadlines)

  • Abstract submissions are due November 17, 2024
  • Abstract decisions will be made by December 15, 2024
  • Full paper submissions are due February 9, 2025
  • Notification on full paper decisions are due March 9, 2025
  • Winners/Finalists will be notified by March 15, 2025
  • Speaker registration deadline:  March 23, 2025
  • Paper final revision submission deadline:  March 31, 2025

Recognition

  • Recognition at the OpEx Town Hall Meeting at Annual Conference
  • Certificate provided by IISE (either mailed or given at the town hall meeting) for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners.
  • Recognition in ISE magazine
  • Recognition on OpEx webpage and in the newsletter

Committee Chairs

Please contact Bill Edwards with any questions or concerns you may have.

Conflict of Interest Policy

  • Societies and divisions must follow standard conflict of interest guidelines. Those guidelines include, but are not limited to:
  • Officers and Board members of the S/D should be ineligible for awards during the period of their service, without approval by the Senior VP for Technical Operations (SVP). Exceptions may only be made by the SVP when awards are time sensitive (i.e., a Student Best Paper Award for a Student Board Member, when the student is graduating), and the impacted board member(s) or officer(s) must recuse themselves from the award process. For awards that are not time-sensitive, the nominee should wait until their Officer or Board service is complete to be nominated.
  • The awards committee (or judging committee) should not include members who have either a personal or professional relationship with the nominees. For example, a faculty member should not be judging a paper competition where a student from the same university is a nominee for best student paper award.
  • The awards committee (or judging committee) should actively change its membership on a rotating basis from year to year to ensure fairness, equity, and diversity. That is, some members of the judging committee should roll off the committee and new members should roll on.

2024 Winners

1st Place
Hazel Caparas
Bulcan State University
"A Production System Analysis to Reduce the Cost of Non- Conformity in a Paper Bag Process using Six Sigma DMAIC Methodology"

2nd Place
Shaiel Enid Suárez De Jesús, Coralys Nicole Concepción Muñoz, Liany Marie Crespo Gómez, José Enrique Ortiz Adames, and Yesenia Cruz Cantillo
Universidad Ana G. Méndez
"Applying DMAIC for Cost Savings at Molding Area"

Past Winners

Operational Excellence Division page