The United Nations predicts that by 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in cities, compared to 55% today. This demographic shift towards urban areas, coupled with the growth of e-commerce, presents significant challenges for retail and logistics companies to effectively and efficiently deliver goods to urban consumers.
Stanley Lim is an associate professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management, founder and co-director of the Broad Food Access & Supply Chain Technology (FAST) lab, and a faculty affiliate with the Evolution and Future of Work Research Initiative at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Cambridge, a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.B.A. from Warwick Business School. Stanley’s research addresses operational challenges in downstream, or so-called “last-mile,” supply chains. By adopting a cross-domain perspective that integrates operations management, marketing, and economics with customer behavior analytics, his goal is to advance both the theory and practice of retail logistics. He provides organizations with actionable insights on how to distribute their products and services to end consumers efficiently, under various conditions. Recognized for his data-driven, interdisciplinary approach and strong grounding in real-world applications, Stanley’s work has been honored as a finalist for the INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize and as a semi-finalist for the INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award.
His research contributes to the understanding of the economics of distribution services in both digital and nondigital retail. This encompasses the four core services, or the “four A’s,” that retailers provide to reduce consumers’ search and transaction costs: (1) accessibility of product and information, (2) availability of product and information, (3) assurance of product delivery, and (4) assortment planning. Current areas of application include local package delivery, retail operations, and food waste reduction. He regularly provides expert commentary on these topics for major media outlets, including Fox News, the Associated Press, NBCUniversal, The Detroit News, and Detroit Free Press.
Based on this research agenda, Stanley (and co-authors) has developed analytical models for store network and facility location design, service zoning, workload and job assignments, and new service policies. These include, for example, models to predict failed delivery attempts and incorporating the predictions in routing, estimate the opportunity cost of product stockouts for inventory planning, determine the optimal return window for consumer return policies, and evaluate spatial competition to guide store market area design. Additionally, he has explored the impact of contract terms on the bargaining power and economic outcomes of retailers and suppliers, the relationship between drivers’ workload and delivery performance, the influence of subscription models on consumer behaviors, and consumers’ sensitivities to lead times and their product return behaviors across digital and nondigital channels.
As part of his research efforts, he has collaborated with a wide range of companies from around the world, including Meijer, Ninja Van, Last Mile Food Rescue, Imperfect Foods, Jerome’s Furniture, PostTag, Amazon U.K., Tesco, Ocado, Alliance Boots, Argos, and Unilever, among others. Stanley has held visiting appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, and Singapore Management University, and has been an affiliate member of the MIT Megacity Logistics Lab. He also serves as a Charter Mentor for Branchfood, the largest community of food entrepreneurs and innovators in New England.
Stanley’s Ph.D. dissertation was awarded the 2018 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in the Operations & Production Management category and the 2019 James Cooper Memorial Cup by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s (CILT). His research has received multiple best paper and finalist honors, including:
- Finalist, POMS College of Service Operations Best Student Paper (by a student co-author), 2025 POMS Annual Conference
- Semi-Finalist, Innovative Applications in Analytics Award, 2025 INFORMS
- Finalist, INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research, 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Runner-Up, Transportation Science & Logistics Society Best Paper, 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Finalist (Honorable Mention), Behavioral Operations Management Section Best Working Paper, 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Second Place, Service Science Section Best Student Paper (by a student co-author), 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Nominee for Case Centre Case Competition in the Outstanding Case Writer Category and EFMD Case Writing Competition in the Women in Business category, 2024/25
- Winner, Best Student Paper (by a student co-author), 2022 DSI Annual Conference
- Finalist, Chris Voss Best Paper, 2020 EurOMA Conference
- Finalist, Service Science Section Best Cluster Paper, 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Winner, Best Applications-Oriented Paper, 2019 Annual EDSI Conference
- Highly Commended Paper (Runner-up for Outstanding Paper of the Year), 2018 IJOPM
- Winner, Chris Voss Best Paper, 2018 EurOMA Conference
- Runner-up (Highly Commended Paper), 2018 Emerald Awards Literati Outstanding Paper of the Year
- Meritorious Paper (Industrial Logistics category), awarded by CILT in 2018
- Winner, Harry Boer Best Student Paper, 2016 EurOMA Conference
- Highly Commended Paper, Best Paper, 2015 International Symposium on Logistics
He is named to the 2025 Poets and Quants’ 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors honor roll, and is a recipient of the 2025 Carol J. Latta Memorial Early Career Research Award by the Decision Sciences Institute, the 2025 POMS College of Service Operations Emerging Scholar Award by the Production and Operations Management Society, and the 2020 Paul R. Lawrence Fellowship, competitively awarded by the North American Case Research Association and Case Research Foundation. Stanley’s research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the MSU Climate Change Research Support Program, CILT’s Henry Spurrier Scholarships (Top Award in 2016 and 2018), and the You Poh Seng Research Grant competitively awarded by the Singapore University of Social Sciences. He has also contributed to projects funded by the U.K. Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council.
His research appears in Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review. Stanley serves as an associate editor for a special issue on responsible retail operations at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. He also serves as an associate editor at Service Science and Decision Sciences journal and as a senior editor at Journal of Business Logistics. He has previously co-edited a special issue on innovations, technologies, and the economics of last-mile operations, and served as an associate editor for a special issue on omni-channel retailing and as an associate editor at Journal of Operations Management. Stanley reviews for leading journals, including Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Decision Sciences Journal, Naval Research Logistics, Service Science, and IISE Transactions. For his reviewing activities, he has received reviewer awards, including the 2024 Decision Sciences Journal Best Reviewer Award, 2023 Management Science Distinguished Service Award, 2024 and 2023 M&SOM Meritorious Service Award, and the 2025 and 2022 Academy of Management’s Operations and Supply Chain Management Division Outstanding Reviewer Award. Stanley regularly chairs sessions on empirical retail operations and economics of retail distribution services at the INFORMS and POMS annual conferences. He has also co-chaired research tracks at leading international conferences. He is President of the POMS College of Supply Chain Management.
Additional Background
Prior to academia, Stanley spent several years as an officer in the Singapore Guards, an elite Infantry formation specializing in rapid deployment, heliborne and amphibious operations, maneuver warfare and urban combat. He then went on to assume roles as Intelligence Analyst, Lead Engineer and Logistics Planner, Technical Consultant with expertise in wireless and satellite communication and IT, and eventually rising to become Head Engineering and Operations Group in the Department of Defense. He has received several awards and medals for distinguished performance during his service. He has professional experience in project management, system life-cycle management, and the application of lean six sigma techniques.
Stanley holds a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Cambridge and three master’s degrees: an M.C.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.Sc. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the National University of Singapore, and an M.B.A. (with Distinction) from Warwick Business School. His M.B.A. dissertation on the three-dimensional vehicle routing problem in urban city logistics was recognized with the Certificate of Excellence. He also holds a B.Eng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) with First Class Honors, and was named to the Dean’s List for three consecutive years. His final-year thesis, which developed novel algorithms for a next generation virtual bass system using psychometric signal processing techniques, received the Distinction Award. For his outstanding academic and co-curricular achievements, he was awarded the EEE Excellence Award. Outside of academia, Stanley is a Gold Award recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
In his free time, Stanley loves to run and enjoys photography.
Professional Qualifications
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- IASSC Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (ICGB)
- ITILv3 Foundation Certificate in Service Management
- Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
- VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
- Certified Cloud Computing Specialist (CCCS)
stanley-lim.com 