Tarkan Tan is a full professor of the Chair of Sustainable Operations Management at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Zurich since September 2022. Prior to that, he worked at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and also taught at the Executive Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management program of TIAS Business School in Tilburg. He received his Ph.D. from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. He spent one year at Columbia University, New York, as a Fulbright scholar, and he has spent academic terms at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Sydney Business School as a visiting scholar. He served as the director of the Operations Management and Logistics (OML) MSc program of TU/e and as an executive board member of the European Supply Chain Forum. Prof. Tan has served as guest and associate editor for some journals in his field and currently serves as an associate editor for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management journal. His research interests include inventory theory, capacity management, spare parts management, and supply chain management with a particular focus on sustainability. Prof. Tan has been collaborating intensively with the industry mainly through his students and postdoctoral research fellows, and has acquired funds for several projects with the industry. He has published articles in academic journals such as Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, IISE Transactions, and Transportation Science, and co-edited a book entitled “Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-based Textbook on Operations and Strategy”.

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Publications

A hidden anchor: The influence of service levels on demand forecasts

Fahimnia, B., Arvan, M., Tan, T., & Siemsen, E. (2022). A hidden anchor: The influence of service levels on demand forecasts. Journal of Operations Management.

Carbon Leakage: The Impact of Asymmetric Regulation on Carbon-Emitting Production

Huang, X., Tan, T. & Toktay, L. B., 1 Jun 2021, In: Production and Operations Management. 30, 6, p. 1886-1903 18 p.

Inventory control in a spare parts distribution system with emergency stocks and pipeline information

Howard, C., Marklund, J., Tan, T. & Reijnen, I. C., 19 Feb 2015, In: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. 17, 2, p. 142-156

Inventory control with multiple setup costs

Alp, O., Huh, W. T. & Tan, T., 2014, In: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. 16, 1, p. 89-103 15 p.

Switching transport modes to meet voluntary carbon emission targets

Hoen, K. M. R., Tan, T., Fransoo, J. C. & Houtum, van, G. J. J. A. N., 2014, In: Transportation Science. 48, 4, p. 592-608 17 p.

Double-counting in supply chain carbon footprinting

Caro, F., Corbett, C. J., Tan, T. & Zuidwijk, R. A., 2013, In: Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. 15, 4, p. 545-558 14 p. 

• IISE Transactions 2019 Design & Manufacturing Best Paper Award
  Topan, Engin (Recipient), Tan, Tarkan (Recipient), van Houtum, Geert-Jan J.A.N. (Recipient) & Dekker, Rommert (Recipient), 18 May 2019

• Best Lecturer in Operations Management and Logistics MSc program
  Tan, Tarkan (Recipient), 2012

• Best Lecturer in Operations Management and Logistics MSc program
  Tan, Tarkan (Recipient), 2009

• Fulbright Scholarship for Ph.D. studies at Columbia Business School
  Tan, Tarkan (Recipient), 1996
   

• Co-applicant of the project funded by NWO (MVI top-up), €390,000, “Sustainable design of multi-scale CO2 electrochemical conversion”, Project leader: Mar Pérez-Fortes, 2021-2025.
   
• Main applicant and project leader of the project funded by NWO (Accelerator 2020), €120,000, “Lower-Tier Supplier Sustainability Improvement Framework”, 2021-2022.
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by KNAW, €10,000, “Accelerating the energy and mobility transition”, Project leader: Heleen de Conick, 2021.
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by NWO (partnering with Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Topsector Logistics, and TKI-Dinalog), €480,800, “Circular Business Model Maturation in Logistics”, Project leader: Pascal Ravesteijn, 2020-2021. Recipient of the “Inspiration Prize 2022” awarded by KennisDC Logistiek Center of Expertise. 
   
• Main applicant of the PhD project funded by Eindhoven University of Technology, “Collaboration for supply chain sustainability”, 2019-2023.
   
• Main applicant and project leader of the project funded by Top Knowledge Institute - Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (TKI-Dinalog) -a collaboration between Dinalog, NWO, and TNO-, €600,000, “Supplier Sustainability Improvement”, 2018-2020.
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by Top Knowledge Institute - Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (TKI-Dinalog), €1,000,000, “Integrated Maintenance and Service Logistics Concepts for Maritime Assets: Bridge”, Project leader: Jan Willem Rustenburg, 2017-2018.
   
• Co-applicant of the PhD project funded by the European Supply Chain Forum and Eindhoven University of Technology, “Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Waste Management”, Main applicant: Dr. Shaunak Dabadghao, 2017-2021.
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (Dinalog), €1,000,000, “Integrated Maintenance and Service Logistics Concepts for Maritime Assets”, Project leader: Jan Willem Rustenburg, 2013-2016. 
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (Dinalog), €1,000,000, “Proactive Service Logistics for Advanced Capital Goods”, Project leader: Prof. Geert-Jan van Houtum, 2010-2014.
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), €800,000, 2013-2016, “Service Logistics for Advanced Capital Goods”, Main applicant: Prof. Geert-Jan van Houtum. 
   
• Co-applicant of the project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK, £50,000, 10/2007 - 06/2008 EP/F012632/1, “Forecasting and Inventory Management: Bridging the Gap”, Main applicants: Dr. Aris A. Syntetos and Prof. John E. Boylan.
   
• Nominated for the “Best Master’s Program Lecturer” of Eindhoven University of Technology in 2013 (only one lecturer per faculty is nominated) with honorable mention.
   
• Nominated for the “Best OPAC lecturer” by “Industria”, the organization of the Industrial Engineering students of TU/e in 2020.
   
• Nominated for the “Best OPAC lecturer in Industrial Engineering BSc program” by “Industria”, the organization of the Industrial Engineering students of TU/e in 2019.
   
• Nominated for the “Best Lecturer in Operations Management and Logistics MSc program” by “Industria”, the organization of the Industrial Engineering students of TU/e in 2018, 2015, 2012, 2011, and 2009.
   
• Nominated for the “Best Lecturer in post-propaedeutic education in the school of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences” by “Industria”, the organization of the Industrial Engineering students of TU/e in 2011.
   
• “Student Recycling Award” runner up at the Recycling Symposium organized by BRBS Recycling, ENVAQUA, and VERAS for the master’s thesis of Sifa van Zutphen entitled “Managing the reverse supply chain by outsourcing reconditioning activities to a Repair Captain”, supervised by T. Tan and S. Rohmer, 2021. 
   
• “The European Supply Chain Forum Student Award” nomination for the master’s thesis of Mert Kayhan entitled “Analysis of suppliers' sustainability learning behavior”, supervised by T. Tan, 2021. 
   
• “The European Supply Chain Forum Student Award” nomination for the master’s thesis of Nadine van Diën entitled “Identifying the regulatory barriers incross-border transportation and how they can be considered in decision making to improve the planning of circular activities of small healthcare equipment”, supervised by T. Tan, 2022. 
   
• “Innovation and Research” award for the thesis of Bram Westerweel entitled “A total cost of ownership analysis based on a physical degradation model for corrosion of steel vessels”, supervised by T. Tan, awarded by Dutch Institute for World Class Maintenance in 2015. The same thesis has also received the “Best Master's Thesis” award by Service Logistics Forum in 2015. 
   
• “Innovation and Research” award for the thesis of Wouter Fleuren entitled “A Condition Based Maintenance method based on indirect condition information”, supervised by T. Tan, awarded by Dutch Institute for World Class Maintenance in 2013. The same thesis is also nominated for TU/e academic annual award to represent the Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences department by the dean of the department, and for the “Best Master's Thesis” award of the Service Logistics Forum in 2013. 
   
• Runner up of the “Best Master's Thesis” award for the thesis of Jacky van de Griendt entitled “Integrated Global Warehouse Planning Concept for Spare Parts and Components that Incorporates the Repair and New Production Flow”, supervised by T. Tan, awarded by Service Logistics Forum in 2016. 
   
• “Best Master's Thesis” award for the thesis of Rutger Vlasblom entitled “Steering lifecycle cost in the early design phase”, supervised by T. Tan, awarded by Service Logistics Forum in 2010. 
   
• “Best Bachelor's Thesis” award for the thesis of Christianne Wisse entitled “Analyzing the Spare Parts Supply Chain of Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding”, supervised by T. Tan, awarded by Service Logistics Forum in 2015. 
   
• Haci Ömer Sabanci Scholarship during undergraduate studies at METU. 
   
• Asama Yayinlari award for ranking 54th in the national central placement exam for universities in Turkey in 1989, among approximately 1,000,000 applicants. 
   
• First Prize at METU Intellect Competition. 
   
• A number of TÜBITAK (The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey) awards in elementary sciences at high school.