Master Thesis

The Chair of Service Operations Management currently offers the following Master Thesis topics:

• Optimizing Omnichannel Retail Operations (PDF, 447 kB)
• Empirical Risk Minimization for Data-Driven Inventory Decisions: A Direct Loss Minimization Approach for the Newsvendor Problem (PDF, 2 MB)
• Smart Predict-Then-Optimize for the Newsvendor Problem: A Direct Loss Minimization Approach (PDF, 2 MB)
• Optimization Models in Politics and Elections (PDF, 440 kB)
• Assortment Optimization based on Choice Overload Effect (PDF, 412 kB)
• Assortment and Price Optimization under Context-Dependent Choice Models (PDF, 414 kB)
• Sustainable Mobility – Concepts, Models, Cases (PDF, 206 kB) (from January 2026)
• Towards Sustainable Skies: Innovations in Airline Operations for Environmental Conservation (PDF, 207 kB) (from January 2026)
• Estimation of Fuel Burn for Airline Planning (PDF, 263 kB) (from January 2026)
• Airport Operations – Overview, Selected Optimization Models and Applications (PDF, 200 kB) (from January 2026)
• Discrete Choice Model Estimation with Consumer Sequential Search (PDF, 219 kB)
• Performance of solution methods for assortment optimization problem under  consideration of product-related fixed cost (PDF, 183 kB)
• Performance of MNL and MMNL choice models in assortment optimization and product line selection (PDF, 218 kB)
• Assortment Optimization, Product Line Design and Price Optimization – Recent Advances and Selected Models
• Airline Schedule Development – Overview, Selected Optimization Models and Applications

At our chair, we also supervise master theses in joint co-operation with Optano, a company of the consulting firm A.T. Kearney, specialized in Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence. Current topics can be found here:  https://optano.com/abschlussarbeiten/. If you are interested, please get in touch with us.

Furthermore, you have the opportunity to make your own proposal for the Master Thesis. A proposed Master Thesis topic requires acceptance by our Chair. The proposed topic must have a clear link to our Research Topics.

We advise you to contact us at an early stage if you are planning to propose a Master Thesis topic. Please contact M.Sc. Niloufar Sadeghi and attach a description of the proposed topic. We will check the feasibility of the topic and inform you about the next steps.

• Designing Better Recommendations: Integrating Choice-Based Optimization and Recommender Systems (PDF, 191 kB)
• How can AI help in Managing Crowds and Traffic? (PDF, 191 kB)
• Choice-Based Product Quality and Service Design: Estimation and Optimization (PDF, 91 kB)
• Improving Service Operations and the Customer Experience with AI (PDF, 200 kB)
• Product Acquisition Management for Effective Remanufacturing (PDF, 192 kB)
• Towards a Circular Business Model through Remanufacturing (PDF, 200 kB)
• Air Cargo Revenue Management – State-of-the-Art Models and Practice Applications (PDF, 209 kB)
• Smart Charging for Electric Vehicles: An Innovative Charging and Pricing Model (PDF, 411 kB)
• How can AI help in Operations Management? (PDF, 209 kB)
• Sustainable Product Design Approaches for a Circular Economy – with Applications to the Case of Fairphon (PDF, 209 kB)
• Choice-Based Revenue Management with Consumer Heterogeneity: Estimation and Optimization (PDF, 122 kB)
• Revenue Management in Sports: Strategies, Challenges, and State-of-the-Art Analytics (PDF, 175 kB)
• Revenue Management – Recent Advances and Selected Models (PDF, 409 kB)
• Consideration Set Formation with Applications to Discrete Choice Models (PDF, 236 kB)
• Assortment and Price Optimization for New and Remanufactured Products (PDF, 107 kB)
• How can generative AI help to build and transform optimization models? A study on assortment optimization. (PDF, 296 kB)
• How costly is sustainability for a company with configurable prod- ucts? Analytical results from assortment optimization. (PDF, 248 kB)
• Do sales volume leaders have a market advantage? Estimation and optimization of a product portfolio considering network effect (PDF, 227 kB)
• Business Process Improvement through Analytics – a Review and Application to a Health Care Case (PDF, 164 kB)
• Process Optimization via Business Process Simulation during a Post-Merger Integration Project (PDF, 167 kB)
• Service Design in the Insurance Industry – On the Optimal Design of Term Life Insurance for Young People (PDF, 230 kB)
• Is It Worth the Wait? – A Conjoint Analysis to Evaluate Customer Willingness to Wait for Customization (PDF, 155 kB)
• At the Interface of Process Mining and Simulation (PDF, 92 kB)
• Integrated Models in the Airline Scheduling Process (PDF, 210 kB)
• Prescriptive Analytics for the Design of Experiential Services (PDF, 663 kB)
• Discrete Choice Model estimation for Intercontinental Travel (PDF, 230 kB)
• Experiential Service Design – Empirical Evidence (PDF, 661 kB)
• How Analytics can help in Improving the Service Delivery Process? (PDF, 281 kB)
• Measurement, Design, and Simulation of Responsive Service Processes (PDF, 254 kB)
• An Analysis of the Loan Application Process using Process Mining (PDF, 267 kB)
• Subproblems in Airline Crew Scheduling (PDF, 223 kB)
• What are the most important attributes when designing an Electric Toothbrush? (PDF, 210 kB)
• Personnel scheduling during pandemics (PDF, 228 kB)
• Discrete Choice Model estimation in the Airline industry (PDF, 211 kB)
• The Impact of Product Variety on Sales Performance: Evidence from an Online Publisher
• Integrated Crew Scheduling (PDF, 231 kB)
• Customer-oriented service design for online and mobile services (PDF, 231 kB)
• Offering self-services via app – on the balance between customer orientation, IT investments and operational benefits (PDF, 240 kB)
• Choice-based Airline Schedule Design (PDF, 232 kB)
• From Airline Revenue Management to Data-driven Dynamic Offer Management
• Predictive Analytics for Distribution Network Design at Bayer Crop Science (PDF, 660 kB) (based on INFORMS OR & Analytics Student Competition)
• Prescriptive Analytics for Distribution Network Design at Bayer Crop Science (PDF, 661 kB) (based on INFORMS OR & Analytics Student Competition)
• Simulation-based Analytics for Distribution Network Design at Bayer Crop Science (PDF, 660 kB) (based on INFORMS OR & Analytics Student Competition)
• Measuring Fit Between a Firm's Competitive Priorities and Process Capabilities (PDF, 239 kB)
• Assortment and Price Selection under the Mixed Multinomial Logit Model (PDF, 128 kB)
• Capacity Planning of Fitness Studio using Simulation (PDF, 349 kB)
• Estimating choice data for the itinerary choice of railway passengers
• Choice-based Airline Schedule Design
• Measuring Schedule Preferences – a Case study in Crew Scheduling
• Analysis of Alternative Objectives in Revenue Management
• Optimizing Long-Distance Bus Operations Integrating Both Customer and Company Perspective
• Measuring Schedule Preferences – A Case-Study in Higher Education
• A Rerouting Model for Railways in Case of Delays
• Analyzing Co-opetition in Service Clusters with Waiting-Area Entertainment using Simulation
• Hybrid Simulation Modeling of Healthcare Service Process Using AnyLogic: A Case Study of West Coast University Primary Care Center
• Solving Train Dispatching Problems via Benders Decomposition
• Revenue Management techniques in practice: A Survey of Railway Companies
• Creating Process Alternatives for Service Design
• Master Planning in Theory and Practice
• Conjoint Analysis With Experiential Attributes – What Role Does Virtual Reality Play?
• Analyzing Service Process at Vapiano with Queuing Theory and Simulation
• Rescheduling vs. Delay Management Models for Railways
• Measuring Capacities of Railway Networks
• Railway Schedule Design – Current State-of-the-Art and Extensions
• Green Product Design and Pricing in Fashion Retailing
• Simulating Service Processes – Taking Advantage of Discrete Event Simulation and Agent-Based Modelling with applications to healthcare service design
• Simulating Service Processes – Taking Advantage of Discrete Event Simulation and Agent-Based Modelling with applications to railway service design
• Passenger Railway Revenue Management in a Network
• Design of Hybrid Product-Service Bundles with Applications to Industrial Services (in cooperation with Freudenberg)
• Simulation and Analysis of the German Procedures for Processing Applications for Asylum with ARENA
• Skill-based project scheduling with application to new product development projects
• Strategic Network Planning at Dell – Going West in China (in cooperation with Dell)
• The Effect of Revenue Management in a Make-to-Order Production Environment on Order Acceptance and Due Date Quotation
• Passenger Railway Revenue Management – Current State-of-the-Art and Extensions (in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn)
• Green Product Design and Pricing (in cooperation with Dell)
• Revenue Management for Print Ads (in cooperation with Burda)
• Green Product Design and Pricing in the Food Industry
• Planned Obsolescence – Critical Review and Servicing Opportunities

Overview:

A process overview with relevant information regarding the Master Thesis can be downloaded here (PDF, 236 kB).

Prerequisites:

In order to write a Master Thesis at our Chair of Service Operations Management, you must have succesfully completed a Seminar Thesis. The Area Operations Management recommends to write the Seminar and the Master Thesis at the same Chair (OPM 781 – Research Seminar in Service Operations Management). However, we accept Seminars from all chairs of the Area Operations Management (OPM 701, 741, 761, 781).

During your Master Thesis, we expect you to participate in Master-Kolloquium (OPM 782).

Please note that after a succesful completion of the Master Thesis, there may be a possibility of extending the topic to a Doctoral Thesis.

Application:

Please apply for a Master Thesis only at one chair within the Area Operations Management. 

Please send your full application (single PDF file) to the office assistance. The application should contain the following documents:

• Short motivation (incl. preferred start date)
• Preferred topic (incl. topic description in case of own proposal)
• Current Transcript of Records
• Bachelor Certificate
• CV (optional)

In case of questions regarding the Master Thesis, please contact M.Sc. Niloufar Sadeghi.

A MS Word template for the Master Thesis can be found here (DOCX, 185 kB).

A LaTex template for the Master Thesis can be found here.

The exposé guide can be found here (PDF, 221 kB).