Anne Geisbuesch: "Beyond Intuition: Analyzing Planners’ Decision Paths in Supply Chains"

This PhD project explores how supply chain planners influence cost, customer service, and CO₂ emissions through their operational decisions. Despite the rising importance of sustainability, CO₂ is often not systematically considered in day-to-day planning. By collaborating with a multinational chemical company, the project aims to uncover how planners actually make decisions—developing real-world decision trees to visualize the available options, underlying logic, and trade-offs. The goal is to bring structure to intuition: mapping the decision space, identifying typical patterns, and analyzing their impact on emissions, cost, and service. This work lays the foundation for creating smarter, greener supply chains—supporting planners in making better-informed decisions without compromising business performance.

Anne Geisbüsch began her PhD program at Kühne Logistics University in January 2025, supervised by Prof. Dr. Kai Hoberg. Her research explores the role of data analytics in supply chains, with a particular focus on addressing contemporary sustainability challenges. This work is conducted in collaboration with Evonik, a German specialty chemicals company headquartered in Essen.
Anne holds a Master of Science in Business Analytics from BI Norwegian Business School, where she specialized in supply chain analytics, optimization modeling, and artificial intelligence. She also completed a bachelor's degree in International Management at Hochschule Augsburg, focusing on supply chain management and organizational studies.
With over three years of work experience as a business analyst and project manager at companies like Capgemini and Cognite, Anne developed a passion for connecting data with real-world impact. Working with unstructured, siloed data taught her the complexities of making industrial data truly usable for any kind of solutions. She is driven by the belief that combining theoretical exploration with practical application can lead to innovative and sustainable solutions for real-world challenges.