• Department of English

    • Dr MA Hoi Lam, Helen （馬凱琳博士）
    PhD (PolyU)
    BEng (PolyU)

    Associate Head and Associate Professor
    Programme Director of BBA-SCM Programme
    Department of Supply Chain and Information Management

    Tel : (852) 3963 5571


    Dr MA Hoi Lam, Helen received her BEng from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and her PhD in Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the same department. She then worked in the department as a postdoctoral fellow for a few years and as a part-time lecturer in the Division of Business at Community College of City University.

    Dr Ma’s research interests are mainly in airline operations, big data, machine learning, transportation networks, supply chain management, terminal operations, and scheduling optimization. She has been the principal investigator of about 6 research projects and published over 30 papers in leading high-impact journal papers, including Risk Analysis, Transportation Research Part E, Transportation Research Part B, Transportation Research Part C, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Annals of Operations Research, etc. Among which, one of the publications titled “Cascading Delay Risk of Airline Workforce Deployments with Crew-Pairing and Schedule Optimization” was selected by the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) for publication as the media-attention effort of the month, ranked as one of the recent top papers published in Risk Analysis, and ranked top 0.1% journal papers in Altmetric. She also serves as a reviewer for many prominent international journals, including IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, Transportation Research Part E, etc.

    Dr Ma has actively participated in a variety of research and industrial projects and has worked closely with some companies, including Cathay Pacific (CX), China Aircraft Services Ltd (CASL), and Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd. (HAESL).

    Dr Ma has extensive teaching experience. Subjects cover many areas, such as fleet and flight management, airline crew scheduling, logistics information management, database design, ERP, data mining, web platform development, e-business applications, workflow analysis, process re-engineering, simulations, operation management, management sciences, etc.

    PublicationsBook ChaptersReportsGrantsProfessional ServicesAwards
    TopPublications
    • Y. He, H.L. Ma and S.H. Chung, 2026. Deadlock-Free Integrated Flexible Job Shop and Multiple Robots Scheduling Problems. European Journal of Operational Research, accepted.
    • X. Chan, L. Feng, X. Sun, H.L. Ma and X. Wen, 2026. Mass balance or book and claim? Capacity allocation of sustainable aviation fuel among competing airlines. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 210, 105039.
    • T. Wangs, H.L. Ma and X. Wen, 2026. Improving Fairness in Airline Integrated Crew Scheduling-Colleague Familiarity and Team Experience Distribution Considerations. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, accepted.
    • C. Huang, H.L. Ma, X. Wen, S.M. Wu and S.H. Chung, 2026. Deposit Financing for Capital-Constrained Electric Vehicle Manufacturer in the Presence of Default Risk and Information Asymmetry. International Journal of Production Economics, 110065.
    • Y. Li, S. Zhou, H.L. Ma and X. Wen. 2026. An Exact Algorithm for the Airport Shuttle Service Vehicle Scheduling Problem With Flight Schedule Coordination. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
    • P. Ding, S.Q. Liu, R. Chiong, S. Dhakal, D. Chen, D. Li, H.L. Ma and S.H. Chung, 2026. A review of digital twins in smart industries: Concepts, milestones, trends, applications, opportunities and challenges. Computers in Industry, 174, 104398.
    • H.L. Ma, Y. Sun, D.Y. Mo and Y. Wang, 2025. Impact of passenger unused baggage capacity on air cargo delivery.  Annals of Operations Research, 348 (2), 1069-1085.
    • L. Tang, H.L. Ma, X. Wen and Y. Li, 2025. Mathematical formulations and an adaptive large neighbourhood search method for the single movable machine scheduling and location problem. International Journal of Production Research, 63 (23), 9408-9441.
    • B. Ren, Y. Li, X. Wen and H.L. Ma, 2025. The offshore mobile charging vessel location and electric vessels charging scheduling problem. Ocean Engineering, 339, 122181.
    • X. Wen, H.L. Ma, Y. Li and Y. He, 2025. Do costs and team-building conflict in airline crew scheduling? An individual crew pairing approach. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 202, 104329.
    • S.H. Chung, Q. Zhang, H.L. Ma and Y. Sun, 2025. Combat to utilize unused baggage space for air cargo transportation: Importance of synchronizing human and autonomous delivery vehicles. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 202, 104289.
    • S.H. Chung, Q. Zhang, H.L. Ma, X. Wen and Y. Sun, 2025. Impacts of Heterogeneous Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) on Smart Manufacturing. International Journal of Production Economics, 109759.
    • X. Sun, X. Zhao, S.H. Chung and H.L. Ma, 2025. An interactive decision making framework design for the outsourcing cooperation between the service provider and the airline: An exact bilevel method. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 199, 104148.
    • Q. Zhang, X. Zhang, H.L. Ma, X. Sun, H.K. Chan and S.H. Chung, 2025. Synergy of airline and maintenance service provider in aircraft maintenance routing. Transport Policy, 166, 32-49.
    • X. Wen, T.M. Choi, H.L. Ma and X. Sun, 2025. Advances of operations research in air transportation in the intelligence age. Journal of Air Transport Management, 122, 102691.
    • X. Wen, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and W.A. Khan, 2024. Airline crew scheduling with sustainability enhancement by data analytics under circular economy. Annals of Operations Research, 342 (1), 959-985.
    • C. Huang, S.M. Wu, H.L. Ma and S.H. Chung, 2024. Sourcing from supplier in the presence of financial service providers’ information asymmetry and quit probabilities, Industrial Management & Data Systems, 124(6), 2120-2150
    • Q.Zhang, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and X. Sun, 2024. Robust aircraft maintenance routing with heterogenous aircraft maintenance tasks. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 160, 104518.
    • Y. He, H.L. Ma, W.Y. Park, S.Q. Liu and S.H. Chung, 2023. Maximizing robustness of aircraft routing with heterogeneous maintenance tasks. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 177, 103237.
    • X. Wen, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and Waqar Ahmed Khan, 2023. Airline crew scheduling with sustainability enhancement by data analytics under circular economy. Annals of Operations Research, 1-27.
    • Li Hu, H.L. Ma, Li Wang and Yang Liu, 2023. Hiding or disclosing? Information discrimination in member-only discounts. Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review, 171, 103026.
    • X. Wen, X. Sun, H.L. Ma and Y. Sun, 2022. A column generation approach for operational flight scheduling and aircraft maintenance routing. Journal of Air Transport Management, 105, 102270.
    • Y. Wang, D.Y. Mo and H.L. Ma, 2022. Perception of time in the online product customization process. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 123(2), 369-385.
    • X. Wen, Y. Sun, H.L. Ma and S.H. Chung, 2022. Green smart manufacturing: energy-efficient robotic job shop scheduling models. International Journal of Production Research, 61(17), 5791-5805.
    • H.L. Ma, Y. Sun, S.H. Chung and H.K. Chan, 2022. Tackling uncertainties in aircraft maintenance routing: A review of emerging technologies”. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 164, 102805.
    • H.L. Ma, L. Leung, S.H. Chung and W.H. Wong, 2022. Insurance Incentive to Importers by a Container Port: Issues of Risk Management in Supply Chain Finance. Annals of Operations Research, accepted.
    • W.A. Khan, H.L. Ma, S.H. Chung, X. Wen, 2021. Hierarchical integrated machine learning model for predicting flight departure delays and duration in series. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 129, 103225.
    • Y. Sun, S.H. Chung, X. Wen, H.L. Ma, 2021. Novel robotic job-shop scheduling models with deadlock and robot movement considerations. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 149, 102273.
    • W.A. Khan, H.L. Ma, X. Ouyang, D.Y. Mo, 2020. Aircraft trajectory prediction and associated fuel consumption using covariance bidirectional extreme learning machine. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 145, 102189.
    • X. Wen, H.L. Ma, S.H. Chung, W.A. Khan, 2020. Robust airline crew scheduling with flight flying time variability. Transportation Research Part E – Logistics and Transportation Review, 144, 102132.
    • Y. Qin, H.L. Ma, F.T.S. Chan, W.A. Khan, 2020. A scenario-based stochastic programming approach for aircraft expendable and rotable spare parts planning in MRO provider. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 120(9), 1635-1657.
    • Z. Wang, W.A. Khan, H.L. Ma and X. Wen, 2020. Cascade neural network algorithm with analytical connection weights determination for modelling operations and energy applications, International Journal of Production Research, 1-18.
    • X. Sun, S.H. Chung, T.M. Choi, J.B. Sheu and H.L. Ma, 2020. Combating lead-time uncertainty in global supply chain’s shipment-assignment: Is it wise to be risk-averse? Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 138, 406-434.
    • S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma, T.M. Choi and M. Hansen, 2020. Data Science and Analytics in Aviation. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 134, 101837.
    • X. Sun, S.H. Chung and H.L. Ma, 2020. Operational Risk in Airline Crew Scheduling: Do Features of Flight Delays Matter? Decision Sciences, published online.
    • H.L. Ma, W.H. Wong, L. Leung and S.H. Chung, 2020. Facility Sharing in Business-to-business Model: A Real Case Study for Container Terminal Operators in Hong Kong Port. International Journal of Production Economics, 221, 107883.
    • W.A. Khan, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma, S.Q. Liu and C.Y. Chan, 2019. A novel self-organizing constructive neural network for estimating aircraft trip fuel consumption. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 132, 72-96.
    • A.E.E. Eltoukhy, Z. Wang, F.T.S. Chan, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and X.P. Wang, 2019. Robust Aircraft Maintenance Routing Problem Using a Turn-around Time Reduction Approach. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, 1-14.
    • X. Wen, H.L. Ma, T.M. Choi, and J.B. Sheu, 2019. Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative on the China-Europe trading route selections. Transportation Research Part E – Logistics and Transportation Review, 122, 581-604.
    • H.L. Ma, Z.X. Wang, S.H. Chung and F.T.S. Chan, 2019. The Impacts of Time Segment Modeling in Berth Allocation and Quay Crane Assignment on Container terminal Operations Efficiency. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 119(5), 968-992.
    • H.L. Ma and W.H. Collin Wong, 2018. A Fuzzy-based House of Risk Assessment Method for Manufacturers in Global Supply Chains. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 118(7), 1463-1476.
    • S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and H.K. Chan, 2018. Maximizing recyclability and reuse of tertiary packaging in production and distribution network. Resources, Conservation and Recycling,128, 259-266.
    • H.L. Ma, Chung, S. H., Chan, H. K., & Cui, L. 2017. An integrated model for berth and yard planning in container terminals with multi-continuous berth layout. Annals of Operations Research, 273(1-2), 409-431.
    • S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma and H.K. Chan, 2016. Cascading Delay Risk of Airline Workforce Deployments with Crew Pairing and Schedule Optimization. Risk Analysis,37(8), 1443-1458.
    • H.L. Ma, Felix T.S. Chan and S.H. Chung, 2015. A fast approach for the integrated berth allocation and quay crane assignment problem. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 229(11), pp.2076-2087.
    • H.L. Ma, Felix T.S. Chan and S.H. Chung, 2013. Minimising earliness and tardiness by integrating production scheduling with shipping information. International Journal of Production Research, 51(8), pp. 2253-2267.
    TopBook Chapters
    • Y. Yin, S.H. Chung, H.L. Ma, D. Li, Z. Zhang, C.G. Liu, Y. Yu, Y. Gai, J. Tang and I. Kaku, 2025. Seru production systems. In Encyclopedia in Operations Management. Elsevier.
    • H.L. Ma, Y. Wang and W. Wang, 2025. Cascading delay risk of airline workforce deployments. In Encyclopedia in Operations Management. Elsevier.
    TopReports
    • Collin W.H. Wong, H.L. Ma, and Lawrence C. Leung, 2018. Collaboration at the Hong Kong Port – Benefits from Facility Sharing. Policy Research Institute of Global Supply Chain, School of Decision Sciences, Hang Seng Management College.
    TopGrants
    • “Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems: A New Item-on-Pod Replenishment Approach”, $1,001,750. Principal Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E01/25).
    • “Enhancing Production Efficiency and Responsiveness of Seru Production Systems: Uncovering the Synergy of Seru Formation and Seru Scheduling”, $852,250. Principle Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E06/24).
    • “Impacts of Fairness on Cabin Crew Scheduling: Crew Preference and Allowances”, $1,491,600. Principle Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E06/23).
    • “Minimizing Maintenance Delays by Integrating Aircraft Maintenance Routing and Maintenance Workforce Scheduling with the Consideration of Component Availability”, $1,359,350. Principle Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E04/22).
    • “Scheduling of Heterogeneous Autonomous Mobile Robots for Robotic Cells Manufacturing in Smart Manufacturing”, $1,515,750. Principal Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E07/21).
    • “How Can Giant Air Cargo Forwarders be Enhanced by Partnership with Airlines: A Utilisation of Unused Baggage Capacity Approach”, $1,488,150 Principal Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E03/20)
    • “Impacts of Dependent Flight Delay on Cabin Crew Pairing Reliability in Airlines”, $1,104,100 Principal Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E04/19)
    • “The Impacts of Heterogeneous Maintenance Actions on Aircraft Routing Problems in regard to Airline Operations Reliability and Profitability”, $745,300 Principal Investigator (UGC/FDS14/E05/18)
    TopProfessional Services
    Guest Editor:
    • Special Issue of Journal of Air Transport Management, “Advances of operations research in air transportation in the intelligence age” (Completed).
    • Special Issue of Sustainability, “Logistics and Sustainable Supply Chain Management” (Completed).
    • Special Issue of Transportation Research Part E – Logistics and Transportation Review, “Data Science and Data Analytic in Aviation” (Completed)
    Associate Editor:
    • Industrial Management & Data Systems
    Editorial Board Member:
    • Transportation Research Part E
    • Journal of Air Transport Management
    • Sustainability
    • Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications
    TopAwards
    • Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence 2020, Outstanding Reviewer, Industrial Management & Data Systems