Lumina Decision Systems wins 2014 INFORMS Decision Analysis Practice Award

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®), the leading professional association for analytics professionals, today announced that the winner of the 2014 INFORMS Decision Analysis Practice Award was presented to Max Henrion, CEO of Lumina Decision Systems, makers of Analytica® software.

The winning presentation "A Multi-attribute Decision Analysis for Decommissioning California's Offshore Oil Platforms" is by Max Henrion and was coauthored by Brock Bernstein and Surya Swamy. The Award, jointly sponsored by the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society and the Society of Decision Professionals, recognizes outstanding applications of decision analysis to significant decisions. It considers the quality of the analysis, its impact on the decision, and the importance and benefit of that decision. Frank Koch, chair of the Award committee remarked, "This was a great demonstration of how decision analysis can bring together parties with significantly different points of view and objectives to find a "win-win" solution."

Like many environmental decisions, the question of how to decommission California's offshore oil platforms started out as highly controversial. But, remarkably, almost all stakeholders, including oil companies and environmentalists, ended up supporting the same solution. The original leases required the oil companies to remove the entire rigs at the end of their productive life. Some are up to 1200 feet deep, making removal very costly with substantial environmental impacts. These rigs have developed their own rich ecosystems, with commercially and ecologically important rockfish species, making them popular with sea lions, recreational divers, and other marine life forms.

An interdisciplinary team created a decision tool in Lumina's Analytica® software to explore and evaluate decommissioning options to assist the California Ocean Science Trust. The two main options examined were complete removal, as required by the original leases, and conversion to an artificial reef, by cutting structures at 85 feet below the water line to prevent interference with shipping. Partial removal reduces costs by up to $500 million and helps to preserve marine ecosystems. Eventually the stakeholders reached near consensus on the "rigs to reefs" policy option. California lawmakers almost unanimously passed enabling legislation, signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010.

Skyli McAfee, Director of California Ocean Science Trust, said "By clearly identifying the issues, synthesizing the best multi-disciplinary science, daylighting the uncertainty and providing unbiased review, the tool was successful in distilling the rhetoric to meaningful discussion of tradeoffs and values. Further, the tool was made available to the public; its assumptions and approach were transparent. Constituents had the opportunity to import various scenarios and learn the best approach. With this tool, sound legislation was passed that will serve California and our marine resources well."

Max Henrion, CEO of Lumina, commented "This decision analysis was one of the most challenging and, in the end, satisfying projects I have worked on. It is truly an honor to have our work recognized in this way."

Provided by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences