Keynote Speakers – 2020 IEOM Detroit Conference

Conference Co-Chair Remarks: Monday, August 10, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Leslie Monplasir, Chair and Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Wayne State University

Opening Keynote I: Monday, August 10, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Dr. Donna Bell

Global Director
Technology and Features Strategy and Planning
Ford Motor Company
Dearborn, Michigan

Dr. Donna Bell is Global Director, Technology and Features Strategy and Planning at Ford Motor Company, a $150B company. Collaborating with key stakeholders, Donna establishes and communicates customer driven strategies that increase corporate growth in areas such asconnectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), driver assist technology (DAT), and robotics.

Previously, Donna served as the CTO Chief of Staff at Ford, where she improved research processes, managed strategic university alliances, and enhanced Ford’s STEM strategy. She led strategic partnerships and external relationships, including Ford’s involvement in US CAR (U.S. Council for Automotive Research).

Donna also served as research operations director at Ford’s Palo Alto Innovation Labs. Her transformational leadership was important in building the new facility, acquiring the highestcaliber talent, managing a multi-million dollar operating budget, creating a culture of innovation, and connecting new technologies and innovations that were created in Silicon Valley to Ford’s winning portfolio. Trained in design thinking, Donna was instrumental in promoting and delivering transformational technologies including AI, Machine Learning, Autonomous Driving Technology including LiDAR, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and Connectivity.

From 2014 to 2017, Donna served as the electrical Global Product Development (PD) Quality manager at Ford. She collaborated with product development to ensure designs delivered revenue generating customer experiences. Through Donna’s continuous improvement experience and using proven quality tools such as failure mode avoidance, quality function deployment, and customer driven quality design electrical quality improved by more than 35%.Bell’s inspirational leadership led to the electrical organization achieving best in class quality for Lincoln vehicles multiple times, and Ford being recognized by the 2017 JD Power Initial Quality Study for overall quality improvement.

Donna’s proven delivery and technical excellence led to her receiving multiple patents and delivering many revenue generating 1st to Ford technologies including the award-winning Sync infotainment system, the fuel saving stop-start technology, and the first-to-industry MyEnergi Lifestyle project, in conjunction with Georgia Tech, projected a 60% energy cost savings and CO2 improvements of over 8,000 kg by incorporating key energy efficient solutions into an average U.S. home.

Donna’s involvement in the community is extensive and involves creating programs that educate and develop students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She has held multiple leadership positions in professional organizations including National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, and Ford’s first employee resource group, FAAN (Ford African Ancestry Network).

Donna holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University (Southfield, MI), Master of Science degrees in Electronics and Computer Control Systems and Engineering Management, and a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering all from Wayne State University (Detroit, MI).

Opening Keynote II: Monday, August 10, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Dr. Jiju Antony

Professor of Quality Management
School of Social Sciences, Edinburgh Business School
Operations and Logistics Group
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Editor of International Journal of Lean Six Sigma
Associate Editor of TQM and Business Excellence(Taylor and Francis)
Associate Editor of TQM Journal (Emerald)
Associate Editor of Quality in Education (ASQ)

Professor Jiju Antony is recognised worldwide as a leader in Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology for achieving and sustaining process excellence. He is a Professor of Quality Management and certified LSS Master Black Belt in the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He has a proven track record for conducting internationally leading research in the field of Quality Management and Lean Six Sigma. Professor Antony has authored over 400 journal, conference and white papers and 10 text books. He has published over 250 papers on Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma topics and is considered to be one of the highest in the world for the number of Six Sigma publications. Two of his papers published in 2002 entitled (Critical Success Factors for the successful implementation of Six Sigma projects in organisations (over 900 google citations) and Key Ingredients for the effective implementation of Six Sigma program (over 900 google citations)) have the highest citations making them the most referred to papers in the world in the field of Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement. He has an h-index of 79 according to Google Scholar with a total of over 14000 citations on Six Sigma and Lean Sigma topics alone. He is currently serving as the Editor of the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Associate Editor of the TQM and Business Excellence Journal, Associate Editor of TQM Journal (Emerald) and Associate Editor of Quality in Education (ASQ). He is serving on the Editorial Board of six international journals. Professor Antony has worked on a number of consultancy projects with several blue chip companies such as Rolls-Royce, Bosch, Siemens, Parker Pen, Siemens, Johnson and Johnson, GE Plastics, Ford, Scottish Power, Tata Motors, Thales, Nokia, Philips, General Electric, NHS, Glasgow City Council, ACCESS, Scottish Water, Police Scotland, University Sectors and a number of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Professor Antony is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, UK; Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute, UK; Fellow of the Institute of Operations Management, UK; Fellow of the American Society for Quality and Fellow of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals. He has been elected to the International Academy of Quality as an Academician this year.

Program Industry Co-Chair Remarks: Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Saso Krstovski, MBB, Lean Manufacturing Coach /Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Van Dyke Transmission Plant, Ford Motor Company, Michigan, USA

Tuesday Keynote I: August 11, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Dr. Raj Kawlra

Director, Global Manufacturing
Methods and Measurements
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA)
Auburn Hills, Michigan

Dr. Raj Kawlra is Director of Global Manufacturing Methods and Measurement at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. He has 35 years of automotive experience in concurrent engineering, advanced manufacturing engineering, quality, lean manufacturing, launching products, and manufacturing planning functions. He has had the opportunity to work in both powertrain and vehicle assembly. Over the years, he has successfully developed and implemented major strategies to drive improvements in throughput, quality, and cost.

Dr. Kawlra spent the first 16 years of his automotive career at GM Tech Center with responsibilities ranging from lead process engineer for the first “lights out” Flexible Manufacturing System in Powertrain in the late 80s to leading the development of a simple plant floor problem solving toolkit that leveraged advanced statistics and enabled GM to achieve world-class dimensional quality levels during the MY97 launch of their full size trucks at (3) plants. He also had the opportunity to work with the best lean gurus to develop GM’s Global Manufacturing System and implement it for their greenfield plant that launched Cadillac CTS in CY01.

Dr. Kawlra joined Chrysler in CY01 with the responsibility to develop and implement the Black Belt program at all of their (28) plant locations. Over the years, he has held numerous leadership positions ranging from Manufacturing Quality Director to Dimensional Quality Director to Industrial Engineering Director to the Manufacturing Planning Director. Over the last 5 years, he has also led the development and implementation of World Class Technology (WCT) – application of lean principles to manufacturing engineering function that designs and implements equipment and processes for all launches – first of its kind in the industry. WCT has been successfully applied across all regions and divisions at FCA, with savings ranging from $5 to 10M for each launch. In his current role as Director of Global Manufacturing, his responsibilities include leading global benchmarking activities, setting competitive targets and driving improvements in operational business metrics, long-term manpower planning, and global data analytics strategy.

Dr. Kawlra is a Big 10 fan, having received degrees from University of Wisconsin (MS, Mech Engr), University of Illinois (MS, IE), and University of Michigan (PhD, IOE). He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology. He also has an Executive Management Certification from INSEAD. Over the years he has been on the Department of Defense Oversight Committee (CY09- 11) and has served on the Advisory Board of University of Wisconsin’s Industrial and Systems Engineering department (CY11-17). Dr. Kawlra served as Industrial Advisor of two doctoral students of Doctor of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems at Lawrence Technological University.

Tuesday Keynote II: August 11, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Dr. Seth Guikema

Professor
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
President, Society of Risk Analysis

Dr. Seth Guikema is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan as of August 2015. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering (DoGEE) at Johns Hopkins University. He is also an adjunct Professor II in the Department of Safety, Economics, and Planning at the University of Stavanger in Norway, and a Data Science Research Fellow at One Concern, Inc., a Silcon Valley start-up.

His academic training includes a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Cornell University), a M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Stanford University), a M.E. by thesis in Civil Engineering (University of Canterbury in New Zealand), a Ph.D. in Management Science & Engineering with a concentration in Engineering Risk & Decision Analysis (Stanford University), and a postdoctoral research position in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Cornell University). He began his faculty career at Texas A&M University in Civil Engineering and moved to DoGEE at JHU in 2008. He received tenure at JHU in 2014 and became the Carol Linde Croft Faculty Scholar there in 2015. He moved to the University of Michigan in August 2015. Seth is currently the Area Editor for Mathematical Modeling in the journal Risk Analysis, was an Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems until 2018, and is on the editorial boards of the journals Reliability Engineering and System Safety and Performability Engineering. He previously completed a three-year terms on the governing Councils of the International Society for Risk Analysis and the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society.

Dr. Guikema’s research is highly interdisciplinary. Much of his group’s recent work is focused on the problems of urban and infrastructure resilience and sustainability in a changing climate, though areas of application are broad. It is grounded in risk analysis, particularly data-drive risk analysis and complex systems simulation. One major topic is developing, testing, and implementing risk analysis methods based in machine learning, stochastica and agent-based simulation, game theory, and decision analysis. Another strong research thrust in the group is using modern simulation methods to more fully understand the role of human behavior in the evoluation of vulnerabiltiy and risk in hazard-prone regions. This work is a combination of theory and practice, spanning from new methods development, testing, and validation to close interactions with utilities to develop and implement new methods for estimating performance and risk to infrastructure systems from disasters.

Industry Co-Chair Remarks: Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Wilkistar Otieno, Associate Professor and Chair Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

Wednesday Keynote I: August 12, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Cheryl Thompson

Founder and CEO of CADIA
Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement
Detroit, Michigan

Talk Title:

Cheryl Thompson is the founder of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement (CADIA). CADIA supports Diversity and Inclusion for the Automotive Industry by providing professional development for individuals, along with resources, programs and tools that drive organizational evolution. A veteran of the automotive industry, Cheryl has over 30 years of experience at Ford Motor Company and American Axle and Manufacturing in positions ranging from skilled trades, operations, engineering and global leadership. She is trained in diversity and inclusion, career and leadership coaching and is Six Sigma trained and certified as a Black Belt. Cheryl has been recognized as a 2019 Influential Women in Manufacturing Honoree, a 2019 Corp Magazine Salute to Diversity award winner, and is the recipient of two Diversity and Inclusion Awards from Ford Motor Company. A sought-after voice and speaker in the automotive, manufacturing and aerospace & defense industries, Cheryl has performed keynote addresses, workshops and breakout sessions for a number of companies and events, including TEDx Windsor, Women in Manufacturing (WiM), the American Automotive Summit, and Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Wednesday Keynote II: August 12, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Jeffrey Abell, Ph.D., FSME, PE

Director, Manufacturing Systems Research Lab
Chief Scientist for Global Manufacturing
Global Research & Development
General Motors Company
Warren, Michigan

Dr. Jeffrey Abell is Director and Chief Scientist of Manufacturing Systems Research at General Motors. He is responsible for manufacturing research in the company including vehicle electrification, lightweight materials processing, automation, and artificial intelligence/analytics. Previously, he was responsible for battery manufacturing research and his team played a key role in bringing the Chevy Volt advanced high power battery to production. He has successfully implemented various evolutionary based optimization methods to solve complex industrial design problems and was awarded the 2011 and 2014 General Motors Boss Kettering Awards for outstanding technical innovation. He has a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering degree from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), and graduate degrees in Systems Engineering from Oakland University.

Dr. Abell has also held a number of positions in the product development and manufacturing engineering at GM, Delphi, and DaimlerChrysler, including two international assignments.

Dr. Abell is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and a licensed Professional Engineer (Michigan). He has written numerous technical publications and is active in various professional societies and associations.

Conference Co-Chair Remarks: Thursday, August 13, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Muhammad Sohail Ahmed, Professor, Engineering Management, School of Engineering, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA

Thursday Keynote I: August 13, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Dr. Kannan Govindan

Professor and Head, SDU Centre for Sustainable Supply Chain Engineering
Dept. of Technology and Innovation
University of Southern Denmark
Odense, Denmark
Editor-In-Chief: International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling
Editor-In-Chief: International Journal of Advanced Operations Management

Professor Kannan Govindan is a founder and current Head of the Center for Sustainable Supply Chain Engineering and is a Professor of Operations & Supply Chain Management, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark, Odense.

In 2018 and 2019 Professor Kannan Govindan received the highly cited researcher award from Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics (one of only 204 researchers to be listed in the engineering category). He received the Fyens Stiftstidende research award for 2019. He received the High-Level Overseas Innovative Talent to Tianjin award (Under 1000 talents program for High-Level Overseas Innovative Talent experts of Tianjin Province) from Tianjin Province, China. He was awarded the Gold Medal for the best Ph.D. thesis from the former president of India. Also, he was awarded Young Alumni Achiever Award for Excellence in Academic / Research from the governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He received the International Young Scientists award from the Chinese Academy of Science, 2012–2013.

He has published more than 250 international journal articles (with total 22800 + citations and H-index of 84) in leading journals such as Nature, Omega, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Environmental management, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Ecological Indicators, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part A: Systems and Humans, European Management Journal, Computers and OR, International Journal of Production Economics and International Journal of Production Research.

Many of his papers were selected as the ESI top 1% highly cited papers or 0.1 % hot papers or identified and highlighted as the Key Scientific Article contributing to the excellence in Engineering and Environmental research. (Source: Web of Science). He was rated as 1^st globally in the field of Supply Chain Management and Industry from 2009 to 2018; 2014 to 2019; 2016 to 2019, (Source : SciVal -Scopus). He was rated as 2nd among top ten contributing author in the area of green supply chain management during last 22 years (Source: Sustainable Production and Consumption Journal, 2017). He was rated as 1st among top twenty contributing author in the area of reverse logistics and closed loop supply chain management during last 23 years (Source: International Journal of Production Research, 2018). Also, his paper titled “Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions” is selected as one of the 20 trendsetting papers of the last 20 years. The selection has been made from among 14,617 articles published in EJOR until the end of 2016. He was rated as 1st among top ten contributing author in the area of sustainable supplier selection area during last 28 years (Source: Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020).

Professor Kannan Govindan has received more than 12 National and International research project grants. He also serves as an external evaluator for various research foundations/councils from countries such as Swiss, France, Romania, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. He has held various teaching and research roles in a number of European, Asian, and American universities. Currently, he is an Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling (Inderscience), and the International Journal of Advanced Operations Management (Inderscience). In addition, he serves as associate editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production, an area Editor of INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research, editor of Annals of Operations Research, and has served as a guest editor in journals such as European Journal of Operations Research, Computers and OR, Annals of OR, Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Production Economics. Finally, he serves as an Editorial Board Member of several international journals.

His research interests include digital supply chain, industry 4.0 on supply chain, sustainable development goals, reverse logistics, closed loop supply chain, digitalized sustainable circular economy, green supply chain management, and sustainable supply chain management.

Thursday Keynote II: August 13, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Dr. Maria Jesus Saenz

Executive Director, MIT SCM Blended Master’s Program
Director, MIT Digital Supply Chain Transformation
MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Digital Supply Chain Transformation – A Empirical Research Study

Dr. Maria Jesus Saenz is the Director of the research area on Digital Supply Chain Transformation at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, as Research Scientist. The primary research aims at leveraging the connections among inter-organizational business drivers when facing new collaborative paradigms in digital transformations. Such opportunities require approaches that encompass the challenges of innovation around digitalization, with organizational changes at inter-organizational level, including multidimensional collaboration, digital supply chain capabilities and digital customer value.

Dr. Saenz also serves as the Executive Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management Blended Master Program, an elite MIT degree that allows learners to combine the MITx MicroMasters credential with one+ semester at MIT.

Dr. Saenz teaches various courses at Master, PhD and Executive Education level on Digital Transformation, Supply Chain Management, Collaboration, Risks, Resilience and Project Management. Regarding her education, Dr. Saenz is certified in Participant Centered Learning by Harvard Business School. She received Cum Laude and the Outstanding Doctoral Award for her PhD in Manufacturing and Design Engineering from the University of Zaragoza, where she previously obtained her M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, while she also studied Mathematics Sciences for several years. In 2003, she received her tenure as Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Zaragoza. In 2004, she joined the newly-formed research institute MIT Zaragoza Logistics Center as Professor, and she has also served the Center as its Executive Director. She was also the Director of the Spanish Center of Excellence in Logistics. Dr. Saenz has also led various international research projects for the European Commission, as well as for companies on Supply Chain Management innovation, such as P&G, Carrefour, Clariant, Dell, DHL, Leroy Merlin or Caterpillar. She is co-author of more than 80 publications, including books and articles in leading international Journals. Her knowledge transfer work has received 14 awards and her research was cited in the media including MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, Financial Times Press or Supply Chain Management Review. She also regularly interacts with business leaders in more than 15 countries.

Conference Industry Co-Chair Remarks: Friday, August 14, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Steven Sibrel, Senior Supplier Quality Manager, Harman International, Novi, Michigan, USA

Friday Keynote I: August 14, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Christopher Lee Stevens

Vice President of Industry Verticals
Siemens Digital Industries Software
Troy, Michigan

Chris Stevens is Vice President of Industry Verticals focused on Automotive, Transportation, Industrial Machinery, Heavy Equipment, Energy and Utilities for Siemens Digital Industries Software, a business unit of Siemens. In his current role, Stevens is responsible for sales, sales support and services delivery in the United States for these industries.

Previously, Chris had leadership responsibility for sales, sales support and services delivery for the Automotive Supplier and Heavy Equipment organization in the U.S. Prior to this role, Chris had leadership responsibility for the Global Fiat Chrysler Automobile Account for Siemens Digital Industries Software. He began his career at Siemens in 2000 as an Account Executive.

Chris began his career in the automotive industry in sales & program management for an assembly and test equipment company. He was the Director of Sales and Program Management responsible for OEM’s and Tier1 Automotive Suppliers in America, Asia and Europe.

Chris has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Chris and his wife, Leanne, reside in Rochester Hills, Michigan, with their three children.

John A. Burns

Director of Automotive and Transportation Sales
Siemens Digital Industries Software
Troy, Michigan

John Burns is Director of Automotive and Transportation Sales for Siemens Digital Industries Software, a business unit of Siemens. John is responsible for software sales for OEMs and tiered suppliers.

Previously, John was the Director, of software sales, for the Heavy Equipment, Industrial Machinery, and Specialty Vehicle Industries as well as the Director of Technical Sales for Automotive, Transportation, Heavy Equipment, Industrial Machinery, and Specialty Vehicle Industries.

John began his career with a tool supplier, to many industries. He was also a quality and product engineer working at Chrysler on the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee Vehicles. John gained further quality, manufacturing, and product engineering experience while working in the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant supporting Dodge Viper and Plymouth Prowler Programs.

While attending LTU, Hockey was the only sport available to students so his roommate, also named John, petitioned for a Rugby team and succeeded. John Burns was the first person to put points on the scoreboard for LTU by scoring the team’s first Try (touch-down).

John is an Alumni of LTU where he earned his Baccalaureate Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Friday Keynote II: August 14, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Noman Husain

Founder
TRANSFORMability
Detroit, Michigan, USA

Noman Husain is the founder of TRANSFORMability, a business excellence, digital transformation and human capital development consulting company with a primary focus on operations turnaround. He is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur and change agent who galvanizes companies, communities and individuals to thrive upon disruption and achieve excellence. He believes, practices and teaches effectiveness and efficiency through his work to deliver end-to-end transformation.

Mr. Husain has over twenty years of industry and consulting experience in analyzing value chain, crafting business strategy, leveraging organizational resources and leading change for sustainable profits & growth in production & project organizations. His experience include strategy, product development, operations, quality and business transformation.

Among his experience in industrial automation, Mr. Husain worked as Head of Comau Academy and championed the development and growth of an innovative business unit, specializing in STEM and industry 4.0 based education programs including executive Masters, short courses and hands on workshops for companies, professionals and students. Before that he worked at Chrysler for 12 years with various positions including Process Improvement Manager. Mr. Husain received MSIE – Industrial Engineering and MSME – Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan.

Keynote Speakers – 2020 IEOM Detroit Conference

Dr. Donna Bell

Global Director Technology and Features Strategy and Planning Ford Motor Company Dearborn, Michigan

Dr. Jiju Antony

Professor of Quality Management School of Social Sciences, Edinburgh Business School Operations and Logistics Group Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Dr. Raj Kawlra

Director, Global Manufacturing Methods and Measurements Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Auburn Hills, Michigan

Dr. Seth Guikema

Professor Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA President, Society of Risk Analysis