Current Instructors
Dr. Rupy Sawhney
Dr. Rupy Sawhney is a Distinguished Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also a Heath Fellow in Business and Engineering. He was a Weston Fulton Professor and Department Head during 2010-2013. He is the Executive Director of Center for Advanced Systems Research and Education (CASRE) and has a joint appointment with the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Lab. He is also a faculty for the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education (CIRE) in Energy. He is a Fellow of the International Society of Engineering Asset Management (ISEAM), and a visiting Professor in the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK as well as Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico.
His research group consists of over 30 staff and students who are working on the development of the next generation of operational excellence that is focused on aligning productivity demands with employees or more general societal well-being. The group focuses on four initiatives:
Research initiatives are driven by long-term, steady partnerships with the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD). The group engages with ORNL and Y-12, two federal institutions of excellence, each year on strategic research partnerships. They have multiple ongoing projects with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which is a component of DOD. The research group is on target to publish ten strategic papers on the Next Generation Sustainable Operational Excellence Model and graduates an average of three Ph.D. students each year.
Industry partnerships are forged by the center which Dr. Sawhney founded and lead as Executive Director – CASRE. The center provides industry a platform to network and learn from each other by way of training sessions and an annual symposium on Operational Excellence. CASRE industry members are our partners in testing and validating our model at their facilities.
Educational programs innovatively inculcate systems thinking into the minds of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world, who are our next generation of Operational Excellence leaders. Professional programs founded by Dr. Sawhney have awarded onsite MS degrees in Industrial Engineering. The graduates have gone on to key positions in Operational Excellence within their organization.
International Collaborations are strong, resulting in visiting scholars, academic publications, and educational training partnerships with universities in Brazil, China, Colombia, Germany, India, and Mexico.
Dr. Enrique Macias
Dr. Enrique Macias de Anda is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate and the Industry Liaison within the Center. He obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville under the supervision of Dr. Rupy Sawhney. He holds a BS. in Industrial Engineering with a minor in Systems Engineering, and a MS. in Quality and Productivity Systems, both from Monterrey’s Technological Institute of Higher Education (Monterrey Tech) in Mexico.
He served as an Undergraduate Program Director and Academic Advisor in the Industrial Engineering Department for the Aguascalientes Campus of Monterrey’s Technological Institute of Higher Education. He also has industrial experience in the automotive and electronics sectors, in the areas of quality management systems (formerly known as ISO TS16949), lean production systems, environmental health and safety systems, and corporate responsibility programs.
His research interests are in the implementation and sustainability of lean production systems through behavioral analysis driven by culture, work systems design, continuous improvement and productivity enhancement.
Select publications are:
- Sawhney, R., & Macias de Anda, E. (2014). Industrial engineers articulate their critical thinking for problem-solving via the DRIVES model. QScience Proceedings, 3, 23.
- Mallesh, D. A., Sawhney, R., & De Anda, E. M. (2015, January). Implementation of serialization and traceability in a pharmaceutical packaging company. In IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings (p. 1). Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).
- Sawhney, R. S., & de Anda, E. M. (2017). Sawhney Lean Educational Maturity Model at the University of Tennessee. In Lean Education: An Overview of Current Issues (pp. 99-124). Springer, Cham.
Samuel Treviño
Samuel Cuauhtli-Ollin Trevino Martinez is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville under the supervision of Dr. Rupy Sawhney. He completed his MS. degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his BS. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Monterrey’s Technological Institute of Higher Education (Monterrey Tech) in Mexico. He served for six years as the Dean of the Industrial and Systems Engineering undergraduate program at Monterrey Tech, Campus San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Currently, he is working on research related to improving energy efficiency in manufacturing by developing production analytics and forecasting models.
Wanessa Velloso
Wanessa Velloso, a native of Brazil, has more than 40 years of experience as a teacher of English and Portuguese as foreign languages. She has taught in different settings both in Brazil and the United States, e.g. language schools, corporations, and universities. She holds an MA in Literary Studies from the University of New Mexico where she was the recipient of the Teaching Assistant of the Year award for 2006. She is a distinguished lecturer of Portuguese at the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures. She has worked at UT for over 10 years and she teaches the lower division Portuguese courses. Her approachable style and passion for teaching motivate students to pursue excellence in what they do. Her ability to create an inclusive and active environment for learning brings different cultures together. She also works with the international students who participate in the Summer Lean Enterprise Program at the School of Industrial & Systems Engineering and is responsible for the English language component of the course.
Staff
Carla Arbogast
Carla Arbogast is the director at the Center for Advanced Systems Research and Education (CASRE). She received her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences from Central Michigan University, and her master’s in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Tennessee. Her area of research is human factors as it relates to job stress and workforce development. In addition to her responsibilities as the director of CASRE, Carla oversees and directs all activities associated with the educational programs offered through the center.
Carla has more than 25 years of experience in Industry and Healthcare, with a passion for helping others achieve success. Carla calls Knoxville, Tennessee home where you can find her enjoying family time boating or enjoying the downtown area with her two dogs.
Guilherme Zuccolotto
Guilherme Barquete Zuccolotto is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville working under the supervision of Dr. Rapinder Sawhney. He had his bachelor in Mechanical Industrial Engineering at Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. He has worked as a process optimization consultant for almost 3 years, always basing himself on Lean Production Culture and performing projects based on Lean Six Sigma methodology and PMBOK. He developed more than 32 projects in multinational companies in Brazil during this period and 3 projects in the USA.
Currently, he is the International Liaison of CASRE (Center for Advanced Systems Research and Education), the center of the Industrial & Systems Engineering Department, and the Coordinator of Operational Excellence Programs.
Awards and Recognitions: Specialist Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Specialist in Excel and VBA, and Specialist in Lean Enterprise.
Former Instructors
Esdras Araújo
Esdras Araujo was born and raised in João Pessoa, Brazil. Before attending The University of Tennessee Knoxville, he attended the Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Production Engineering in 2016. While his bachelor’s degree, he had the opportunity of working in different companies in the area of quality control and process improvement. From 2013 to 2014, he earned a scholarship to attend the University of Tennessee as an undergraduate student and had the opportunity of doing his internship in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department.
Esdras started his Master’s program in 2016, under the supervision of Dr. Rupy Sawhney, finishing in 2019. While his master’s degree, Esdras served in different roles within the Center for Advanced Systems Research and Education, acting as Coordinator of the Lean Institute, coordinating the Lean Enterprise and Systems Summer Program, and being the liaison between the center and its international partners. He also served as Graduate Teaching/Research Assistant for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Roshanak Akram
Roshanak is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee and works under the supervision of Dr. Rupy Sawhney. She holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in Iran and participated in a Master’s program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (University of Tehran, Iran) and published research papers. She is an MS candidate in Statistics in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee.
She is currently working on an approach to improve the packing and transportation of goods in the food supply chain industry by developing a new optimization model that could be applied to moldable food bags with variable sizes.
Isaac Mitchell
Isaac Mitchell has over ten years of experience driving change utilizing lean methodology in organizations ranging from automotive to small machining job shops to healthcare organizations.
He is a full-time lean practitioner at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and the founder and president of Gemba Improvements LLC which focuses on Lean healthcare training and consulting.
In addition to a master of business administration from Xavier University and a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from the University of Tennessee, he also holds a Lean Black Belt certification through the Institute of Industrial Engineers. This training and experience have enabled him to bring successful and time-proven methodologies to his clients.
His passion and focus is on training and implementing lean techniques to transform work cultures to improve healthcare processes and outcomes for patients and providers.
Misty DePriest
Misty has over twelve years of experience managing manufacturing operations and continuous improvement projects across a broad range of industries. Misty is currently a Manufacturing Consultant with The University of Tennessee, Center for Industrial Services. She is also a certified National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) lean trainer and has trained thousands of executives, managers, engineers, and operators in the principles of Lean Manufacturing.
She has facilitated over one hundred lean implementation events with companies in various industries and specializes in Kaizen implementation to create value and profitability for her customers.
Misty holds a B.S in Mechanical Engineering and M.S.E. in Engineering Management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and is an SME Bronze level lean certified sensei.
John Collier
John is the Solutions Consultant for the North Central Region of Tennessee. He has over 35 years of experience in the management of manufacturing operations.
Prior to working for The University of Tennessee, John was Manager of Operations and Engineering at The Robert Bosch Corporation plant in Gallatin, TN. At Bosch John also held a variety of jobs including Continuous Improvement Coordinator and Bosch Production System Leader.
In these capacities he facilitated a wide range of lean improvement events including Lean Overviews, Lead Time Reduction, Achieving Flow, Pull/Kanban Systems, Quick Change Over, Total Productive Maintenance, Quality at the Source, Lean Office, Standard Work, Workplace Organization (5s), Kaizen Facilitation, and Lean Leadership.
John also co-created “Rapid Solutions”, a program to start generating immediate continuous improvement results. Prior to Bosch, John was The Manufacturing Manager at Aladdin Industries LLC. In this position, John and his team went through a massive transformation of The Plastics Plant. This transformation combined 3 departments into one continuous flow operation.
He has a BS in Business Management from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Executive Development Program through the University of Tennessee, Lean Certification (LBC-sensei) through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Certification in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) through APICS
Joseph R. Stainback IV
Joseph R. Stainback IV, PhD (Joe) is Director, Global Security Program Initiatives at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Joe has been working for Y-12’s Management and Operations contractor, Babcock & Wilcox, for over 27 years within the nuclear industry related to national defense. Joe started out as a mechanical engineer with Babcock & Wilcox and has advanced his career through various leadership capacities within technical and regulatory fields supporting a wide array of defense-related programs in Manufacturing, Project Management, Domestic Nuclear Safeguards/Security and International Safeguards.
Joe has earned five Defense Program Awards of Excellence, has been responsible for several significant transformation projects and participates in preserving Y-12’s history. Joe is also a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee and serves in leadership roles in various technical and community-related organizations.
Academic research interests include Performance Management (Productivity / Process Engineering), Production Planning, Six-Sigma, Lean Systems, Ergonomics, Macroergonomics, Human Behavior related to Productivity, Organizational and Industrial Psychology, and the Integration of Computational Mathematics, Statistics, Optimization, and Simulation to resolve productivity challenges.
Eric Arendt
Eric Arendt has a background that covers a wide range of manufacturing and healthcare experiences. He has held numerous corporate positions including Corporate Energy Manager and Environmental and Safety Manager for the Parker Hannifin Corporation and Environmental and Safety Director for the Stant Corporation. His work for Brunswick Corporation as a Lean Manager and Industrial Engineering Manager for the Gates Rubber Company and Tomkins Industrial & Automotive Group include redesigning facilities, leading week-long Kaizen events and Green Belt training for supervisors.
Eric holds a B.S and M.S degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toledo. He received his Black Belt training in Six Sigma through Air Academy and is an ISO 14001 Lead Auditor certified through Quality Management International, Inc. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Tennessee. His research work includes multifunctional staffing to reduce patient wait time in a hospital and the application of Taguchi’s method in healthcare.
Eric has previously trained students in the use of ProModel software and is proficient in AutoCAD and statistical software including JMP, Minitab and NCSS. His academic areas of interest include the System Reliability, Optimization Theory, Design of Experiment, Multivariate Statistics and Facility Layout.
Bharadwaj Venkatesan
Bharadwaj Venkatesan is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Industrial and Information Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is presently working as a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Rupy Sawhney. His dissertation is on “Methodology for Sustained Development of Tennessee Solar Value Chain”. He holds a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology (affiliate of JNTU), Hyderabad, India, and a M.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
He has worked on projects in wide-ranging fields such as Supply Chain Management, Warehousing, Simulation, Lean-Six Sigma Implementation, Database Management, Ergonomics, and Healthcare for both private and public sectors.
He is proficient in ARENA and ProModel software and has developed multiple simulation-based decision-making tools to manage large supply chains. He is also adept in Supply Chain Management, Lean-Six Sigma, Reliability Engineering, Optimization, Design of Experiments, Forecasting, Database Management, and Application Development.