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Ananth Krishnamurthy, Director

Ananth Krishnamurthy

Ananth Krishnamurthy assumed leadership of the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing in January 2008. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Prof. Rajan Suri, founder of the concept and methodology of Quick Response Manufacturing. Krishnamurthy has an M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, also from UW-Madison, and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India.

Involved with the QRM Center for a decade, Krishnamurthy conducted and managed numerous QRM projects as a research assistant, then returned as a speaker for QRM workshops and conferences. Holding training events in the United States and Europe has earned him worldwide recognition as an expert in the implementation of POLCA, a material-control system for low-volume or custom-engineered products and a key component of the overall QRM strategy.

Krishnamurthy has consulted for Alcoa, Rockwell Automation, Ingersoll, Johnson Controls, John Deere and Trek Bicycle. He has authored numerous publications in international journals, and he is a senior member of several professional organizations. Prior to leaving the position he held as Assistant Professor from 2002–2007 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Krishnamurthy was named winner of that institution's Engineering Excellence in Education Award for 2007.

Rajan Suri, Founding Director

Rajan Suri

Rajan Suri served as Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1985-2008. He earned his bachelor's degree from Cambridge University (England) and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Suri founded the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing in 1993, envisioning a consortium of companies that would work in partnership with the university and with each other to understand and implement lead time reduction strategies.

He is internationally regarded as an expert on the analysis of manufacturing systems, and he wrote the book Quick Response Manufacturing: A Companywide Approach to Reducing Lead Times (Productivity Press). Suri has consulted for leading firms including Alcoa, Danfoss, IBM, John Deere, National Oilwell Varco, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell Automation and Trek Bicycle. Consulting assignments in Europe and the Far East, along with projects for the World Bank, have given him an international perspective on manufacturing competitiveness.

Suri has received awards from the American Automatic Control Council, The Institute of Management Sciences and the IEEE. In 1999, Suri was made a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and in 2006 he received SMEs Albert M. Sargent Progress Award for the creation and implementation of the Quick Response Manufacturing philosophy.

Hanns-Peter Nagel, Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Hanns-Peter Nagel

Hanns-Peter Nagel joined the QRM Center in the beginning of July 2008. Before coming to Madison, Hanns-Peter served for two years as the Executive Director of the Radford Heritage Foundation and Glencoe Museum in Radford, Virginia. He brings extensive experience in public relations complemented by a focus on graphic design, the development of Web sites, and online applications. Often the initial contact with the center, Hanns-Peter schedules and facilitates workshops, seminars and conferences, and helps keep QRM Center members and the public informed of center activities.

Hanns-Peter has a master’s degree in speech communication, political science, and American history from the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tuebingen, Germany.

Ananth Krishnamurhty
Director
Rajan Suri
Founding Director
Hanns-Peter Nagel
Marketing and Communications Coordinator

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