Rajan Suri Emeritus Professor Address/E-mail Program Affiliations Education Fields of Interest Publications Summary

Contact Information

3166 Engineering Centers Building 1550 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706

Tel: 608/262-0921 Fax: 608/265-4017 E-mail: suri@ie.engr.wisc.edu

Program Affiliations

• Industrial and Systems Engineering

• Center for Quick Response Manufacturing
• Manufacturing Systems Engineering Program
• Quick Response Manufacturing Consortium

Education

• BA 1974, engineering, Cambridge University (Emmanuel College), Cambridge, England
• SM 1975, engineering, Harvard University
• PhD 1978, engineering, Harvard University

Fields of Interest

• lead time reduction and quick response manufacturing
• POLCA and other alternatives to Kanban for material control
• queuing network models for manufacturing systems analysis

Publications

• Suri, R., "Quick Response Manufacturing: A Competitive Strategy for the 21st Century," In: Proceedings of the Quick Response Manufacturing 2000 Conference, Dearborn, MI: Society of Manufacturing Engineers, June 2000.
• Suri, R. (Ed.), Quick Response Manufacturing: A Companywide Approach to Reducing Lead Times, Portland, OR: Productivity Press, 1998.
• Suri, R., "Don't Push or Pull--POLCA," APICS The Performance Advantage, 8(11):32-38, November 1998.
• Suri, R., Diehl, G.W.W., de Treville, S., & Tomsicek, M., "From CAN-Q to MPX: Evolution of Queueing Software for Manufacturing," Interfaces, 25(5):128-150, September-October 1995.
• Suri, R., Sanders, J.L., & Kamath, M., "Performance Evaluation of Production Networks," Chapter in Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science, Vol. 4: Logistics of Production and Inventory, Elsevier, pp. 199-286, 1993.

Summary

Professor Suri's primary interest is quick-response manufacturing. This involves reducing the time to introduce new products to market, as well as the time to manufacture and deliver existing products. He is director of the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing, a joint venture between the university and a number of area firms. A second interest involves development of analytical models of manufacturing systems. His earlier work in this area resulted in the "rapid modeling technique" which is used by many companies and universities for manufacturing systems analysis. This technique was also used by the World Bank to evaluate the impact of alternative technologies on industries in developing countries.

A third area of his research is new strategies for material control in manufacturing systems. Lean manufacturing strategies, along with Kanban and flow methods, do not work well in systems with high mix or custom engineered products. Dr. Suri has developed a new material control strategy called POLCA which is better suited to these environments. His ongoing research involves partnering with manufacturing companies in implementing POLCA on the shop floor, as well as using analysis methods to investigate the performance properties of POLCA in different situations.

Professor Suri is also director of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Program, an interdisciplinary master of science program in the College of Engineering, with courses in engineering and management subjects.

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