Dr.Rupy Sawhney, Associate Professor and Associate Department Head, Department of Industrial and Information Engineering
Dr. Rupy Sawhney was nominated for 2009 Chancellor’s Outstanding Academic Outreach Award. He serves as the Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering at the University of Tennessee. His Outreach work combines assisting business and industry with educating students while at the same time pursuing scholarly publications and funded University research.
Dr. Sawhney explains that a lot of their activities are related to the competitiveness of Tennessee industry.
“Our job is to make sure that we are competitive and that we have the ability to have new jobs and to be able to save these jobs; to help the community grow rather than leaving these jobs go to other states or overseas. We are working with manufacturers but also with other fields such as hospitals. We are looking at the productivity of these businesses. We are making sure that the quality of life for people working in these environments is good, that the community has services of that business and that the state receives the revenues that are coming from these particular businesses,” Dr. Sawhney says.
Dr. Sawhney has worked with over 75 companies to improve their practices. His expertise on lean management including manufacturing planning and control systems, lean production systems, simulation modeling, and supply chain management has been very valuable to business, industry and government. One company estimates the economic impact of his work to them at 8 million dollars and in the last few years the total economic impact of his work as assessed by an independent agency was estimated at 15-20 million dollars.
“The staff of the University of Tennessee will go out as part of the Outreach program and help industry. But many times we’ll get calls from the industry to come and help. They’ll ask how to become more productive, or what is the impact they can make” Dr. Sawhney says.
Dr. Sawhney requires his students to go out with him to the company. He explains that the uniqueness of their program lies in the ability to integrate Outreach in the research and educational curriculum.
“I have about 20 graduate students. When they graduate they will have their classes, their research and the practical application of their work on their resumes. A Master’s student can have 5-10, and a PhD students 10-20 different experiences. Those are then people who not only have academic background but industrial connections that they have actually applied what they have learned in the classroom. They like that practical experience and in some cases it’s part of their class. For example, for one of the classes – Lean manufacturing - the end project applied to one company. It was a very thick report of the actual improvements students are suggesting to the company.”
Dr. Sawhney does not look at Outreach activities as extra work that he has to fulfill.
“It is what we learn from industry that we teach out students. What we don’t understand we convert it into our research. We write grants, we get money, we learn, and it becomes the part of the cycle. Our philosophy has always been: if you want to add value to the community you have to understand the community. If I don’t understand the industry what am I going to write about?”
Dr. Sawhney’s understanding is that the efficiency and reliability of learning comes from the combination of academic and practical knowledge.
“What I learn out of Outreach becomes part of our research, what we learn in research, becomes part of our curriculum. A lot of things that I teach in class are not from the book. Students are supposed to read the book but what I talk to them about is my experiences with those things. If you combine experience and books it tells us what we have to research on, what are the areas of the weakness, and then as things progress, we learn stuff and it becomes the part of our curriculum. We have developed a new course – Reliability of Lean System. The course came out of the understanding of the industry of the research that we did.”
Dr. Sawhney’s future project is related to how to increase productivity in Tennessee hospitals. He will also continue to work with his graduate students on how to model health care and promises to continue the fruitful Outreach work with different industries.
Contact Information
Dr. Rupy Sawhney
406 South & East Stadium
1425 South Stadium Drive
Phone: (865) 974-7653
Email:sawhney@utk.edu
