Responsible Manufacturing: Issues Pertaining to Sustainability

Ammar Y. Alqahtani, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He received his BS degree with first honors from the Industrial Engineering Department of King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May 2008. Being awarded with a full scholarship by the King Abdulaziz University (KAU), he received his MS degree in Industrial Engineering from Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston in 2012. He received his PhD degree in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University, Boston, in 2017. He has been employed as a faculty member by King Abdulaziz University since December 2008. His research interests are in the areas of environmentally conscious manufacturing, product recovery, reverse logistics, closed-loop supply chains (CLSC), sustainable operations and sustainability, simulation and statistical analysis and modeling with applications in CLSC and multiple lifecycle products. He has co-authored several technical papers published in edited books, journals and international conference proceedings. Elif Kongar, Ph.D., is a Professor of Technology Management and Mechanical Engineering, and Chair of the Technology Management Department at the School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport (UB). During her tenure at UB, she established research and graduate concentrations and coursework in several areas, including simulation and modeling, service management and engineering, and economic and environmental sustainability. Her main area of research is economically and environmentally sustainable waste recovery systems and operations. She also works on projects that aim at increasing female participation in engineering disciplines and at improving K-12 STEM, undergraduate and graduate engineering education programs. Prof. Kongar received her BS and MS degrees in industrial engineering from Yildiz Technical University, and Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering from Northeastern University. Before joining the University of Bridgeport, Dr. Kongar was a Visiting Researcher in the Center for Industrial Ecology at Yale University. She also served as the Coordinator and Lecturer of the Logistics certificate program at Yildiz Technical University where she held an Assistant Professor position. Kishore K. Pochampally, Ph.D., is a professor of quantitative studies, operations and project management at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Manchester (NH). He also conducts corporate workshops in lean six sigma quality and project management. His prior academic experience is as a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Cambridge (MA). He holds graduate degrees (MS and PhD) in industrial engineering from Northeastern University in Boston (MA) and an undergraduate degree (BE) in mechanical engineering from National Institute of Technology in India. His research interests are in the areas of six sigma quality management and quantitative decision-making. He has authored a number of technical papers for international journals and conference proceedings, and his research work has been cited by other researchers on six continents. He has published three books titled - Strategic Planning Models for Reverse and Closed-loop Supply Chains, Six Sigma Case Studies with Minitab (R) and Reliability Analysis with Minitab (R). He has been nominated twice for the teaching excellence award at SNHU. He is also a Six Sigma Black Belt (American Society for Quality) and a Project Management Professional (PMP (R)). Surendra M. Gupta, Ph.D., is a Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Director of the Laboratory for Responsible Manufacturing at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He received his BE in Electronics Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, MBA from Bryant University, and MSIE and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Massachusetts, USA. Dr. Gupta's research interests span the areas of Production/Manufacturing Systems and Operations Research. He is mostly interested in Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing, Reverse and Closed-Loop Supply Chains, Disassembly Modeling and Remanufacturing. He has authored or coauthored twelve books and over 600 technical papers published in edited books, journals and international conference proceedings. His publications have received over 11,800 citations (with an h-index of 54) from researchers all over the world in journals, proceedings, books, and dissertations. He has traveled to all seven continents viz., Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America and presented his work at international conferences on six continents. Dr. Gupta has taught over 150 courses in such areas as operations research, inventory theory, queuing theory, engineering economy, supply chain management, and production planning and control. Among the many recognitions received, he is the recipient of outstanding research award and outstanding industrial engineering professor award (in recognition of teaching excellence) from Northeastern University as well as a national outstanding doctoral dissertation advisor award.