Biography

M.L. “Bob” Emiliani (b. 2 June 1958) is a university professor, researcher, author, historian of progressive management, and executive trainer. He has over 20 years of experience in aerospace, consumer products, and service industries, and has had front-line responsibility for implementing Lean principles and practices in the manufacturing shop floor, supply networks, and in higher education (academics). Bob is a leading figure in the Lean movement and is dedicated to helping people correctly understand and implement Lean management.

Born in Miami, Florida, his father Cesare was an internationally recognized geologist and micropaleontologist and his mother Rosita was a homemaker. He has a sister, Sandra. Bob graduated from Coral Gables High School and went on to the University of Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.) where he received a B.S. in mechanical engineering. He then earned an M.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI) and a Ph.D. from Brown University (Providence, RI). Bob married Lucinda Bronico in 1985 and they have two children, Michael and Julia.

Bob’s many interests over the years have led to diverse professional capabilities and personal interests, including: engineer, manager, artist, author, publisher, musician (bass guitar), photographer, craftsman (bicycle frame builder), cooking, vegetable gardening, scholar, and educator.

Career Summary
Bob began working part-time at the age of 13 as a salesperson at Camera Corner South in Coconut Grove, Fla. Subsequent to that, he worked as a laboratory technician and as a freelance writer for Bicycling, Bike Tech, and Bicycle Guide Magazines producing articles on various metallurgical aspects of custom bicycle frames and components. While pursuing his Ph.D., Bob worked at Monet Jewelers (Pawtucket, RI) as a metallurgist in manufacturing operations.

Upon completing his Ph.D., Bob worked at Pratt & Whitney in Florida and Connecticut and held positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, manufacturing operations, supply chain management, and organizational learning. His first exposure to Lean management was in July 1994 as a business unit manager in operations, and he later worked to establish Lean in the supply chain of the commodity he managed. He was trained in Lean by consultants from Shingijutsu Co., Ltd.

Bob left industry in 1999 to join academia as a clinical professor in the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Hartford, Conn. branch). There he taught graduate courses on Lean leadership, supply chain management, and failure analysis of management decisions. Since 2005, Bob has been a full-time professor at Central Connecticut State University, where he teaches various undergraduate and graduate courses and has an active research program in Lean management.

Bob pioneered the application of Lean principles and practices to the design and delivery of his courses starting in 1999. He was also the first professor to facilitate kaizens in higher education to improve a 10-course executive M.S. degree program in 2002. Bob has been called the "first Lean professor" for his work in higher education..

Bob is one of the most prolific authors on Lean leadership and Lean management, having written ten books and 18 peer-reviewed papers. He has also written 16 peer-reviewed papers on Lean supply chain management and e-business, 10 peer-reviewed papers in materials science and engineering, and numerous non-refereed technical reports and magazine articles. Several of these works have won awards for excellence.

Bob’s extensive body of work on Lean management led him to develop a unique short course in Lean leadership for executives that highlight the “Respect for People” principle which is invariably missing in other training courses yet is critical to Lean management success . He is a is a frequent speaker at corporate meetings and senior management retreats due to his pioneering work in Lean leadership and his deep understanding of the history of progressive management and the “Respect for People” principle.

Significant Contributions
Bob’s work in Lean management is informed by his extensive hands-on application of Lean management principles and practices when he worked in the aerospace industry.

Bob’s research on Lean leadership began in the mid-1990s and was prescient, for it is only since late 2007 that the broader Lean community has begun to recognize the importance of leadership. He chose to study the least-understood aspect of Lean management – leadership – because it contributes greatly to the difficulty that managers have in correctly understanding and practicing Lean management. Bob’s knowledge of the history of progressive management dating from the late 1800s contextualizes today’s leadership challenge in ways that are not recognized or understood by others.

Bob was the first researcher to provide a detailed description of how the “Respect for People” principle functions in enabling continuous improvement, and how wasteful leadership behaviors severely undercut efforts to achieve a Lean transformation. He has written several innovative papers that describe practical approaches to identifying leadership problems in organizations that seek to practice Lean management. His books and papers provide readers with direct and effective routes for improving their Lean leadership capabilities and are fully consistent with Lean principles and practices.

Bob’s supply chain management research agenda (discontinued in 2007) focused principally on the topic of e-business, specifically electronic reverse auctions used by corporations to purchase goods and services. He is the leading author in this field having written 12 peer-reviewed papers, and has gained international recognition for his work debunking claims of effectiveness and cost savings. His decade-long research program showed that the benefits of reverse auctions are greatly overstated, which has helped corporations avoid making errors that can cause long-term damage to buyer-seller relationships and result in higher costs.

Bob’s is also a highly cited researcher for his early 1990s work in debond coatings for ceramic matrix composites and early 2000s work on online reverse auctions.