Dr. Shahrukh A. Irani, PhD, is the President of Lean and Flexible, llc, a consulting company that delivers advisory, training and implementation services focused on Lean for high-mix low-volume manufacturing (aka JobshopLean). Currently, he teaches a 2-semester project-intensive course on Lean Manufacturing in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston. From 2012-2018, he was the President of the Houston Senior Chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering. From 2012-2014, he worked as the Director of IE Research at Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc. (HCA), Houston, TX. In that position, he gained invaluable industry experience by undertaking projects to demonstrate the viability of JobshopLean in HCA's high-mix low-volume (HMLV) manufacturing facilities. From 1996-2012, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering (ISE) at The Ohio State University (OSU). His research at OSU produced JobshopLean, a comprehensive methodology to adapt Lean for high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) small and medium enterprises (SME). Also, his research team at OSU developed the PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) software that facilitates the implementation of JobshopLean. During his sixteen years at OSU, he received the Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching from the ISE department's graduating classes of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009 and the 2002 Charles E. MacQuigg Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Engineering. For 1999-2001 and 2001-2003, he served as the Director of the Facilities Planning and Design (FAPAD) division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. In 1996, he was voted Young Engineer of the Year by the Minnesota Federation of Engineering Societies and the Minneapolis Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Dr. Irani is the Editor of the Handbook of Cellular Manufacturing Systems (1999, John Wiley).
