Alan Robinson
Professor
Operations & Information Management
Education
PhD, The Johns Hopkins University, 1986
MSE, The Johns Hopkins University, 1983
MA, Cambridge University, 1982
BA, Cambridge University, 1980
Professional Experience
Advisor, Have advised more than 150 organizations in 25 countries on management issues related to continuous improvement, lean, and innovation., 1987-Present
Academic Appointments
Professor of Operations Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 9/1997-Present
Associate Dean for the Full-Time MBA Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 9/2010-9/2013
Associate Professor of Operations Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 9/1992-9/1997
Assistant Professor of Operations Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 9/1986-9/1992
Recent Honors / Awards
Små Ideér – Stora Resultat (Small Ideas – Big Results), won the SIS Writers Award for the best book published in 2010 by the Swedish Standards Institute, 2010
I was particularly honored to have a prize in Sweden named after me in 2008. The “Alan G. Robinson Award” is now given annually to the company which, according to a panel of judges, manages employee ideas the best in Scandinavia. There is a formal award c, 2008
Research Interests
Managing Innovation and Creativity
Managing Bottom-up Ideas
Continuous Improvement
Lean
Teaching Interests
Doctoral
- Operations Management
- High-Performance Organizations
- Corporate Creativity
- Lean
- Continuous Improvement
- Innovation
Masters
- Operations Management
- Practicum
- High-Performance Organizations
- Corporate Creativity
Undergraduate
- Operations Management
- High-Performance Organizations
Selected Publications
“How leaders can create policies that actually work”(jointwith De an Sc hroed er)Journal of Government Financial Management, 66, no. 4, 2017, 36-41.2.
“Solving the unsolvable: How to address complex politically-charged transorganizational problems. (joint with Dean Schroeder), Organizational Dynamics, 46, no. 4, 2017, 212-219.3.
“A New Paradigm in Government Purchasing: Highways England and its Continuously Improving Supply Chain” (joint with Dean Schroeder) Journal of Government Financial Management, 65, no. 3, 2016, 38-44.
Sma Ideer Stora Resultat (Small Ideas - Big Results) (co-authored with Louise Oestberg and Dean Schroeder), SIS Forlag, Sweden, 2010. This book was the result of a study of creativity and idea management in twenty-five Swedish companies, and won the SIS Writers Award for the best book published in 2010 by the Swedish Standards Institute.
Green is Free: Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage Through Green Excellence” (joint with Dean Schroeder), Organizational Dynamics, 39, 2010, no. 4, 345-352, 2011.
Managing Continuous Improvement In Vietnam: Unique Challenges and Approaches To Overcome Them” (joint with Phuong Anh Nguyen), Quality Management Journal, 17, 2010 no. 2, 23-41.
“The Role of Front-Line Ideas in Lean Performance Improvement” (joint with Dean Schroeder), Quality Management Journal, 16, 2009, no. 4, 27-40.
