Ed Arnheiter, PhD
Dr. Arnheiter possesses a unique combination of industrial, consulting, and higher education experience spanning a thirty-year period. He is currently an instructor at KGI, in the Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences. Courses he has taught at KGI include operations management, supply chain management, and medical device production. In addition to his role as an instructor at KGI, Dr. Arnheiter is a Clinical Professor at Drexel University, in the Department of Decision Sciences and MIS. He held several prior faculty appointments, including the University of the Pacific and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Arnheiter has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses spanning operations management, statistics, data analytics, quality control and Six Sigma, supply chain management, project management, production methods, management science, and operations research.
He is the Principal Consultant for Arnheiter Consulting, LLC, which focuses on improving operations and reducing waste by applying continuous process improvement methods. He has also worked as a Senior Consultant for the ARGO-EFESO Group, a French-based global firm specializing in operational excellence. His consulting experience includes medical device manufacturing, aerospace and defense, oil & gas, healthcare, industrial and consumer products, and food processing.
Dr. Arnheiter values experiential learning and uses a variety of pedagogical elements. He often incorporates his own case studies or journal articles as part of the course material. Similarly, if his consulting work is applicable to the classroom discussion, he will incorporate the material. For example, he might offer some interesting examples from Chevron Corporation and explain the approach he used to improve processes by making them better, faster, cheaper, and safer. Dr. Arnheiter also values hands-on class exercises that make learning fun and engaging, reinforce fundamental principles, and improve retention.
He earned graduate degrees in industrial engineering and engineering management (UMass Amherst), an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering (Union College), and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Dr. Arnheiter also has eleven years of full-time industry experience, where his work included developing and monitoring quality plans for high-precision machined components, supervising supplier quality, managing two field-testing sites, supervising welding and fabrication operations, and supervising a product-testing lab.
- “Measuring Expertise Learning Rates for Nonrepetitive Project Work”, with Venkat Venkateswaran, American Journal of Management, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 46-56, 2022.
- “Kaiser Permanente: Creating a ‘No-Wait’ Emergency Department”, Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, Product 9B16M173, Nov 2016.
- “Teaching Lean Management using Experiential Methods to Improve Learning”, International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, Inderscience Publishers Ltd., Vol. 5, No. 4, 2014, pp. 344-362.
- “PRIDE Industries”, Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, Case number 9B12D024, Dec 2012.
- “The Continuing Evolution of Lean Six Sigma”, with John Maleyeff and Venkat Venkateswaran, The TQM Journal, Volume 24, No. 6, 2012, pp. 542-556.
- “Looking for Root Cause: A Comparative Analysis”, with Jean Greenland, The TQM Journal, Volume 20, Number 1, 2008, pp. 18-30.
- “Eagle Services Asia”, Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, Case number 9B07D019, 2007.
- “The Integration of Lean Management and Six Sigma”, reprinted in Crafting and Executing Strategy, 15th Edition, Thompson, et.al., McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 571-581.
- “Quality Management in a Modular World”, with Hendrik Harren, The TQM Magazine, Volume 18, No. 1, 2006, pp. 87-96.
- “The Integration of Lean Management and Six Sigma,” with John Maleyeff, The TQM Magazine, Volume 17, Issue 1, 2005, pp. 5-18. (Influential publication and very widely cited by others).
Dr. Arnheiter has published and presented numerous papers, book chapters, and case studies on lean management, Six Sigma, process improvement, and quality management. His research investigates novel applications of Lean Six Sigma methods to improve processes in health care, education, and traditional manufacturing.