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Ravi Kumar
Professor of Information and Operations Management

USC Marshall School of Business
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0808

Phone: 
213-740-2379
rkumar@marshall.usc.edu
Education: 
PhD, Northwestern University; MS, University of Texas - Arlington; BTech, Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Overview

Ravi Kumar studies global operations, with an emphasis on improving performance through cellular design and integrated decision-making. He has published in Management Science, Marketing Science, Journal of Economic Theory, Production and Operations Management, and Journal of Management Information Systems, and serves as senior editor for Production and Operations Management. Professor Kumar won several awards for teaching excellence at the University of Illinois and received Marshall's Golden Apple Award. He has consulted with Rolls Royce, BMW, Motorola, and Reuters, among others. He was dean of the College of Business at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology from 2009 to 2011.

Research

An Exploratory Inter-Industry Study of Competitive Strategy, Manufacturing Strategy, and Performance Measures: A Survey of Chinese Firms • 2012
Korean Air Cargo: To Become Stronger and Smarter • 2011
Allocation of Air Cargo Capacity to Decentralized Sales Agents • 2010
International Supply Chains and Product Design • 2010
Hyundai KIA Plant in Georgia: Stability or Responsiveness? • 2010
Equilibrium Product Positioning and Pricing when the Number of Firms in the Market Changes: A Marketing-Production Perspective • 2010
A Heuristic for Marketing Production Decisions in Industrial • 2009
E-Mart: Venturing into China • 2009
ITC Wills Lifestyle Retailing: A Change in Business Operations Strategy • 2009
On the Impact of Operational Costs and changing Consumer Expectations in Designing Web-based retail Stores • 2005
Operations Consulting • 2004
An Exploratory Study of Competitive Strategy, Manufacturing Strategy, and Performance Measurement Systems in China • 2004
Platform Products: Theory and Evidence from International Practice Linking manufacturing, Marketing and Product Design • 2003
Customer Satisfaction through Design, Manufacturing and Supply Networks: Introduction to the Special Issue • 2002
Comparative Analysis of Performance Metrics in a Developing Country: The Case of China • 2002
Taiwanese IT Hardware Industry and Implications for the Indian Software Industry • 2002
Modeling Manufacturing and Marketing Options in International Operations • 2002
Sibling Brands, Multiple Objectives and Response to Entry: The Case of the Marion Retail Coffee Market • 2002
Assessing Life-Cycle Environmental Impact: Metholdology to Spur Design of Greener Products and Services • 2001
Marketing Mix Response to Entry in Segmented Markets • 2001
Methodology to assess the environmental impact of a product and its processes • 2000
Marketing-Production Coordination in Channels of Distribution • 2000
Total Product Quality • 2000
Product Design for Global Markets • 1999
Extending the Boundaries of Operations Management: An International Field Studies Approach integrating Information Systems • 1998
Making the World Your Oyster: Experiences from Teaching Information Systems Management for Global Operations • 1998
Determination of attributes affecting environmental cost by a fuzzy logic system • 1997
Factors affecting International Product Design • 1997
• 1997
Marketing and Production Strategies for International Enterprises • 1996
A Heuristic-Based Procedure for the Weighted Production Cell Formation Problems • 1996
Resource Allocation to Defensive Marketing and Manufacturing Strategies • 1996
A Heuristic Procedure for the Single-row Facility Layout Problem • 1995
NICHER: An Approach to Identifying Defensible Product Positions • 1995
Warranty and Product Distribution • 1995
Organizational Innovation Process: A Conceptual Framework • 1994
Retail stocking decisions with Order and Stock Sales • 1994
Manufacturing and Product Policies for International Enterprises • 1994
Pricing Policy and Profitability of Multinational and Global Corporations • 1993
Cellular Manufacturing at Champion Irrigation Products • 1993
From Mass Production to Mass Customization and Beyond • 1993
Service Based Manufacturing: The Service Factory • 1992
An Equilibrium Analysis of Defensive Response to Entry with Coupled Response Functions • 1992
Transition Toward Cellular Manufacturing: The Process and Its Impact on a Company's Practices • 1992
Impact of Customer Co-Construction in Product/Service Markets • 1991
Strategic Groupings as Competitive Benchmarks for Formulating Future Competitive Strategy: A Modeling Approach • 1990
The Incorporation of Learning in Production Planning Models • 1989
Defensive Marketing Strategies: Equilibrium Analysis based on De-coupled Response Function Models • 1988
Feedback Control Theory Approach for Schedulilng Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1988
Minimal Bottleneck Cell Approach for Generating Part-Machine Families in Cellular Manufacturing • 1988
Pre-emptive Product Positioning Under Market Share Restrictions • 1988
Product Positioning Strategies for Segment Preemption • 1988
Dynamic Network Modelling of Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1987
Dynamic Network Nodelling of Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1987
Intelligent Control of Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1987
Dynamic Network Modelling of an FMS • 1987
Intelligent Feedback Control for Computer Integrated Manufacturing • 1987
Multiple Brand Synergy and Market Structure • 1987
Strategic Subcontracting for Efficient Dis-aggregated Manufacturing • 1987
Design of Flexible Production Systems: Capacity Balancing and Subcontracting Strategies • 1986
Clustering Analysis: Models and Algorithms • 1986
Grouping of Parts and Components in Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1986
Method for Finding Minimal Bottleneck Cells for Grouping Part-Machine Families • 1986
Efficient Algorithms for Grouping Parts-Machines in Flexible Manufacturing Systems • 1985
Monopolistic Competition, Aggregation of Competitive • 1985
Robot Justification and Evaluation using Lotus-123 • 1985
Mapping the Fields of Operations Management • 1984
Selecting a Test Level for Random Effects • 1978
On Proactive and Uniform Environmental Operations Strategy in Multinational Corporations