Rob Handfield

Bio

Rob Handfield is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University and director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (http://scrc.ncsu.edu). He also serves as an adjunct professor with the Supply Chain Management Research Group at the Manchester Business School.

Handfield is the consulting editor of the Journal of Operations Management, one of the leading supply chain management journals in the field, and is the author of several books on supply chain management, the most recent being Supply Market Intelligence, Supply Chain Re-Design and Introduction to Supply Chain Management (Prentice Hall, 1999, 25,000 copies sold, and translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).  He has co-authored textbooks for MBA and undergraduate classes including Purchasing and Supply Chain Management 3rd revision (with Robert Monczka) and Operations and Supply Chain Management (with Cecil Bozarth).  Handfield was identified as one of a handful of individuals in the 2007 “Pros to Know” list compiled by Supply and Demand Chain Executive journal :(http://www.sdcexec.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=9287).  He is regularly quoted in periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Inc. Supply Chain Management Review, and other periodicals.

Handfield has consulted with over 25 Fortune 500 companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Freightliner, Boston Scientific, Delphi, Chevron, British Petroleum, Nortel Networks, Chevron Phillips, Lyondell Chemical, Conoco Phillips, Federal Express, Milliken, and others.  He has published more than 100 articles in top management journals including California Management Review, Sloan Management Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Sciences.

Dr. Handfield’s research with a number of leading SCM organizations across a variety of industries has identified that companies who excel in the consistent application of “best-in-class” supply management processes and practices, and becoming a customer of choice, have demonstrated significantly higher financial performance than their competitors.  This performance of best-in-class organizations has not gone unnoticed by market analysts and has been amply rewarded by significant improvements in stock performance.

Handfield is considered a thought leader in the field of supply chain management, and is an industry expert in the field of strategic sourcing, supply market intelligence, and supplier development.  He has spoken on these subjects across the globe, including China, Turkey, Latin America, Europe, Japan, Canada, and other locals.

Area(s) of Expertise

Supply Chain Management

Publications

• Blurry vision: Supply chain visibility for personal protective equipment during COVID-19 , Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management (2021)
• Loss rate forecasting framework based on macroeconomic changes: Application to US credit card industry , EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS (2021)
• A Commons for a Supply Chain in the Post‐COVID‐19 Era: The Case for a Reformed Strategic National Stockpile , The Milbank Quarterly (2020)
• Addressing Social Issues in Commodity Markets: Using Cost Modeling as an Enabler of Public Policy in the Bangladeshi Apparel Industry , JOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (2020)
• Assessing supply chain risk for apparel production in low cost countries using newsfeed analysis , SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL (2020)
• Corona virus, tariffs, trade wars and supply chain evolutionary design , INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS & PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT (2020)
• Forecasting model selection using intermediate classification: Application to MonarchFx corporation , EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS (2020)
• Life-cycle modeling framework for electronic waste recovery and recycling processes , RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING (2020)
• Overcoming blind spots in global sourcing research: Exploiting the cross-sections between supply chain management and international business , JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT (2020)
• Analytical foundations for development of real-time supply chain capabilities , INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH (2019)

Groups

• Department of Business Management
• Faculty
• Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Professor
• Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC)