Yavuz A. Bozer

Additional Title(s)

• Curriculum Committee Chair

Professor Bozer’s teaching and research interests focus on the development of quantitative models to design and improve the performance of material handling systems in manufacturing, distribution, e-commerce, and logistics. He is also a leading researcher in facility logistics and design, including manufacturing facilities, warehouses, fulfillment centers, and supply chain facilities including cross-docks and distribution centers. In addition to developing operations research (OR) tools in the above areas, he has studied the application of Lean techniques and value stream analysis in the design and operation of manufacturing and distribution processes.

Professor Bozer’s professional experience includes his full-time employment as a consultant with the SysteCon Division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Subsequently, he worked at the Material Handling Research Center at Georgia Tech as a full-time Research Engineer. He received the 1987 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). In 1988 he was named a Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) by the National Science Foundation. He was inducted into the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni at Georgia Tech in 1995, and he received the Technical Innovation Award in Industrial Engineering from IIE in 1999. His publications have appeared in leading refereed journals in his area. He is also a co-author of Facilities Planning (Wiley), a well-regarded textbook translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. Professor Bozer served for 11 years as the Engineering Co-Director of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. He is also the Co-Director/Co-Founder of the Lean Manufacturing and Lean Logistics Certificate Programs offered through Nexus at the U-M College of Engineering where he trained or consulted with a long list of leading, well-known companies in various sectors spanning manufacturing, defense, and healthcare.

His recent work includes device dispatching in trip-based material handling systems, intra-facility patient transport in large hospitals, order picking systems in online retailing, and food supply networks in multi-node settings such as fast food chains and pizza outlets.