Robert C. Leachman

Professor

Ph.D. UC Berkeley, 1979
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

4127 Etcheverry Hall
(510) 642-7054
E-mail: leachmanieor.berkeley.edu

“The opportunities for improving performance are substantial in industrial domains such as high-technology manufacturing and import supply chains. The economic gains afforded by compression of cycle times and reduction of supply chain inventories can be dramatic."

Rob Leachman is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California at Berkeley, where he serves as Director of the Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing (CSM) Program. Dr. Leachman is the author of more than 50 technical publications and has supervised more than 30 PhD dissertations concerning production operations management. He also is President and CEO of Leachman and Associates LLC, a firm providing consulting and software for operations management and logistics analysis to corporations and governments. He received the AB degree in Mathematics and Physics, the MS degree in Operations Research and the PhD degree in Operations Research, all from U. C. Berkeley, and has been a member of the U C Berkeley faculty since 1979. In 1995 Dr. Leachman was the winner of the Franz Edelman Award Competition sponsored by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), recognizing his work to design and implement automated production planning systems in the semiconductor industry. In 2001 Dr. Leachman was the runner-up in the Franz Edelman Award Competition, recognizing his work for automated floor scheduling and cycle time management in the semiconductor industry. The Edelman Award is the highest accolade from INFORMS, given annually recognizing outstanding practice of the management sciences.

Research
  • Planning and Scheduling the Production of Semiconductors and Biopharmaceuticals
  • Economics of Speed, Cycle Time Management
  • Economic Analysis of Import Supply Chains
  • Railroad Operations and Capacity Analysis
Publications
  • “Port and Modal Elasticity Study,” Proceedings of the 2006 National Urban Freight Conference, Long Beach, CA, Feb. 1, 2006. NUFC.pdf
  • "An Exact Solution Procedure for Determining the Optimal Dispatching Times for Complex Rail Networks," IIE Transactions, 38, p. 141-152, (Jan. 2006).
  • “Modeling Train Movements Through Complex Rail Networks,” ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, 14 (1), p. 48-75 (Jan. – Feb. 2004). TrainMovements.pdf
  • “SLIM: Short Cycle Time and Low Inventory in Manufacturing at Samsung Electronics,” Interfaces, 32 (1), p. 61-77 (Jan.-Feb. 2002). SLIM.pdf
  • "Semiconductor Production Planning," in Handbook of Applied Optimization, Panos M. Pardalos and Mauricio G. C. Resende (Eds.), Oxford University Press, New York, p. 746-762 (2001).
  • "Dynamic Models of Production with Multiple Operations and General Processing Times," in Journal of the Operational Research Society, 48 (6), p. 647-654 (June, 1997).
  • "Benchmarking Semiconductor Manufacturing" (with D. Hodges), IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, May, 1996.
  • "IMPReSS: An Automated Production Planning and Delivery Quotation System at Harris Corporation - Semiconductor Sector" (with R. Benson, D. Raar and C. Liu), Interfaces, January - February, 1996. IMPRESS.pdf
Public Consulting Reports
Ph.D. Theses Supervised
  • "Integration of Speed Economics into Decision Technologies for Manufacturing Management," S. Ding
  • "Exploiting Separable Structures to Accelerate Learning Before Doing and Learning By Doing in Production," D. Moore
  • "Scheduling Back-End Semiconductor Manufacturing," P. Jula
  • "Learning by Using in Semiconductor Manufacturing: The Role of Local Information and Problem Solving Capabilities," P. Palezzato
  • "Advanced Semiconductor Production Planning," V. Lin
  • "Incremental Production Planning for the Semiconductor Industry Using Linear Programming," R.F. Benson
  • "Automated Procedures for Characterizing Specific Equipment Productivity Losses with Applications in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry," D.P. Busing