IISE Operational Excellence (Opex) Division Teaching Award

Annual award for excellence in the teaching of operational excellence concepts

IISE's Operational Excellence Division offers a number of awards to recognize the contribution of individuals to advancing the knowledge and practice of operational excellence (process improvement) concepts. The division's teaching award is given out annually to honor the services of a person/group of people who have developed curriculum and disseminated courses in the subject area. The division now invites nominations for the Operational Excellence Teaching Award. The award will be presented at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo, May 20-23, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Eligibility Criteria

  • The candidate must be a member of IISE.
  • The course for which they are being recognized must be an operational excellence (process improvement) course within an industrial engineering department or a closely related program (examples of closely related programs include systems engineering and engineering management, examples of course titles might be lean manufacturing systems, lean system modeling and simulation, lean logistics, lean supply networks, lean practice and management, just-in-time production system, lean Six Sigma, total quality management, process improvement, etc.).
  • Course materials for which they are being recognized must have been developed and taught by the candidate for at least two times or more.
  • The awardees for the past five years are not eligible to apply for this award.

Evaluation Criteria

The following criteria will be used by the judges in evaluating the applications submitted. Applicants are encouraged to provide supporting documentation to demonstrate their contributions in these areas.

  • Leadership: demonstration of creating or fostering leadership and excellence in the teaching of operational excellence (process improvement) techniques and tools
  • Design and Content Quality: the appropriateness/relevance of the course content to educating the target audience
  • Applied Learning: the development and use of materials to empower students to apply and implement operational excellence (process improvement) techniques through the use of games, hands-on simulations and assignments/projects, etc.
  • Innovation: use of innovative approaches to teach the principles and practices of operational excellence (process improvement) systems
  • Student Satisfaction: evidence that teaching of operational excellence (process improvement) concepts are of value to department, student and community as shown in the course evaluations and statements from students

Nominations may be made by a faculty colleague or a student who has taken the course from the candidate. The nomination package must consist of the following:

  • Letters of support from the nominator and two other individuals; at least one of the three letters must be from a faculty member in the same department and one from a student who enrolled and completed the course
  • Course syllabus and supporting items such as samples of different instructional materials used
  • Summary copies of teaching evaluations
  • Curriculum vitae of the candidate
  • A one-page reflective statement by the individual being nominated

All supporting documents in the nomination package should be submitted in one PDF file via email. For large documentations, the submission can be made on a CD or via other means such as FTP access or www.yousendit.com.

Deadline for nominations is Feb. 14, 2023. Please email the entire package to Farnaz Ghazi Nezami ,  Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Kettering University. The winner will be notified March 15, 2023.

2023 Winner

Nicholas Loyd
University of Alabama, Huntsville

Past Winners

Operational Excellence Division page

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