David J. Sumanth

Dr. David J. Sumanth, Professor Emeritus of Industrial Engineering, University of Miami, USA (dsumanth@miami.edu)

Dr. David J. Sumanth (Doctor Productivity™) is nationally and internationally recognized as a pioneer in the areas of “Productivity Engineering” and Total Productivity Management (TPmgt). He founded an interdisciplinary Productivity Research Group (UM-PRG) in 1979, with researchers from the Departments of Industrial Engineering, Management Science, and Management at the UM (“U”). Grants for the UM-PRG included the National Science Foundation, US Urban Mass Transit Authority, US Department of Energy, Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office, Miami Lakes City Administration, Citibank, IBM, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, and revenues from Int. Conferences on Productivity & Quality Research (ICPQRs). He established the Productivity Engineering concentration in MSIE program in 1979, making it the first of its kind in the world. He was Program Director for the dual degree MBA/MSIE Program (1985-1994), Graduate Advisor (1985–1999), and Program Advisor for B.S.I.E Engineering Management Concentration (1985-2008). He supervised master’s and doctoral students and taught thousands of undergrad students –all who are influencers in the world.

David’s degrees include B.E. (Distinction, 1967), M.E. (Distinction, 1969) in Mechanical Engineering from the Osmania University, India; and M.S. (1974) and Ph.D. (1979) in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago.

David’s first book, Productivity Engineering and Management (McGraw Hill: 1984, 1985, 1990, 1994), and his second book, Total Productivity Management (1997) helped establish undergraduate and graduate courses in these subjects in more than 50 countries in Industrial Engineering and/or MBA programs. He is Founder-Chairman of the series of International Conferences on Productivity and Quality Research (ICPQR from1987, and has chaired 14 conferences in the USA, Finland, Israel, Egypt, and India. He is also the Founding President of the International Society for Productivity & Quality Research (ISPQR) since 1993.

David’s 20+ books include his classics: “Productivity Engineering and Management,” “Total Productivity Management,” and “Administracion de la Productividad Total.” His 100+ research publications, papers, books and videos on “Total Productivity Management” and “Technology Management” have been used for by tens of thousands of personnel from Businesses, Governments, Academic Institutions, Religious Institutions, and Families. Sumanth’s Total Productivity Model (STPM) software has been licensed to more than 40 companies. David has lectured on, and conducted seminars on his work to many thousands, at eminent organizations including IIT Research Institute (Chicago), UC Berkeley, University of Cambridge, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-New Delhi, Technion (Israel), University of Waasa (Finland), Tobb University (Turkey), The Airforce (Peru), Citicorp, and IBM.

David has been serving the IE Department, the College of Engineering, and the University of Miami for 43+ years as of August 2022 as Assistant-, Associate-, Full Professor (with a secondary appointment in the Department of Management of the Miami Herbert Business School), and Professor Emeritus. He also served as a Senator for the College of Engineering, and in the University-wide committees including the Tenure & Promotion Review. He is presently a member of the prestigious Heritage Society of the University of Miami, and is an Iron Arrow, “the highest honor at the University of Miami.” He is privileged to serve under Presidents Henry King Stanford, Edward Foote III, Donna Shalala, and Julio Frenk; under Deans Norman Einspruch, Martin Becker, Lew Temares, James Tien, Pierre Bardet, Daniel Berg, and Pratim Biswas; and under Chairs Carl M. Kromp, Tarek M. Khalil, Norman G. Einspruch, Shihab S. Asfour, and Vincent K. Omachonu.

David and his bride of 48 years, have two sons: Dr. John J. Sumanth (tenured Associate Professor & former Associate Dean of MBA Programs at the Wake Forest University); Paul J. Sumanth, who was unexpectedly taken to his heavenly abode on June 23, 2000, while he was on his way to the UM where he was a Pre-med student. After a divine call, the Sumanths founded a not-for-profit, 501 c(3) entity: Paul J. Sumanth Ministries, Inc. in 2001. David took an early retirement in 2007 and has been leading the development of education for destitute and orphan children in south India. The Ministry has been responsible to have graduated from 15 campuses 16,000+ children from the 10th grade. Some children earned degrees such as B.S., B.Sc., MBA, and B.E. (Computer Engineering). The Ministry also has built 8 worship centers in rural areas and has helped establish a basic infrastructure for the poor. David has taught 5,000+ clergy in the USA, India, Honduras, and Colombia, to apply his “Productivity Engineering” and TPmgt theories to manage their worship centers more “total productively.” These 21 years of experience of close interaction with the desperately poor of the village- and urban areas, has enabled David to formulate a thinking he calls “3D Poverty” Management. He presented a paper on this topic at the ICPQR 2005 conference in IIT-New Delhi, where he regularly lectures in doctoral programs. He is refining this model, with his “Total Productivity Thinking (TPT)” as part of his work in the Development Economics, and Social Economics as productivity is an economics concept. His multi-disciplinary understanding of TPT has put him on a quest to learn relevant disciplines: psychology, sociology, anthropology, genetics, and neurosciences. His vision is to develop a generic model that can help create “Total Productive Societies” (TPS).

David’s biographical listings include Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, the 5000 Personalities of the World, and Who’s Who Humanitarians. His many recognitions include Outstanding Industrial Engineer of the Year, the George Washington Honor Medal for Excellence in Economic Education, Fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science, The Alexander Orr Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Miami, Iron Arrow, the highest honor at the University of Miami, the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, and Marquis’ Distinguished Humanitarian Award. David served as the founding Chief Judge (1992-2001) for the Florida Sterling Award for Quality, and is a Member of the Heritage Society, University of Miami. He also holds several distinguished professorships.