Urban Wemmerlöv is the Kress Family Professor at the Wisconsin School of Business, where he directs the Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management.

His teaching and research interests are in the areas of healthcare operations management, cellular manufacturing, focused factories, lean principles, change management, and planning and control systems. Many of his more than 80 publications focus on the design, implementation, and operation of cells, including his book, “Reorganizing the Factory: Competing through Cellular Manufacturing” (with Nancy Hyer; Productivity Press, 2002) which received the 2003 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research. Recent and ongoing research has been in the areas of health care organization and product design changes.

Wemmerlöv was instrumental in the planning and establishment of the Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management. In 1994, he was appointed its first director. He has also been actively involved with UW-Madison’s Center for Quick Response Manufacturing and faculty/student field research projects carried out through this center.

He is a certified fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society and a fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. He has been associate editor for the Journal of Operations Management and area editor for Production and Operations Management. Currently, he serves as associate editor for the Decision Sciences journal.

Wemmerlöv holds a B.S. in business, an M.S. in mechanical engineering, and a doctorate in production management (all from Lund University, Sweden), and an M.S. in IEOR (from the University of California-Berkeley).