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John Nicholas

Professor Emeritus, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management

John Nicholas was professor of operations management and project management in the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago. During his career, he was an active teacher, writer, and researcher in project management and production management and conducted executive seminars and consuls on project management and process improvement.

He is the author of numerous academic and technical publications and five books, including Project Management for Engineering, Business, and Techonology (2024), Lean Production for Competitive Advantage (2018), The Portal to Lean Production (2006), and Competitve Manufactruring Managemetn (1998).

Prior to Loyola, he held the positions of team lead and engineer on aircraft development projects at Lockheed-Martin Corporation, team lead and business analyst on operations projects at Bank America, and researcher on energy-environmental research projects at Argonne National Laboratory.

Education

  • PhD, Industrial Engineering and Applied Behavioral Science, Northwestern University
  • MBA, Systems Analysis and Operations Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • BS, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

  • Project and Program Management
  • Lean Production
  • Performance of Small Teams in Confined, Isolated, and Stressful Environments

Professional/Community Affiliations

  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (senior member)
  • American Production and Inventory Control Society
  • Association for Manufacturing Excellence
  • Experimental Aircraft Association
  • Institute of Industrial Engineers (senior member)

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

  • SCMG 337: Fundamentals of Lean Production
  • SCMG 341: Quality Management & Continuing Improvement
  • ISSCM 349: Project Management

MBA

  • SCMG 480: Intro to Operations Management
  • SCMG 482: Lean Production Concepts and Practices
  • SCMG 483: Management of Service Operations
  • ISSCM 484: Project Management

Executive MBA

  • ISSCM 484: Project Management

Healthcare MBA

  • SCMG 480H: Intro to Operations Management

Publications/Research Listings

Lean Daily Management in Healthcare: Origins, Practices, and Associations with Lean Leadership and Lean Sustainability. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol. 33, No. 3-4, March-April, 2023, 27 pp. DOI: 10.1080/14783363.2023.2182677.

A New Way of Thinking about IT Project Management Practices: Early Empirical Results, (with Gezinus Hidding). Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol 27, No. 1, 2017, 81-95.

Hoshin Kanri and Critical Success Factors in Quality Management and Lean Production. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, Vol. 27, No. 3-4, March-April, 2016, 250-64.

A Framework for Collecting and Defining Requirements for Data Warehousing Projects, (with Nenad Jukic). Journal of Computing and Information Technology, 18(4), December, 2010, 377-384.

A Proposed Profile of the Effective Leader in Human Space Flight Based on Findings from Analog Environments, (with L. Penwell). Aviation, Space, & Environmental Medicine. Jan. 1995, 63-72.

Awards

  • Sigma Iota Epsilon Honorary Business Society
  • Loyola Quinlan School Summer Research Fellowship (several)
  • Research Stimulation Fund Award
  • Outstanding Faculty Award, Loyola Graduate School of Business
  • James A. Kemper Research Fellowship
  • School of Business Research Fellowship