Education

• Ph.D. (Industrial Engineering), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, 1998
• M.E. (Intelligent Manufacturing), Tianjin University, China, 1993
• B.E. (Mechanical Design), Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China, 1988

Background

Dr. Jiao joined the Woodruff School in December 2008. Prior, he was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Before his career in Singapore, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 1998 to 1999. From 1993 to 1994, he was a Lecturer of Industrial Engineering in the School of Management at Tianjin University, China, and from 1988 to 1990, he worked as an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Industrial Design at Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China.

Research

• Computer-Aided Engineering and Design and Manufacturing; Enterprise and industrial systems engineering, information engineering for complex engineered systems, production and operations management, affective design, decision-based design, and human-machine interfaces

Dr. Jiao's research activities are geared toward a good leverage of practical relevance and academic rigor. He is interested in a number of investigations related to an extended enterprise, involving engineering design and product development (design theory and methodology, product family and product platform, customer requirement management, affective design and Kansei engineering, design project management, service modeling and service delivery system design), enterprise engineering and industrial systems (reconfigurable manufacturing systems, production planning and control, supply chain management and engineering logistics, system modeling and simulation, sales/marketing manufacturing interface, global manufacturing and operations, mass customization), as well as manufacturing and management information systems (artificial intelligence in design and manufacturing, industrial applications of e-commerce, virtual enterprise).

His research is motivated by the current trend of manufacturing companies to move toward global manufacturing in order to better leverage capabilities and resources worldwide. Product realization then becomes globally distributed and necessitates collaboration that transcends geographic boundaries. Strategic engineering with a focus on product creation suggests itself to be of primary importance for companies to gain competitive edges. Product design has to address individual customer needs along with diverse market niches, while maintaining low costs and near mass production efficiency. Build-to-order and reconfiguration have become common norms. The traditional spectrum of product fulfillment therefore must be expended to encompass marketing, design, production, as well as supply and value chains; and must be aligned with the self-adaptability of a learning organization. Dr. Jiao's vision is that the product creation horizon will be shifted from a physical product perspective to a total life cycle experience. Product creation should be more than just dealing with pieces of hardware, but rather should be enacted as the co-design of an entire ecosystem, including fulfillment, services, experiences and human satisfaction at the individual and the community levels.

Core elements of strategic engineering with focus on product creation.