Faculty & Research

Steven Eppinger

General Motors Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management
Professor of Management Science and Engineering Systems

Biography | Publications

Steven D. Eppinger is Professor of Management Science at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also holds the General Motors Leaders for Global Operations Chair and has a joint appointment in MIT's Engineering Systems Division. He served as Deputy Dean of MIT Sloan from 2004 to 2009 and as faculty co-director from 2001 to 2003 of the Leaders for Global Operations (formerly MIT Leaders for Manufacturing) and the System Design and Management programs. From 1999 to 2001 he served as co-director of the Center for Innovation in Product Development.

At the MIT Sloan, Prof. Eppinger has created an interdisciplinary product development course, in which graduate students from engineering, management, and industrial design programs collaborate to develop new products. He also teaches MIT's executive programs in the area of product development.

Prof. Eppinger has co-authored a widely used textbook entitled Product Design and Development published by McGraw-Hill. In 1993, he received both MIT's Graduate Student Council Teaching Award and the Sloan School's Award for Innovation and Excellence in Management Education.

Dr. Eppinger's research efforts are applied to improving product design and development practices. This research is conducted within MIT's Center for Innovation in Product Development and focuses on organizing complex design processes in order to accelerate industrial practices. This work has been applied primarily in the automotive, electronics, aerospace, and equipment industries. He authored over forty articles in refereed academic journals and conferences. He received the ASME Best Paper Award in Design Theory and Methodology in 1995 and again in 2001.

Prof. Eppinger received S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. degrees from MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering before joining the MIT faculty in 1988. His experience includes work as a machinist, manufacturing engineer, product designer, and consultant in both prototype and production operations. He lectures regularly for international corporations and in executive education programs. He has consulted for or conducted research with more than fifty firms.

He serves on the Research Advisory Council of the Design Management Institute and on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Society of Concurrent Product Development.

Web Site: http://web.mit.edu/eppinger/www/