Donald Kieffer

Faculty

Donald Kieffer

Get in Touch

Title

About

Academic Groups

Academic Area

Donald Kieffer is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at MIT Sloan.

He is a career operations executive and co-creator of Dynamic Work Design. Kieffer started working running equipment in factories at age 17. He was vp of operational excellence at Harley-Davidson where he worked for 15 years. Since 2007, he has been advising executive teams around the globe in a range of areas including strategy deployment, product development, and operational improvement. Don has worked with industries as diverse as oil/gas, medical, biomedical, and banking.

His guidance was instrumental in transforming both the production and technical development areas of a Cambridge-based genomic sequencing organization, now an industry leader, using the techniques of Dynamic Work Design.

He is founder of ShiftGear Work Design, LLC and also teaches Operations Management at AVT in Copenhagen.

Kieffer holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

A better process for processes

Visualization techniques natural to factory work can help knowledge workers transform their processes.

Read Article
Ideas Made to Matter

The top 10 MIT Sloan stories of 2018

Top 10 news and research articles for 2018 from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Read Article
Load More

Media Highlights

Executive Education

Executive Education Course

Business Process Design for Strategic Management

Learn to optimize business processes through Dynamic Work Design, a set of principles and methods for achieving sustainable improvement efforts of any scale, in any industry, and in any function.

  • Oct 4-Nov 21, 2023
  • Jul 24-Sep 10, 2024
  • May 1-Jun 18, 2024
  • Feb 14-Apr 2, 2024
  • Oct 2-Nov 19, 2024
  • Apr 30-Jun 11, 2025
  • Oct 1-Nov 12, 2025
  • Feb 12-Mar 26, 2025
  • Jul 23-Sep 3, 2025
View Course
Executive Education Course

Advanced Management Program

The Advanced Management Program (AMP) is a month-long senior executive program designed for a diverse group of experienced leaders seeking transformative learning among global peers. AMP participants will engage in custom learning components led by MIT’s world-renowned faculty, including interactive classroom sessions, management simulations, case studies, 1:1 leadership coaching, and individualized feedback assessments. Participants will also explore the many companies, labs and centers that make MIT and surrounding Kendall Square the epicenter of innovation worldwide.

  • May 28-Jun 28, 2024
  • May 27-Jun 26, 2025
View Course