Dr Prakash J. Singh is Professor of Operations Management with the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne and undergraduate degrees in engineering and business from Queensland University of Technology.
Prakash’s expertise is in operations and supply chain management fields. Specifically, his research into operations management focuses on operations strategy, process innovation and quality management. In the area of supply chain management, his research looks at procurement, supplier management, contract design, relationship management, and analysis and design of supply networks. His studies have been based in transport and logistics, healthcare, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, business consulting, public sector as well as the not-for-profit and voluntary sectors. His research has been published in many leading journals including Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and International Journal of Operations and Production Management. He has obtained over $6 million of research grants to support his research. These include Australian Research Council Discovery, Linkage and Industrial Transformation Training Centre grants. He has been awarded three Dean’s Certificates for Excellent Research. Prakash has supervised ten PhD students to completion and seven postdoctoral research fellows to date.
Prakash has engaged extensively with industry, government and the NGO sector. In the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, he worked with four postdoctoral research fellows on operational productivity improvement projects in three leading companies, GlaxoSmithKline, CSL and Hospira. He has advised the Australian Government on nationally significant issues such as processes for managing an immigration program and governing an international aid project. Another project investigated the business models of organisations involved in creating social and economic value in poor communities in the Philippines and Indonesia (funded by German Government Aid Agency). In other projects, he has investigated optimisation of supply chains for a railway company and advised a professional services firm on its corporate structure. He has also provided pro-bono service to a community legal service and an indigenous business development agency.
Prakash has served in a number of leadership positions within the university and in the profession. He is currently the Head of Department of Management and Marketing. He has previously served as the Deputy Head of Department (Teaching and Learning), and as the Department’s PhD and MCom program director. He served as co-Director of the Faculty’s Social Investment Research Group and was the University’s representative on the board of the Centre for Social Impact. Externally, he is a former President of the Global Manufacturing Research Group, an international network of 30 high-profile operations management researchers, as well as an editorial board member of four journals, including the Journal of Operations Management and Journal of Supply Chain Management. He has also co-convened the annual Australian national meetings of Operations Management researchers for the past fifteen years.
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