Faculty Spotlight: Sriram Narayanan

Last Updated June 20, 2023

With a professional background and research interests that span multiple industries—automotive, apparel, software—Dr. Sriram Narayanan, Kesseler Family Endowed Faculty Fellow in Supply Chain Management, has a broad range of experience “that informs me in a lot of different ways,” he says. “I appreciate that these experiences help me connect to managerial problems, and I think that’s part of my job.”

This informed experience and his often socio-operational approach to managing productivity and innovation make him a sought-after expert for industry commentary and provide a wealth of cross-industry applications for his MSU students to glean.

We talked with Dr. Narayanan about his current research in the apparel industry, a recent interview with Popular Mechanics and the importance of student engagement for success.

Q. Can you tell us more about your background, how you developed an interest in supply chain and operations management, and what led you to Michigan State?

My background is as a mechanical engineer. I’m from India and worked with Maruti Udyog Limited, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation. I have an MBA from the University of Delhi and I also worked in the software industry as a project lead for several years before going to UNC-Chapel Hill for a doctoral program in Operations Technology and Innovation Management. I’ve always been very interested in products and the creation of products from my work experience, and that’s when I started becoming more and more interested in supply chain because the basis of a supply chain is making and distributing products.

I came to Michigan State because it was one of the best supply chain programs. I had the opportunity to be a part of this group, so I just couldn’t turn them down! I’m very blessed to be here. What you look for are colleagues who can be great mentors. It was a great attraction to have fantastic colleagues who would be willing to work with you, who would teach you more than you know and give you the opportunity to grow as an academic.

Q. In your faculty biography, you state that your “passion is to work on real problems in the field and craft research issues from those.” What’s a current real-world problem that you’re focusing on and how is that driving your research?

My most recent research has focused on socio-operations. I’m very interested in trying to understand how operations in factories can be made more inclusive and how better inclusiveness has an economic impact. I’m working with a clothing company here in Michigan and have collected deep data on employment of people with disabilities and the impact of that on productivity in an operational environment.

The other project I’m working on is looking at worker inclusion in apparel factories and how to make the working environment better and more sustainable. For this apparel focus, we’re doing something in Bangladesh with collaborators working on the ground in that space. We’re trying to work with a couple of companies to collect data to see how inclusiveness can be improved.

As a researcher, you try to learn different contexts and issues so once you get a sense of what’s really happening in one area, you can use similar concepts in other domains. For example, the disability project that I’m looking at here in Michigan is in the apparel industry, so what are those common threads in a completely different inclusivity point in Bangladesh. Inclusivity means a lot of different things in different settings, so you look for those different elements—it could be inclusivity of ethnicity, gender, abilities, etc. When people work in a group, how does that impact the way organizations think about work relationships, work structure and being able to offer the right environment for people to succeed?

Q. In looking at “real-world problems,” you were recently interviewed by Popular Mechanics regarding Tesla’s production issues with its Model 3. In the article, you stated, “There are many fundamental differences in the way Tesla has approached the supply chain and assembly as compared to other carmakers. [Elon] Musk is breaking new ground.” Could you explain some of those differences that you see as innovative and “breaking new ground”?

For one thing, Tesla’s supply chain is more vertically integrated than some of the automakers, like GM or Ford. Tesla is a little different. For example, their battery production. They’re not tied up with suppliers. They have some, but they own their battery facility. One of the biggest parts of electric car production is the battery. Then, the Tesla product design itself is very different. In a lot of ways, the product decides the structure of the supply chain. And then, how do you ramp up production? They’re trying to automate substantially. They’re doing what’s rational, but it takes a little time.

A lot of large auto companies have been around for a while. For Tesla, it’s making the Model 3 and scaling the production, so it’s going through your basic learning curve to get things done. It’s in its childhood. If they’re able to master it, they’re going to go really far. Any company doing something new is going to have troubles. It’s like Amazon. When they came out in the e-commerce marketplace. They were growing fast and had their share of troubles, but now it’s quite different. I think that’s what Tesla’s going through.

Q. Do you have a real-world example or go-to organization that you use as a model for teaching students about effective supply chain management? 

It’s important to draw concepts from across the board. I teach classes on system operations and product innovations, so I feel like the examples you draw must come from some basis of the concept you’re trying to teach.

I draw from the automobile industry and the software industry because I do have experience working in those settings. When I’m teaching about products, the automobile industry is very advanced in how they manage their products and set up the structure of their products. The software industry is very different and processes there are very different. They do give concepts and experiences at two ends of the spectrum.

Q. SCM 883 Technology and Product Innovation Management is one of the courses you teach in the MS in Supply Chain Management program. Could you give an overview of the course curriculum and the lessons students can apply in their professional endeavors?

The class takes a bigger view of the innovation process in organizations, including how they can innovate processes around supply chain so they can get the best out of their innovation dollars. There are many different ways innovation comes together. We learn about sources of innovation, the connection to the execution of innovation in supply chains and project management and how companies need to consider the industry as a whole in thinking about innovations.

It’s eight weeks of lecture and self-work, but what I try to do is give the students an idea of how this process works from end to end. They can go into their companies and work to set up similar processes. Sometimes they go and talk to their colleagues about what they can do—extend their ideas to each other. It’s not just about me teaching them or going through the course curriculum; it’s also about providing a platform for interaction so students can exchange ideas about the course curriculum, and I think we’ve had quite a bit of that in the class. I’ve always found a good measure of students who come back and say it’s a very applied course and that they really enjoy it.

Q. In looking at the future of the supply chain, what are the disruptors and threats that organizations and future supply chain professionals need to be prepared to meet?

There are lots of them! Artificial intelligence is one of them, devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing. For example, with more and more 3D printing showing up, you can make products in smaller quantities, and if you’re making products in smaller quantities, you must have a different supply chain design. For larger goods, many companies are integrating products and services, so you can’t exclusively do great in one but not the other.

If you think about what supply chain professionals need to do for that, they need to master the basic concepts because if they don’t understand the basic concepts, advanced technologies cannot help them. They really need to understand how to leverage these new technologies, like 3D printing, IoT, blockchain, and understand how they’re going to use them in their context to create value—not just for their company but for the customer.

Q. In looking at the “supply chain talent gap,” what do you think the industry should do to attract new professionals?

At the industry level, can companies think about making their supply chain professionals CEOs? Tim Cook was in some ways a supply chain professional who then became the CEO of Apple. He was a procurement guy [Cook managed manufacturing and distribution functions while at IBM]. You don’t become a CEO by being part of a supply chain, but more CEOs of large companies that have a supply chain background would be fantastic. Every time there’s a visionary CEO, he or she has a few thousand followers, so that helps to have visible leaders, who have changed their programs and reached the top of their profession. The more we have people like that, the more visibility we have.

For example, Blue Apron, the meal kit deliver company, they appointed a Chief Supply Chain Officer. If you think about these new age companies, they’re thinking about this as a big deal. It shows they really care about large-scale supply chain—otherwise, why would they appoint somebody like that? Companies are wising up to it!

Q. Why should prospective students enroll in an MSU Supply Chain Management degree or certificate program?

There are lots of reasons, but for starters, we have a very holistic program—we can take a student through a wide range of topics in supply chain. Supply chain itself is very vast, and I think we’re very good at logistics, operations, and procurement. We also have a very strong alumni base of supply chain professionals because we’ve been very good at supply chain for a long time—for a generation now! So, students who graduate out of the MSU program have a leg up from that standpoint. And we’re all very research active, all of the faculty, and doing high-quality research.

Q. What do you consider to be the key factors for student success in the Supply Chain Management degree or certificate programs? 

One of the key factors is engagement. I’ve found that the ultimate thing is that you’re in a program not just for the degree, but for the larger network, for the overall value the program can bring to your career. I think MSU can do that if students are engaged inside the classroom and outside. How deeply you’re engaged, how much time you’re able to put into what needs to be done. If you think of this as a simple degree program, that’s probably not the best way to look at it. We’ve had students really engaged in the past that have gone on to write papers; I’ve had students with whom I’ve worked on research papers with that we’ve published in the MS program. You want to learn the concepts and ideas, but the key thing is engagement. It’s up to the student how much engagement they want to show, and if they are engaged, most of the faculty are engaged already.

Q. What is one fun fact about you?

I have a deep interest in philosophy and classical music. I have blogged on philosophy, and my specialty is Indian philosophy. I play an Indian musical instrument called a mridangam; it’s a drum. I’ve played in concerts before. I have a five-year-old—that’s a fun fact! She just started kindergarten, and I’m trying to get her into robots—something fun we can do together.