[bio] Professor Iyer was named Purdue University Faculty Scholar in 1999. His teaching and research interests are operations management and logistics. Professor Iyer's research currently focuses on analysis of the impact of promotions on logistics systems in the grocery industry, and analysis of the impact of competitors on operational management models. His other topics of study include inventory management in the fashion industry, effect of supplier contracts, and use of data sets in operations management model building.

His published works include "The Supply Chain Impact of Smart Customers in a Promotional Environment" with Huchzermeier and Freiheit, M&SOM, 2002; "Inventory Cost Impact of Managing Lead Times using Priority Queues based on Demand Uncertainty," Naval Research Logistics, 2002; "A Logistics Model in a Promotion Sensitive Grocery Environment" with J. Ye, Networks, 2001; "Assessing the Value of Information Sharing in a Promotional Environment" with J. Ye, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2000; "Quick Response in Manufacturer Retailer Channels" with Mark Bergen, Management Science, 1997; "Backup Agreements in Fashion Buying - The Value of Upstream Flexibility" with G. Eppen, Management Science, 1997; and "Separating Logistics Flows in the Chicago School System" with D. Elsenstein, Operations Research, Vol. 44, No. 2, 1996.

He was the FMC Scholar in 1990-91. He is on the editorial boards of IIE Transactions, the ECR Journal and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management editorial board, and member of INFORMS. He was president elect of the MSOM Society of INFORMS in 2001-02 and served as president for the year 2002-03.

Prior to joining the Krannert faculty in 1996, Professor Iyer taught at the University of Chicago. He has been affiliated with the Production and Distribution Research Center at Georgia Tech, and a consultant to Daymon Associates, Sara Lee, Turner Broadcasting and others. He served his Chicago community as a pro bono consultant to the Chicago School System and the Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department.

[title] Indian Auto Supply Chain at the Cross-roads

[abstract] We focus on the auto industry supply chains in India.The Indian auto industry is small in size, compared to the world markets ($ 6.73 billion compared to a world market of $ 737 billion) but has experienced a growth rate of20-25 % the past few years.Over 13 Indian companies have won the Deming prize and quality has improved significantly.We focus on empirical data in this industry and explain the seemingly counterintuitive trends such as falling margins, no distinct financial advantage for the Deming firms and, in some cases, declining total factor productivity.We then compare the Indian auto industry to the industry in China, which provides an interesting contrast.We conclude with some insights regarding the future of the Indian auto industry – which is an industry at the crossroads.