Rachna Shah

Rachna Shah is a Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Her research lies at the critical intersection of operations management, regulation, and societal outcomes, with a particular emphasis on high-stakes sectors, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and environmentally and socially consequential operations.

Professor Shah is globally recognized for her thought leadership in lean operations. Her papers (Shah and Ward, 2003 and 2007) are considered seminal works that defined the basic tenets of lean and demonstrated its impact on firm performance. She continues to examine the theoretical and practical relevance of lean in contemporary, digitally enabled organizations. As an endorsement of her thought leadership and expertise in lean operations, she was bestowed with a prestigious three-year Fulbright Specialist Grant (2017–2020). 

Her recent work investigates a key paradox: why operationally excellent firms experience failure. In this research, she examines how regulatory regimes, operational transparency, and organizational incentives shape firm actions, pursuit of innovation, and operational and safety outcomes. Her research addresses topics such as drug and device safety, product recalls and recall execution, environmental accidents, sustainability commitments, and the operational consequences of inspections, penalties, and disclosure. A growing stream of her recent work investigates how operational decisions influence equity and disparities in healthcare settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home visiting programs. Her newest research stream she calls, "AI-assisted Human-executed work," she is examining performance tradeoffs in emerging digital contexts. To address these complex challenges, she frequently collaborates with regulatory agencies, industry partners, and interdisciplinary scholars.

Professor Shah has published in all top-tier journals in the field, including Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management. Her research has garnered over 15,000 citations so far, and earned prestigious accolades, including the Shingo Institute’s “Shingo Award for Excellence in Research” and the POMS “Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Accomplishment Award.” Her mentorship is equally impactful: She has received numerous best student paper awards for papers co-authored with her current and former PhD students. Over the years, her PhD students have also received best dissertation awards, for conducting rigorous and impactful research.

At the Carlson School, she has designed courses across Undergraduate, MBA/MS, and PhD programs. She is actively engaged in global executive education, and has designed and taught the core supply chain and operations course in the Vienna Executive MBA (VEMBA), the Carlson Executive MBA (CEMBA), and Carlson-Tsinghua Global Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) programs. She also serves as the dissertation advisor to Carlson School PhD students as well as to a cadre of C-suite executives of Chinese firms pursuing their DBA. In addition to the academic activities at Carlson, she has taught at numerous other schools including The Ohio State University, Indian Institute of Management (Kozhikode), ETH Zurich, INSEAD in Paris, Cardiff University in Wales, UK, Instituto de Empressa in Madrid, Spain, and Politechnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. 

Beyond her research and teaching, Professor Shah provides extensive editorial service to the operations management community. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Lean Enterprise Institute and the Shingo Institute.