Erick Jones


Dr. Erick Christopher Jones Sr. is an Industrial Engineer and Professor in the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is considered an expert in the Radio-Frequency Identification, Quality Engineering, and Lean Six Sigma. He is the George and Elizabeth Pickett Endowed Professor, as well as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. Jones joined UTA in 2010 after eight years at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. He previously served as the Deputy Director of the UT Arlington's homeland security focused University Center Security Advances via Applied Nanotechnology Center  and he serves as the current Director of the Radio Frequency & Auto Identification labs at UTA. Dr. Jones was the Program Director of The National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Centers. He is currently Chair of the Supply Chain Technology Committee of International Supply Chain Education Alliance's International Standards Board and Editor in Chief of the International Supply Chain Technology Journal.
Dr. Jones's background led him to be invited to the National Science Foundation as program officer for the largest Engineering Investment in the country, the Engineering Research Center. Also given his impact on graduate students he worked in largest fellowship program in the country, the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowships Program. Until recently, Dr. Jones has served as a rotating program director at the NSF.

Education

Dr. Jones graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in May 1993. He later earned a master's degree from University of Houston, Houston, Texas where his thesis was “Turnover of Part-Time Hourly Employees in an Industrial Service  Company” under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Chung in May 1996. He further went on to obtain a PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Houston while concurrently working in industry. Under the guidance of his advisor Dr. Chung he worked on the topic “A Predictive SPC Model for Determining Cognitive Voluntary Turnover before Physical Departure” and successfully conferred the PhD in August 2003.

Industry background

Dr. Jones boasts a broad background that spans both industry and academia. Dr. Jones has held positions in industry that include Industrial Engineering Specialist, Director of Engineering, Consultant and Project Manager, and Executive Manager of a “Big 5” Accounting firm, and executive manager for United Parcel Service, Tompkins Associates, Academy Sports and Outdoors, and Arthur Andersen. He managed teams and operations as small as 3 people and as large as 500 people. He has managed projects implementing warehouse management systems and enterprise resources planning system, designing and constructing new facilities and re-engineering Fortune 1000 organizations. Operations managed include strategic systems deployment, teams of large-scale distribution operation, and human resources at an executive level. He is an expert in the field of supply chain optimization, distribution logistics, and inventory control. His contribution has laid foundation for our modern understanding of the Internet of Things, Blockchain, RFID, Auto UD and Supply Chain Technologies.

Research

Jones' research interests are mainly in the field of RFID and its applications and Lean Six Sigma. However, Jones's research also covers various other topics like Supply Chain Technology, Logistics, Operations Research, Engineering, Training, Transportation and Healthcare. He has received external funding from agencies like the NSF NASA, TexasMRC and internal funding in support of his research pursuits. He has worked with undergraduate, graduate students and other professors on different research projects under RAID LABS at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Books

He has also published over 241 transcripts, books and publications and has written, edited, and published dozens of peer-reviewed articles and conference papers. Some of his most notable books are RFID and Auto-ID in Planning and Logistics: A Practical Guide for Military UID Applications, RFID in Logistics: A Practical Introduction, and Quality Management for Organizations Using Lean Six Sigma Techniques.