Timothy Butler

Timothy Butler

Title

Associate Professor of Global Supply Chain Management

Email

timothy.butler@wayne.edu

Office

Mike Ilitch School of Business
2771 Woodward Avenue
Room 289
Detroit, MI 48201 

Academic Programs

  • Global supply chain management

Timothy Butler

Biography

 

Dr. Timothy Butler, is an Associate Professor of Global Supply Chain Management in the Mike Ilitch School of Business. He also serves as the Wayne State University Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA since the fall of 2019.

With more than 35 years of service to Wayne State, Dr. Butler teaches operations management, supply chain management, quantitative analysis and quality improvement in both on-line and traditional (in-person) formats. Dr. Butler was a leader in the development of the Ph.D. program for the Mike Ilitch School of Business, serving as chair of the faculty Ph.D. program development committee and as the founding director of the program. He was also instrumental in the development of the General Motors / Wayne State Supply Chain Case Competition which has engaged over 800 students from around the world over the past 10+ years. Dr. Butler led the first Global Supply Chain Study Abroad trip to Europe and has led four study abroad programs to Central Europe and Italy.

His research focus is operations and supply chain management, examining process operations, efficiency, and operations strategy. Dr. Butler's research has appeared in numerous top tier Operations Management and Supply Chain journals, including Journal of Operations Management and Decision Sciences. As a member of INFORMS research institute, he served on the Health Care Applications Group Council, and served as President of the Southeast Michigan Chapter. Dr. Butler has served on the editorial board of Health Care Management Science, The International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, and Journal of Logistics and Transport (Poland). In 2015, Dr. Butler was awarded the William J. Fulbright (Specialist) Scholarship, whereby he traveled and lectured in Poland and China.

Dr. Butler received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1989. He is an active volunteer in Grosse Pointe and Detroit. He and his wife, Beverly, live in Grosse Pointe Woods.
 

Education

  • Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 1989
  • MBA, University of Memphis, 1983
  • BBA, University of Memphis, 1978

Expertise

Quality improvement, multi-criteria decision-making, automotive supply chain management, advanced statistical analysis

Research and teaching interests

  • Analytical Decision Tools
  • Multiple Objective Decision Models
  • Operations Strategy
  • Quantitative Analysis
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Quality Management

 

Publications

  •  Butler, T.W., D.L. Williams, T. Yan, “MMOG/LE: Improving Supply Chain Delivery Performance Through Buyer-Supply Collaboration, Journal of Transportation Management, Vol 25 (2), 2015, 57-68.
  • Basson, M.D., T.W. Butler, H. Verma, “Predicting Patient Non-Appearance for Surgery as a Scheduling Strategy to Optimize Operating Room Utilization in a Veterans Administration Hospital,” Anesthesiology, Vol. 104, No. 4, 2006, pp. 826-834.
  • Butler, T.W. and L.X. Li, "The Utility of Returns to Scale in DEA Programming: An Analysis of Michigan Rural Hospital," 2005, European Journal of Operational Research.
  • Li, L.X. and T.W. Butler, "The Influence of Management Action on Hospital Efficiency," 2005, International Journal of Operations and Operational Research.

 

Awards

Fulbright Specialist Scholar, 2015 - 2020

Courses taught by Timothy Butler

Fall Term 2023

Fall Term 2022