Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian, President, STIMS Institute Inc., San Jose, CA. USA.
SubbuKDG@gmail.com
Dr. Krishnamoorthy (Subbu) Subramanian is the founder and President of STIMS Institute, USA. Prior to 2011, Dr. Subramanian served as the Director, Surface Preparation Technology at Norton Abrasives and later at Saint-Gobain Co. He serves as advisor, consultant and mentor across the globe for a number of programs and inititiatives. (e.g.): https://www.amtdc.org/about/core-team/advisors
Dr. Subramanian is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is also the Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).
Dr. Subramanian has received the 2020 Merchant Medal for Manufacturing awarded jointly between ASME and SME.
Dr. Subramanian has developed an approach to combine science, engineering and management skills with an eye on global competitiveness. This is the theme of his book titled, “The System Approach – A strategy to survive and succeed in the Global Economy”. His second book titled, “Thriving in the 21st Century Economy – Transformational Skills for Technical Professionals” co-authored with Prof. Srinivasa Rangan, Babson College, has been recently published by the ASME Press.
Besides his professional work, Dr. Subramanian is engaged in non-profit social work through http://www.AASAI.org He also mentors / coaches young professionals in their career development. He writes his views on economy and innovation through his company website: https://stimsinstitute.com/blog/
His views on Spirituality in Practice can be seen at his blog site: www.Sipractce.wordpress.com which contains over 200 short essays.
Recently he has published a book, as a collection of essays titled: Spirituality in Practice – Exploration of peace and harmony within as well as collaboration and cohesiveness with all that surrounds us. A brief excerpt: “Life is not an aimless journey but full of potentials enriched by the soul within and the universe at large. We are alone if we choose to be, but we are also seamlessly part of everything since that is the way it is. True knowledge is not feeling isolated as individuals. True knowledge is to see us as part of the eternal and ever-present universe. The goal is to feel good through self-compassion but also work towards peace and harmony of all, limitlessly.”
STIMS Institute:
STIMS stands for: Science based Technology, Innovation and Management Solutions. The STIMS Institute founded in 2011, strives to meet two essential needs of the technical professionals and the companies or industries:
At a time when computers – IT and AI – can do everything (read, write, speak, calculate, analyze, decide and direct), professionals and companies have to do something more! This requires System Thinking and Transformational Skills.
Today the products and services of any company have to serve one of two extremes – (a) Replication of the known solutions at high volume and lowest cost or (b) New Solutions of high value and unique capability – with no survival in the middle. Companies and enterprises need to adapt System Thinking and Transformational Skills to survive and succeed in this Binary Economy
The recent accomplishments of the STIMS Institute include:
- System Thinking and Transformational Skills education for Senior Executives and professionals
- Re-alignment of small and Medium sized manufacturers for long term success.
- Training and mentoring of undergraduate engineers leading to graduate research work and long term career planning
- New business initiative for process audit, improvement and innovation for manufacturing companies.
Additional Details:
Dr. Subramanian is responsible for promoting education on System Thinking and Transformational Skills to manufacturing industries and professionals across the globe. This includes workshops, unique internship/mentoring programs, R&D teams run as profit centers leading to new manufacturing solutions and their commercialization. He is also very active in mentoring and guiding a unique and successful industry/university collaboration program at IIT – Madras.
He proposed the notion that “Applications Technology” in the manufacturing sector is the equivalent of software in the Computer industries. He conceived and implemented a network of Application Technology Centers at Worcester MA. USA, Hamburg – Germany, Shanghai – China, Bangalore – India, Kure – Japan, Sao Paulo – Brazil and other locations across the globe. These technology centers have been conceived and developed to foster Applications Technology used or surface generation in a wide variety of industries ranging from Semiconductors to Steel making, Automotive to Aerospace, Bearings to Bio-medical parts, Ceramics to Optical lenses, etc. He extended the role of Applications Technology as an additional source of revenue for manufacturing companies and add value through customer success management. Several machine tool companies have been fostered in the USA thanks to this approach.
Dr. Subramanian has personal and hands on involvement and contribution in R&D, New Product Development, New Business Development as well HR development for 21st Century Economy. Young professionals trained/mentored by him are now pursuing their advanced degrees in manufacturing in USA, India and China. His microscopic interactions model has enabled in establishing a scientific frame work that combines the principles of machining and tribology. This model has been used for development of new abrasive grains, advancements in current manufacturing processes as well as invention of new processes for grinding ceramics and high temperature alloys. Development of grinding processes that resulted in the commercialization of Thin Film Magnetic Recording Heads and flexible processes (Machining to Grinding – M2G) for grinding aerospace components are among the many notable accomplishments of his teams. His tools and approaches for bringing the science to shop floor manufacturing using portable diagnostic tools are now used across the globe.
Early in his career, while working at Ford Motor Co. he invented a family of ceramic cutting tools that substantially increased the productivity of cast iron machining in engine components manufacturing operations. Today through a program called “research for rural India”, he is guiding a team of researchers in developing a portable solar thermal clean water unit. He is presently guiding research program for the development of in-process data driven manufacturing process management (Automation of Grinding Process Intelligence – AGI). This IoT initiative is expected to fill the gap between SAPTM (which covers the back end data) and SalesforceTM which covers the front end data in manufacturing industries and a more comprehensive approach for Data Science and Analytics applicable to these operations.
He has published extensively in the technical as well as management related topics. He holds 15 patents several of them are in commercial use. He has presented talks worldwide on various topics: Grinding Technology, Surface Engineering, Innovation, Technology driven market development and Career development strategies for professionals in the Global Economy. He has also contributed to several technical handbooks.
Dr. Subramanian obtained his B.S. (ME) Degree from Osmania University, India and his M.S, M.E and Doctor of Science degrees from MIT, USA. He has worked at Ford Motor Company and International Harvester Company, prior to joining Norton Company, which is now part of Saint-Gobain. He founded his new company – STIMS Institute Inc. – in 2011 to develop and implement new Business Models; Science based Industrial Process Solutions; Education and Mentoring of technical professionals, Build Alliances with technical, academic and business professionals across the globe.
He has been active in technical programs of ASME, SME and A. Cer. S. He has served the Manufacturing Engineering Division of the ASME ending up as the division chair in the year 1997 – 98. He has served as the Chairman of the Fellows selection committee of SME. He is currently a member of the DMM SLT of the ASME. He has taught Advanced Operations Management as an adjunct faculty in the school of business at University of Southern New Hampshire. He has served as part of the faculty team for a summer course on Tribology at MIT. He also collaborates in research and education programs at IIT – Madras, India and Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA) as well as researchers/innovators in China.
STIMS Institute 