In addition to his academic research activities, Dr. Robinson has extensive industry experience in manufacturing, including senior management responsibilities. His areas of specialization are: manufacturing and industrial engineering, corporate quality and productivity, process improvement, and total quality management. As a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at California State University, Long Beach he has been a leader in developing online hybrid and distance learning courses.
Dr. Robinson is an experienced educator, former industry executive, and consultant with over 30 years of industry experience. He is a Professor for the CSULB College of Engineering. In industry, he successfully led several major product start-up projects, including quality and productivity improvement projects. He is also a management consultant, with hands-on experience in SPC, IPPD, JIT, CPI, team building, production methods, problem solving, process development, organizational development, quality systems development and strategic planning.
As a Professor, at California State University, Long Beach, he was voted; "College of Engineering's Outstanding Faculty Member for 1994". Dr. Robinson has been a leader in developing online hybrid and distance learning courses. He has performed postgraduate research in quantitative case studies in factory automation applications, and empirical research in the implementation of the manufacturing strategy process. Dr. Robinson has published articles in both Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering journals and has presented papers at international, regional, and local conferences of the American Society for Quality Control, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Institute of Industrial Engineers.
Dr. Robinson is currently a Principal for Dr. Thomas Robinson & Associates Consulting Group. He has held positions as engineer, manager and corporate director with specific experience in Manufacturing Engineering, Quality Assurance, and Design Engineering for the Aerospace and Electronics and industries. He has successfully led many manufacturing process improvement projects from manual assembly processes to a fully automated factory capable of producing 4,000 switching regulated power supplies per day. Set up team based quality improvement systems, work cells, and JIT systems. As an engineer, manager and consultant worked with several Fortune 500 firms such as Boeing Rocketdyne and Autonetics, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics and Military Products Division, Siemens P&B Division, Ford Philco WDL, and Teledyne Relays Division to implement manufacturing process innovations including quality and productivity improvements.
When Dr. Robinson is not working he enjoys golf and traveling with his family in their Country Coach motor home. He also enjoys spending summers in Bigfork, Montana where he owns a lot in an RV Resort next to Flathead Lake.
