Ernest Nichols, Ph.D.

Affiliate Faculty - Supply Chain Management
enichols@memphis.edu

Bio

Dr. Nichols is Interim Chair, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, and Director of Supply Chain Management Academic Programs in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management of the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at The University of Memphis. Dr. Nichols also served as the Director of the FedEx Center for Supply Chain Management at The University of Memphis from 1996 to 2016.
 
Dr. Nichols’ research addresses a range of SCM issues. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Decision Sciences, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing and Journal of Operations Management and MIS Quarterly Executive. He is co-author of Introduction to Supply Chain Management (Prentice Hall 1999) and Supply Chain Redesign: Transforming Supply Chains into Integrated Value Systems (FT Press 2002). 
 
Dr. Nichols has conducted research projects and educational programs focused on improving supply chain and organizational performance with a number of organizations including, AutoZone, Best Buy, Boehringer Mannheim, Buckman, Concours Group, FedEx, Ford, Government of Canada, Hewlett Packard, ILS, Ingram Micro, Johnston & Murphy, Lifeblood, L.L. Bean, THE MED, Mallory Alexander International Logistics, Medtronic, Memphis Housing Authority, Memphis/Shelby County Government, Methodist Healthcare, Michigan State University, Raytheon, Reliant Energy, Roche Diagnostics, SCI Systems, Shinko Electric, Smith & Nephew, Sun Microsystems, Thomas & Betts, Texas Instruments, Tsinghua University, The University of Memphis, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Navy, Vitro, and others. Prior to his doctoral studies, Dr. Nichols was a management consultant with Dialog Systems, Inc. 
 
Dr. Nichols holds a BA in Economics from the University of Maine. He received an MBA with a concentration in Materials and Logistics Management and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Michigan State University. He has twice received the Palmer Professorships from the Fogelman College of Business & Economics in recognition of his research and service accomplishments and received the Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department Outstanding Teacher Award in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Dr. Nichols was named a George Johnson Fellow in the Fogelman College based on his teaching performance in 2019. 

Education

Business Administration, PhD, 1993, Michigan State University
Materials and Logistics Management, MBA, 1985, Michigan State University
Economics, BA, 1980, University of Maine at Orono

Awards/Honors

  • 2003 TBR Academic Excellence Award (for FedEx Center for SCM) Tennessee Board of Regents
  • 2003 Founding Fellow FedEx Institute of Technology
  • 2005 Suzanne Downs Palmer Professorship – Service Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis
  • 2014 Outstanding Teacher Award Marketing and SCM Department
  • 2014 Best Paper Award Society of Information Management (SIM) conference
  • 2016 Outstanding Teacher Award Marketing and SCM Department
  • 2018 Outstanding Teacher Award Marketing and SCM Department
  • 2021 George Johnson Fellow – Teaching Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis

Selected Publications

Books (authored, edited)
  • Handfield, Robert B. and Ernest L. Nichols, Jr., Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River,
    New Jersey (1998). Foreign language versions have been published by Prentice Hall-Japan, Tokyo (1999), Prentice Hall-Taiwan,
    (2001), and Prentice Hall-Korea, (2002).
  • Handfield, Robert B. and Ernest L. Nichols, Jr., Supply Chain Redesign: Transforming Supply Chains Into Integrated Value Systems,
    Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey (2002).
Chapters in Books (authored, edited)
  • Lee, T. E., R. Otondo, B-O. Kim, P. Prasarnphanich, and E. L. Nichols, Jr., “Data Mining for Business Process Reengineering,” in
    Gerald G. Grant (ed.), ERP & Data Warehousing in Organizations: Issues and Challenges. IRMA, Hershey, PA (2003).
Recent Refereed journal publications
  • Allen, D., M. Amini, B. Janz, E. Nichols and Racer, M. “The Human Supply Chain: Mapping and Modeling the Flow of Human Capital
    for Navy “Seabees,” Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 175961, Journal of Supply Chain and Customer Relationship Management.
  • Janz, B., Meek, T., Nichols, Jr., E. L., and Ogelsby, J., “How Buckman’s Value Stream Initiative Re-Visioned IT for Value,” MIS
    Quarterly Executive, 15(3) September 2016, 215-229.
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