Biography

Bill Hicks joined the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) as a full-time faculty member in August 2023 after spending two years as an adjunct lecturer. Hicks’s areas of interest and teaching include facility design, lean manufacturing, engineering entrepreneurship, and capstone design. Hicks is a Teaching Fellow of the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Faculty Advisor for our student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).

Prior to joining ISE, Hicks worked for the Tennessee Manufacturing Extension Partnership (TMEP), a part of the UT Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS), for 17 years. During this time, he served Tennessee manufacturers first as a technical consultant then later a project manager for the East Tennessee region (including Knox County and the surrounding counties). Hicks also spent five years with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in various process/continuous improvement roles.

Hicks learned lean manufacturing from spending 10 years in the Toyota Production System. This time was split between TOYODA TRW Automotive (now JTEKT) and TRW Koyo Steering (also now JTEKT). He spent two additional years in tier one automotive parts manufacturing with TRW and BTR.

Hicks is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee as well as a First Gen student and completed his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1991. During his student days, Hicks was a participant in the Cooperative Engineering (Co-Op) program through the Office of Engineering Professional Practice as well as a member of Pi Tau Sigma, the National Honorary Mechanical Engineering Fraternity. Today, He is a professional member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Order of the Engineer.