Don Wardell
Professor; David Eccles Faculty Scholar; Francis A. Madsen Scholar
Department of Operations and Information Systems
Faculty, Tenure Track
Dr. Don G. Wardell is Francis A. Madsen Scholar and Professor of Operations and Information Systems (OIS) at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business.
He received BS and MS degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from the U, and a Ph.D. from Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management.
Wardell has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including teaching classes in Spanish at INCAE in Costa Rica. He has been honored with the University of Utah’s Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Prize in Teaching and Distinguished Teaching Award, as well as several awards within the David Eccles School of Business.
His research interests are mainly in the area of quality management, and especially statistical process control. He has also done recent work in service operations management. He has served as an associate editor for Technometrics and as a member of the editorial review boards of Production and Operations Management and IIE Transactions on Quality and Reliability.
Professor Wardell has worked as a process engineer for Control International, Inc., has taught short courses to industrial groups on quality control and Six Sigma, and has consulted with American Express Travelers Cheque Operations Center, Aviacode, Utah Transit Authority and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Department. He has also worked as an expert witness for two court cases. He is a member of the the Decision Sciences Institute, the Production and Operations Management Society, and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, as well as belonging to Phi Beta Kappa, Omega Rho, and Tau Beta Pi Honor Societies.
Most importantly, he is happily married and a proud father of four and grandfather of eight (as of December 2024). He enjoys traveling (including being a big Disney fan) and golf, and is especially happy when those activities involve family. As a father and grandfather, he loves to tell Dad Jokes!
Ph.D., Management Science, Purdue University. Project: Control Charts in the Presence of Autocorrelation, 1990
MS, Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah. Project: Estimation of Media Wear in Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) Mills, 1987
BS, Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah, 1985
My research interests are mainly in the area of quality management, and especially statistical process control. Much of my work has questioned some of the traditional assumptions of SPC and what should be done if those assumptions are not met. I investigate the underlying probability distributions of statistics plotted on SPC charts, including the derivation of new probability distributions and/or their first and second moments. I have also done recent work in service operations management, with emphasis on perceptions of service scripts.
I have taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, teaching classes in Statistics, Problem Solving, Frameworks for Business Problems, Six Sigma, Quality Control and Management, Statistical Process Control, Data Analysis and Decision Making, Management Science, Analytical Decision Models, Service Operations Management and Production and Operations Management.
I have also taught classes in Spanish while working as a Visiting Associate Professor at INCAE in Costa Rica, have been a visiting Professor at the Unviersidad Politécnica de Valencia in Valencia, Spain, and have taught executive classes at Ensign Global College in Kpong, Ghana. I have received several teaching awards (see the Honors and Awards section of this site).
As a professor at the University of Utah, I am interested in teaching students to develop critical and creative thinking. As a professor of management, I am involved in teaching students how to solve problems and make better decisions. This is especially true in my case, since I teach classes in statistics, quality management and problem solving. Decision making and problem solving in a business environment can be very complex. Uninformed managers can make poor decisions that affect the lives of many individuals. Therefore, my most important goal as a professor of management is to teach students to be informed and effective decision makers.
In order to effectively teach these technical classes, I need to stay current on business literature and research. Technology is bringing more challenges. Computers make it possible to collect and analyze billions of pieces of information. Telecommunication is revolutionizing the way we do business. I must read of these advances, and I must participate in my own basic and applied research. I strongly believe that scholarly research and teaching effectiveness are intertwined and inseparable.
I feel very strongly that to be an effective teacher, I need to treat individual students with respect. I must attempt to learn each student’s name, and his or her strengths and weaknesses. I must try to accommodate questions at any time, not just during class and office hours. I also believe that I can sacrifice the syllabus and schedule if students are not understanding. My job is not to show them what I know, but to teach them what they need to know, and more importantly to facilitate their learning.
Finally, I hope to be able to instill in students a love of learning. I remember a university math class which I attended as an undergraduate student. The professor had just finished an elegant proof of a very useful concept. I could tell that he was excited about the problem and its solution. As he finished, he asked if there were any questions. One student raised his hand and asked, “will this be on the exam?” The light in the professor’s eyes went out immediately. I hope to teach my students that school is more than just exams and grades. I hope that the real value in their education is not found in their grade point average or their resume, but in the knowledge that they take away.
Victorino, L., Verma R. and Wardell, D.G. (2013). “Script Usage in Standardized and Customized Service Encounters: Implications for Perceived Service Quality,” Production and Operations Management, 26, 3, 518–534.
Victorino, L., Verma R., Bonner B.L. and Wardell, D.G. (2012). “Can Customers’ Detect Script Usage in the Service Encounter? A Video Experimental Analysis,” Journal of Service Research, 15, 4, 390-400.
Ding, X., Hu, P.J., Verma, R. and D.G. Wardell (2010). “The Impact of Service System Design and Flow Experience on Customer Satisfaction in Online Financial Services,” Journal of Service Research, 13, 1, 96-110.
Tsai W., and Wardell, D.G. (2006), “Creating Individualized Data Sets for Student Exercises Using Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic,” INFORMS Transactions on Education, 7, 1.
Tsai, W. and Wardell, D.G. (2006). “An Interactive Excel VBA Example for Teaching Statistics Concepts,” INFORMS Transactions on Education, 7, 1.
Ding, X., Wardell, D. G. and Verma R. (2006). “An Assessment of Statistical Process Control-Based Approaches for Charting Student Evaluation Scores,” Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 4, 2, 259-272.
Chesteen, S., Helgheim, B., Randall, T. and Wardell, D.G. (2005). “Comparing quality of care in non-profit and for-profit nursing homes: A process perspective,” Journal of Operations Management, 23, 2, 229-242.
Pullman, M., Moore, W. and Wardell, D. G. (2002). “A Comparison of Quality Function Deployment and Conjoint Analysis In New Product Design,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19, 5, 354-364.
Wardell, D. G. (1997). “Small Sample Interval Estimation of Bernoulli and Poisson Parameters,” The American Statistician, 51, 4, 321-325.
Wardell, D. G. and M. R. Candia (1996). “Statistical Process Monitoring of Customer Satisfaction Survey Data,” Quality Management Journal, 3, 4, 36-50.
Wardell, D. G., H. Moskowitz and R.D. Plante (1994). “Run Length Distributions of Residual Control Charts for Autocorrelated Processes,” Journal of Quality Technology, 26, 4, 308-317.
Wardell, D. G., H. Moskowitz and R. D. Plante (1994). “Run Length Distributions of Special-Cause Control Charts for Correlated Processes,” Technometrics, 36, 1, 3-17.
Moskowitz, H., R. D. Plante and D. G. Wardell (1994). “Using Run Length Distributions of Statistical Process Control Charts to Detect False Alarms,” Production and Operations Management, 3, 3, 217-239.
Wardell, D. G., H. Moskowitz and R.D. Plante (1992). “Control Charts in the Presence of Data Correlation,” Management Science, 38, 8, 1084-1105.
Victorino, L., Verma, R. and D.G. Wardell (2008), “Service Scripting: A Customer’s Perspective of Quality and Performance,” Cornell Center for Hospitality Research Managerial Report, 8, 20, 4-13.
Wardell, D. G. (2001). “Reply” to Comment by R. L. Berger and B. W. Coutant, The American Statistician, 55, 1, 85.
Wardell, D. G., H. Moskowitz and R. D. Plante (1995). “Response” to Yashchin Letter to the Editor, Technometrics, 37, 1, 243-245.
Wardell, D. G., H. Moskowitz and R. D. Plante (1994). “Rejoinder to Discussions by Adams, Woodall and Superville, Fellner, and Lucas of ‘Run Length Distributions of Special-Cause Control Charts for Correlated Processes’,” Technometrics, 36, 1, 23-27.
Wardell, D.G. (2007). “Autocorrelated Data,” in Encyclopedia of Statistics in Quality and Reliability, Ruggeri, F., Kennett, R. and Faltin, F.W. (eds). John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester, UK, pp 145-150.
Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)
Decision Sciences Institute (DSI)
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Production and Operations Management Society (POMS)
Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
Francis A. Madsen Scholar, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, 2014-Present
Recipient of the Brady Superior Teaching Award, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, 2024, 2015 and 1999
Nominated by the University of Utah for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching at Baylor University, 2022 & 2024
Recipient of the University of Utah Calvin S. & Jeneal N. Hatch Prize In Teaching, 2020
David Eccles School of Business Professional Service Award, 2018-2019
Recipient of the 2015 Production and Operations Management Society’s College of Service Operations Most Influential Paper Award for the paper, “Script Usage in Standardized and Customized Service Encounters: Implications for Perceived Service Quality,” co-authored with Liana Victorino and Rohit Verma
Recipient of the Masters Teaching Excellence Award, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, 2012
Recipient of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) Student Choice Award, 2012
Recipient of the University of Utah Distinguished University Teaching Award, 2007
Recipient of the Center for Disability Services Teaching Award, University of Utah, 2007
Recipient of the Masters Teaching Excellence Award, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, 2006, 2002
Recipient of the Best Paper Award of the 2000 Midwest Decision Sciences Institute Meeting, Chicago IL for “Service Level and Routing in M/M/s Systems,” co-authored with John C. Goodale
Recipient of the Marvin J. Ashton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, 1997
Presenter of the Technometrics invited paper of the ASQC/ASA Fall Technical Conference, Rochester, NY., Nov. 1993
Winner, Dissertation competition, Production and Operations Management Society, New York, NY, 1991
Honorable Mention, Dissertation competition, Decision Sciences Institute (one of three finalists), Miami Beach, FL, 1991
