Robert H. Hayes is an American academic. He is the emeritus Philip Caldwell Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.
Early life Robert H. Hayes received a PhD from Stanford University in 1966.Harvard Business School: Robert H. Hayes
Career Hayes worked for IBM and McKinsey & Company.
He became a professor at the Harvard Business School, eventually receiving the Philip Caldwell chair in business administration. He worked with William J. Abernathy.William Abernathy, 50, Dies; Harvard Business Professor, The New York Times, December 30, 1993 Professor Wickham Skinner was one of their mentors. Hayes and Steven C. Wheelwright adopted the term "world class manufacturing" to cover the competitive context in which manufacturing businesses could use their operational manufacturing capabilities to strategic advantage.Flynn, Barbara B., Schroeder, Roger G., Flynn, E. James, Sakakibara, Sadao, and Bates, Kimberly A., World‐class manufacturing project: overview and selected results, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Volume 17, Issue 7, 1 July 1997, , accessed on 20 June 2025
Hayes served as the president of the Production & Operations Management Society. He serves on the board of directors of the American Productivity & Quality Center.
See also
Hayes-Wheelwright matrix
References
Archives and records Robert H. Hayes papers at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.