ASME and Society of Manufacturing Engineers to Honor Dean Bartles

Dean L. Bartles, Ph.D.

Dean L. Bartles, Ph.D., will receive the 2014 ASME/Society of Manufacturing Engineers M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Medal at SME’s “Big M” Manufacturing Convergence, on June 9, in Detroit, Mich.

The M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Medal was established in 1986 by ASME and SME to honor an exceptional individual who has had significant influence and responsibility for improving the productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing operation.

Dr. Bartles is executive director of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDI) at Chicago-based UI Labs, a nonprofit research and development group led by the University of Illinois. The award recognizes his pioneering contributions to tank, mortar and artillery ammunition production processes as well as the multiple launch rocket system demilitarization process, which resulted in improvements in production rate efficiency, environmental control and energy utilization.

Bartles has 35 years of U.S. and international manufacturing management experience, with emphasis on manufacturing facility startups, plant management, and manufacturing research and development. He has made significant contributions to improving defense manufacturing efficiency throughout his career.

Bartles joined the newly established DMDI Institute as executive director in March. This public-private consortium of more than 70 organizations will address the life cycle of digital data interchanged among myriad design, engineering, manufacturing and maintenance systems, and flowing across a networked supply chain, to drive U.S. manufacturing leadership.

Previously, Bartles was with General Dynamics in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he most recently served as vice president of advanced programs and strategic growth for the Ordnance and Tactical Systems (OTS) Division. From 2001 to 2011, he was vice president and general manager of the OTS strategic business unit for large caliber ammunition, which included three manufacturing plants. His implementation of adaptive control technology on computer numerically controlled turning operations contributed to significant improvements in production process efficiency.

Always a strong advocate for industry-university collaboration, Bartles currently serves as a volunteer board member on East Carolina University’s College of Technology Industry Advisory Board, Pittsburgh State University’s College of Technology Industry Advisory Board, Iowa State University’s Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Industrial Advisory Council and the University of Kentucky’s Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing Industry Advisory Board.

An ASME Fellow, Bartles has been a member of the ASME Industry Advisory Board since 2009. He is also a Fellow of SME and currently serves as vice president on the international board of directors.

Bartles received his Ph.D. in technology management, with a concentration in manufacturing systems, from Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 2013.