George Ball

George Ball is associate professor of operations and decision technologies and the Weimer Faculty Fellow in the Kelley School of Business. His research focuses on two aspects of product recall: the causes of recall and the decision to recall. In his investigations, Ball focuses on the role of the organization as the resource allocator, the manager as the decision-maker and the government agency as the regulatory monitor.

In collaboration with researchers from around the world, Ball is working on a multimillion-dollar federal grant from the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education to improve the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to predict pharmaceutical product quality problems. His recall research has also been used to shape federal inspector policy to identify problematic manufacturing plants for both the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency. Ball’s work also led one of the world’s largest medical device firms to significantly modify its recall decision-making process.

Ball has a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Minnesota. He has served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and as a production manager for two medical device companies in the Minneapolis area.

Areas of Expertise

Product recall causes, effects and the recall decision-making process; FDA regulatory policy; pharmaceutical, medical device and automotive supply chain quality.