Tentative title of my PhD Thesis: «Foundations for Digital transformation of Supply Chains»
My supervisors are associate professor Bjørn Jæger and associate professor Lise Lillebrygfjeld Halse.
Preliminary description of my PhD project:
The common traditional supply chain consists of a series of largely discrete siloed steps and typically uses a mix of paper-based and ICT-enabled processes. Hence, a gap seems to exist between the potential for more efficient and effective business operations enabled by digital technologies and the current usage of these technologies by companies. The overall aim of this research project is to contribute to new knowledge on how companies can go forward to exploit the potential inherent in emerging new digital technology for improved supply chain operational performance by utilizing a digital supply chain.
The PhD thesis will be comprised of four research papers. The theme of the first paper is identification of fundamental prerequisites for the evolution towards digital supply chains. The second paper will look into aspects of digital manufacturing platforms. These platforms bring together different technologies, applications and services, and provide functionality for connecting users, provide infrastructure, and makes it possible to build inter-company applications of top of this infrastructure. Paper 3 focuses on how digital technology and the concept of a digital twin might facilitate the vision of a circular supply chain. The concept of circular economy requires an enormous traceability of industrial products in order to define where individual products are sourced, produced and disposed of. Paper four build upon the previous papers, possibly by developing a framework for implementation of a digital supply chain.
Background
I am currently a PhD student in logistics at Molde University College, Specialized University in Logistics (MUC). I have a Bachelor degree in electronics and automation, a Civil Engineer degree in electronics, and two years study of courses in Information and computer Science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). I have been employed as an assistant professor at MUC since 1998, mainly with responsibilities for teaching at bachelor level courses and as a study programme coordinator. I has also been teaching at a vocational technical college and worked at the research institute Møreforsking with job duties within the regional innovation system.