Development Practices Supporting Resilient and Sustainable Production

Exploring Greenfield Projects

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46364/ejwi.v9i1.1419

Abstract

The green transition necessitates manufacturing companies to address climate change and incorporate sustainable and resilient solutions into their production. The best opportunity to achieve such solutions in production is during development, especially in greenfield projects with fewer constraints from existing production solutions. So far, the knowledge of how to achieve this is limited. Therefore, this paper aims to elaborate on how manufacturing companies can attain sustainable and resilient production. The focus is on development practices in greenfield projects and their relation to active ownership, collaboration and learning, potentially supporting the lasting impact of change initiatives.

The paper builds on results from a multiple case study, including three greenfield production development projects. A research design, involving 22 semi-structured interviews and four workshops, was applied. An analytical framework was developed to support the analysis, including active ownership, collaboration and learning. In total, 21 different development practices were identified and categorised into active ownership, collaboration, and learning. The paper contributes a new perspective on production development. As an alternative to the traditional planning-and-control perspective, a learning perspective on production development was applied, which is increasingly required for production development processes addressing new domains, such as the green transition.

Keywords:
resilient production, sustainable production, production system, production development,
green transition, workplace innovation

Author Biographies

Kristina Säfsten, Professor Production Systems

Department of Product Development, Production and Design, School of Engineering

 

MSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1991 from the Institute of Technology, Linköping university (LiTH). After that Kristina worked for Ericsson Telecom AB in Stockholm (and Dublin) until 1995 when she was admitted to the research education and IMIE (International Graduate School of Management and Industrial Engineering). She got her PhD in Assembly Technology in 2002 from LiTH. Since 2014 she holds a position as Professor in Production Systems at the School of Engineering, Jönköping university (JTH). Besides research and education Kristina is also involved in the research education at JTH and has acted as associate dean of doctoral programmes for many years.

Ulrika Harlin, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Lic.Eng. and Senior researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.

Affiliation at Linköping university, Sweden

Her research focuses on production system development and integration of human and organizational aspects in the change process and design phases of greenfield and brownfield production development projects.

Kerstin Johansen, Professor integrated product and production development, Associate Dean of Research

Kerstin Johansen holds a PhD in Assembly Technology from Linköping University, a Master of Science in Engineering Physics from Uppsala University and a docenture in Integrated Product and Production Development from Linköping University. Kerstin has more than 10 years of industrial experience.

Kerstin has had assignments in both education and administration as well as management and research; and is part of both national and European networks focusing on collaboration for industrial benefit. In 2019 Kerstin became Senior Associate Professor of Product and Production Development at Jönköping University and thus research leader of the Production Development Group. During 2022 Kerstin was assigned as full professor within Integrated product and production development and appointed as leader for one of the strategic research areas within SPARK focusing “Integrated product and production development for sustainability and resilience”.

The Production Development Group aiming to create knowledge about the development of production systems of the future. The focus is on the entire chain from production strategy to implementation of production systems and its production technology solutions. Crucial knowledge for managing the industrial requirements includes production preparation, adaptability, reconfigurability, automation, and the ability to use the increased amount of available digital information.

Anna Öhrwall Rönnbäck, Professor Product Innovation

Research and teaching in the area of business and product development.

Conducts research on technology-based business and product development, in both larger corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with special focus on sustainable innovation and growth for small businesses.

Published
2025-02-17
Issue
Vol. 9 No. 1 & 2 (2025): Spesial Issue - Green Jobs
Section
Articles

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