Rethinking the management of unexpected events for resilient and sustainable production (RESPIRE)
The COVID19 pandemic stresses how unpredictable global events can have a farreaching impact on the manufacturing industry. It shows how firms must operate effectively in a changing and dynamic environment with a high degree of uncertainty regarding demand, delivery, transport, relationships, etc.
Systems and processes for dealing with minor deviations in a “normal situation” in production are not entirely transferable to crisis management. Small and medium enterprises (SME) , who make up a large portion of the industries, have a more significant focus on such systems than those for higher impact events, yet are highly affected during such unexpected events.
In addition, a crisis situation may also create new opportunities to be integrated into the new normal operations situation. Such opportunities could, for example, involve expanding the product portfolio or increasing volume. Hence, new knowledge is needed to prepare for and managing future unexpected events in production. Experience and knowledge of crisis management in sectors such as the humanitarian and military, where this is part of their core business, are most valuable to transfer to the manufacturing industry.
In this three-year RESPIRE project, we intend to investigate, develop and transfer knowledge across sectors and firms on crises preparations and management of unexpected events affecting production. A theoretical blueprint in 6 steps is used as a foundation for learnings from the humanitarian/disaster management sector to be integrated into the production context of manufacturing SMEs, driving the originality and novelty of the project scope.
The goal is to update current processes and methods for crisis management of unexpected events in production by identifying and sharing best practices and lessons learned from industrial and crosssectorial actors.
The vision is to contribute to increased resource efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs, while at the same time taking industrial learnings and best practices to sectors with crisis management as part of their core competence contributing to the overall societal sustainability.
Project leader
Zuhara Chavez, KTH
[email protected]
+46 721486285
Participating organisations
→ KTH
→ Chalmers University of Technology
→ RISE IVF & RISE AB
→ Marcus Komponenter
→ EQpack
→ TSS, Cloud Temperature Monitoring Solution for Life Science & Pharma
→ FOI/FHS
→ HELP
→ UN
→ MSB
