Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Guest Editorial: Digitalization – Developing Design and Implementation Theory

Boer, Harry; Boer, Henrike; Chaudhuri, Atanu

Guest Editorial: Digitalization – Developing Design and Implementation Theory Thumbnail


Authors

Harry Boer

Henrike Boer



Abstract

Little did we know of all the changes the world would go through, when we issued the call for papers for a special issue on Digitalization – Developing Design and Implementation Theory, back in Fall 2018. Bad things happened. The COVID-19 pandemic has already taken nearly 2.2 million lives1 , collateral deaths not included, and is still raging. The climate crisis seems to accelerate with enormous bush fires in Australia, California and Siberia, a further increase of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, one of the hottest years ever, in spite of much reduced travelling and industrial production2 . Fortunately also many good things happened. The USA decided to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. Brexit happened, for better or for worse, but the good news is that partners managed to land an agreement. And there are many, many examples of social innovations and human ingenuity. In industry, pharmaceutical firms developed at “warp speed” over 50 COVID-19 vaccine candidates to trialability3 , and just before the end of 2020, the first people were vaccinated. Worldwide, companies, small and large, showed unprecedented agility. On April 13, 2020, Lego, the children’s toys brand reported that they had modified six of its molding machines to produce more than 13,000 visors per day for frontline healthcare workers. Similar plans were in place for Hungary and then Lego’s other global plants4 . Grundfos, the pump manufacturer, started full-scale production of up to 5000 visors per day in Bjerringbro, Denmark, on April 3, 20205 . Carlsberg restructured a large part of its production in Fredericia, Denmark, to supply the alcohol base to former demonstration plant of Ørsted, a renewable energy company6 , in Kalundborg, Denmark, for second-generation bioethanol production.

Citation

Boer, H., Boer, H., & Chaudhuri, A. (2021). Guest Editorial: Digitalization – Developing Design and Implementation Theory. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 32(3), 537-542. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-04-2021-463

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 2, 2021
Online Publication Date Mar 23, 2021
Publication Date Mar 24, 2021
Deposit Date Feb 4, 2021
Publicly Available Date Feb 5, 2021
Journal Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
Print ISSN 1741-038X
Publisher Emerald
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 32
Issue 3
Pages 537-542
DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-04-2021-463
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1252788

Files

Accepted Journal Article (153 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) and any reuse must be in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence.






You might also like



Downloadable Citations