Annual Report 2011 - NTNU

PAGE 2
NTNU GLOBAL
Seminar: Global Operations and Challenges
On the 18th November, 2011, the
Globalization Focus Area, Global Production
and Communication (GP&C)
organized a seminar entitled “Global
operations and challenges of operating
internationally” that was held at NTNU
Gløshaugen campus.
The event which was organized in collaboration
with the Department of Industrial
Economics and Technology
Management (IØT) and SINTEF’s
MARGIN project, CRI Norman and
the SMARTLOG network attracted
over 50 participants who included researchers,
practitioners and students.
Arne Otto Flataas (left), Professor L. de Boer (centre), Dr. M. Mol and G. Mugurusi (right)
in discussion
Dr. Michael Mol (above), an accomplished
strategy and international business
scholar from Warwick Business
School (UK) was the key note speaker
at the event, where researchers including
Godfrey Mugurusi (NTNU), Marco
Semini (SINTEF) shared experiences
and research.
Industry executives Arne Otto Flataas
(Kongsberg Maritime) and Ståle Sæther
(Aqualine) shared practices, successes
and challenges involved when companies
operate and deal with suppliers,
customers that span across the globe.
Dr. Mol was sceptical of ways companies
operate in a global paradigm, describing
this as “a messy reality than
facts actually tell us” but was swift to
propose a structured (not a recipe) approach
on how they could go about the
international operations in a more processual
way.
Godfrey also presented his PhD work
that draws inspiration from the “viable
systems model” to understand how
globally dispersed companies go about
the process of “offshoring” but also
how they organise and coordinate their
operations especially purchasing activities.
Marco Semini presented SINTEF’s
work with numerous Norwegian companies
and emphasised how these companies
leveraged their internal capabilities
in the global market to remain
competitive in both the short and longterm.
Marco went on to highlight two
key points for companies: one, that
what, why and how companies offshore
and how they carry out global
operations differs, and two, that competitive
solutions depended on product,
market and industry characteristics.
From industry, Arne Otto Flataas from
Kongsberg Maritime shared some of
the company’s successes and challenges
with their offshore operations in China
(Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Korea
(Busan). Arne’s presentation emphasised
the importance of having a good
human resource function and the fact
that while china offers big opportunities
for growth, customs bureaucracy
and cultural differences pose a huge
problem to achieving that growth.
Ståle Sæther from Aqualine, a company
that designs and installs floating fish
farming cages and mooring systems,
emphasised the role of coordinated
shipping in their operations and quality
as key starting point for each unique
customer project. The biggest challenge
for Aqualine was coordinating the
whole operation from Norway, yet
sourcing system components from all
over the world. This, Ståle observed,
had extensive challenges to the company’s
just-in- time principle, especially
when production stopped because only
a single component was missing.
The event concluded after parallel discussions
where companies shared these
challenges in more detail with participants
in order to map out possible solutions.
A common message from the two
companies, ‘learning by doing’ left a big
impression to the participants.
In closing the seminar, Professor
Luitzen de Boer, the event’s moderator
mooted the need for companies to seek
more synergies with researchers and
always attend such knowledge sharing
workshops when invited.
This was the fourth in series of seminars
organised with funding and support
from NTNU’s Globalisation Research
Programme, IØT and SINTEF
collaboration and once again, it was a
great success!