Inaugural Lecture of Professor Matthias Holweg

Improving white-collar productivity: Persistent challenges and emerging opportunities
Office work is commonly perceived as neither productive nor fulfilling. Recent advances in communication technologies, like email and instant messaging, have exacerbated this problem and become identified with stress. Process improvement techniques that have had demonstrable success in manufacturing often show limited and temporary effects when applied within office contexts.

Professor Holweg will report on his journey to identify the root causes that restrain white-collar productivity and impede process improvement. He will discuss proposed solutions in the light of the opportunities that robotic process automation and machine learning can provide to white-collar work.

About the speaker

Matthias Holweg is the American Standard Companies Professor of Operations Management at Saïd Business School and Ordinary Student at Christ Church. His areas of expertise include process improvement, digital operations and the automotive industry, with a special interest in how organisations generate and sustain process improvement practices.

Schedule

16:15 – Registration opens
17:00 – Event starts
18:00 – Drinks reception
18:45 – Close