Matthias Holweg

Matthias' areas of expertise include process improvement, digital operations, and leading digital transformations within organisations.

At Oxford Saïd, he oversees the Technology and Operations Management and Leading Digital Transformation course offerings , and is the Director of the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme. He also is a member of the School Board.

Matthias is an industrial engineer by training, and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Prior to joining Oxford he was on the faculty of the University of Cambridge and a Sloan Industry Center Fellow at MIT’s Engineering Systems Division.

Research

His research focuses on how organisations generate and sustain process improvements, and how digital technologies can support these efforts.

He is widely known for his research into the evolution and adaption of Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodologies as they are being applied across manufacturing, service, office and public sector contexts. His award-winning papers on the genealogy of lean production and the evolution of lean thinking philosophy are amongst the most widely cited works in the field. Together with John Bicheno, he is also co-author of 'The Lean Toolbox', a practitioner guide to lean transformation that has sold more than 100,000 copies across five editions and is available in English, Danish, Swedish and Chinese.

His recent work focuses on leading digital transformations within organisations, with a particular focus on machine learning and additive manufacturing (3D printing). Recent studies have investigated the economics of additive manufacturing, and the application of machine learning to supply chain planning, in order to determine how to use this set of new technologies to generate competitive advantage. He is particularly interested in identifying the role that digital technologies will play in supporting process improvement, and how processes can be reengineered in the light of these novel digital capabilities.