Data-driven Decision-making for Efficient & Sustainable Production

Sammanfattning: As a result of digitalization, previously analog systems in the manufacturing industry have become digitalized, including the decision-making processes. Companies are, therefore,becoming more dependent on data for strategic decisions. However, because of the rapid development of digitalization, companies are left blindfolded in the path towards smarter manufacturing which often leads to unsuccessful technological implementations. Therefore, the thesis will explore this problem by asking: What are the required initiatives for successfully implementing digital data-driven decision-making to improve efficiency and sustainability by Swedish manufacturing companies? To answer the research questions, an exploratory multiple case study approach was conducted, where interviews with informants from the industry as well as researchers within the context of smarter manufacturing were made. The findings were then used to derive propositions which worked as the foundation of a conceptual model which functionality would be to illuminate the results in the form of a strategy map. Findings suggest that it is not always necessary for companies to implement technologies linked to large investments to enable digital data-driven decision-making. However, for those that do, there needs to be a clear organizational plan and agenda before executing theprojects since they otherwise often lead to insufficient results. That means, the technological aspects are often not the culprit in failed digital data-driven decision-makingprojects. Additional findings suggest that there are synergies connected to digital data-driven decision-making such as data-sharing possibilities that have the potential of becoming a major aspect within the context of sustainability and efficiency.