Digital manual with advice is to improve competitiveness in the Swedish manufacturing industry

A digital manual has now been launched, filled with tips and advice for core plants, with the purpose of improving the competitiveness of the Swedish manufacturing industry and keeping production in Sweden.

With the purpose of improving knowledge of how the Swedish manufacturing industry can strengthen its competitiveness, and thus keep its production in Sweden, MDH, together with Jönköping University, has now launched a digital manual as a result of the research project Core Plant Excellence (COPE).

Just as the name suggests, the project has focused on the role of the core plant, that is to say the main factory’s role in industrial corporate organisations. The project shows that core plants can be better at understanding and performing their role and thereby keeping production in Sweden.

Tips, advice and tools for the core plant

The digital manual, which is available to read online here External link, opens in new window., contains a set of tips, advice and tools about understanding and strengthening the role, capabilities and competences of the core plant. The manual also contains suggestions for how to get an efficient exchange of knowledge between factories and management within the organisation.

The manual mentions, among other things, the challenge of both finding and using a suitable set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the work done at the core plant – and with suggestions for numerous important areas to be continually measured and followed up.

– This is the first time we’ve done a digital manual, and it hasn’t been done many times before in Sweden either. The project has been very much appreciated by both companies and financiers, and the first feedback we’ve received about the manual is also positive, says Jessica Bruch, Professor and Project Manager at MDH.

Industrial partners in the project, which was carried out in 2016-2019, have been Alfa Laval, AstraZeneca, Bombardier, GKN Aerospace, Volvo Cars, Volvo CE, Volvo GTO and SKF. It has been funded by The Knowledge Foundation.