By Patricia Proven

Sloan Research Fellow Matthias Holweg won the 2002 James Cooper Memorial Cup for Best PhD, an annual award from the UK's Institute of Logistics and Transportation.

The honor, announced in September amid his continued auto industry research with IMVP, recognizes Holweg's contribution to the advancement of knowledge in logistics and transportation.

Holweg earned his doctorate in Supply Chain Management from the UK's Cardiff Business School.

His dissertation, "The Three-Day Car Challenge: Investigating the Inhibitor of Responsive Order in New Vehicle Supply Systems," looked at factors that hinder the automotive supply chain from providing customized vehicles more swiftly.

Thanks to a second-year fellowship for 2003-04 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Holweg is expanding his current build-to-order research to the U.S. and Japan.

Holweg, who also holds an MSc in Operations Management from the University of Buckingham, is working with IMVP research scientist Frits Pil of the University of Pittsburgh on a book that considers build-to-order's implications for managing the entire supply chain. They draw their conclusions from IMVP's ongoing Global Assembly Plant Study and a range of process-maps, surveys, and interviews conducted at assembly plants, suppliers, and logistics companies worldwide.

Also see Faces of Research in Impact.

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