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Investigation of communities of practice in a harmonized supply chain ERP landscape

Zeraidi, Amine LU (2023) MMTM05 20231
Production and Materials Engineering
Abstract
This Master thesis is investigating how communities of practice can enhance knowledge sharing
in a context of improving a harmonized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used in supply
chain. A student from the faculty of production and materials engineering at Lund university (LTH)
collaborated with the Global Trinity organization from Alfa Laval (Lund, Sweden) to answer the
research question. The global Trinity Organization is the department in charge of delivering IT
solution across the Swedish manufacturing company’s supply chain to improve the organization’s
value stream.
An investigation of two business units (BU) from Alfa Laval was conducted in order to compare
their level of maturity regarding communities of... (More)
This Master thesis is investigating how communities of practice can enhance knowledge sharing
in a context of improving a harmonized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used in supply
chain. A student from the faculty of production and materials engineering at Lund university (LTH)
collaborated with the Global Trinity organization from Alfa Laval (Lund, Sweden) to answer the
research question. The global Trinity Organization is the department in charge of delivering IT
solution across the Swedish manufacturing company’s supply chain to improve the organization’s
value stream.
An investigation of two business units (BU) from Alfa Laval was conducted in order to compare
their level of maturity regarding communities of practice, but also their supply chain ERPs. The
BUs that were used are the gasketed plate heat exchanger (GPHE) and the decanter (DEC) BU. It
has been concluded that each BU confirmed that CoP does contribute to knowledge sharing and
improving their ERP more efficiently. However, there are also some differences as the GPHE BU
is much more mature in terms of CoP and harmonized ERP. Based on the finding made during
interviews with various stakeholders from the Global Trinity organization, GPHE and DEC BU,
several recommendations were provided in the discussion section in order to better improve CoPs
which will lead to a better harmonized ERP landscape.
Furthermore, this project is a qualitative research which means that future work should be
conducted as a limited amount of literature reviews regarding organizational concepts were used
to build some theory related to communities of practice, and change management. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Zeraidi, Amine LU
supervisor
organization
course
MMTM05 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
ERP, Communities of practice, supply chain, manufacturing, digitalization, standardization
report number
LUTMDN/(TMMV-5355)/1-93/2023
language
English
id
9132029
date added to LUP
2023-07-04 12:12:19
date last changed
2023-07-04 12:12:19
@misc{9132029,
  abstract     = {{This Master thesis is investigating how communities of practice can enhance knowledge sharing 
in a context of improving a harmonized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used in supply 
chain. A student from the faculty of production and materials engineering at Lund university (LTH) 
collaborated with the Global Trinity organization from Alfa Laval (Lund, Sweden) to answer the 
research question. The global Trinity Organization is the department in charge of delivering IT 
solution across the Swedish manufacturing company’s supply chain to improve the organization’s 
value stream.
An investigation of two business units (BU) from Alfa Laval was conducted in order to compare 
their level of maturity regarding communities of practice, but also their supply chain ERPs. The 
BUs that were used are the gasketed plate heat exchanger (GPHE) and the decanter (DEC) BU. It
has been concluded that each BU confirmed that CoP does contribute to knowledge sharing and 
improving their ERP more efficiently. However, there are also some differences as the GPHE BU 
is much more mature in terms of CoP and harmonized ERP. Based on the finding made during 
interviews with various stakeholders from the Global Trinity organization, GPHE and DEC BU, 
several recommendations were provided in the discussion section in order to better improve CoPs 
which will lead to a better harmonized ERP landscape. 
Furthermore, this project is a qualitative research which means that future work should be 
conducted as a limited amount of literature reviews regarding organizational concepts were used 
to build some theory related to communities of practice, and change management.}},
  author       = {{Zeraidi, Amine}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Investigation of communities of practice in a harmonized supply chain ERP landscape}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}