Alex Alblas
Department / Institute
RESEARCH PROFILE
Alex Alblas is an Associate Professor of Accelerating Innovation and Organizational Learning Processes in the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group of the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. Alex鈥檚 research focuses specifically on understanding and optimizing organizational learning and knowledge flows between people, departments, and organizations to accelerate innovation. Accelerating innovation refers to speeding up the improvements in product and process innovation performance (e.g., project cycle time, product quality, cost) by gaining experience during the launch of new products.
Alex strongly believes it is vital to study how organizations can learn, adapt, and respond to changing market and technological conditions, and global challenges, by innovating as quickly as possible because the time to address these challenges is limited.鈥疕e is interested in operational innovation and organizational learning practices that lead to enhanced performance. In one research project, he investigates the learning mechanisms in which agile operations and iterative product development can lead to performance improvement. In another big industry-funded research project, of which Alex is the principal investigator, he investigates together with a team of researchers the practices in which product development, manufacturing, and customer service processes enable improvements in project cycle time and machine availability.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Alex Alblas received his PhD in Innovation Management from the University of Groningen, and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and a BSc in Technology Management from the same University. He has previously worked as a Process Improvement Specialist with ASML, where he was involved in a challenging project about learning curve improvement in the new product introduction phase. At the University of Groningen, he worked as a researcher and advisor in the 鈥楧eployment of Sustainability Metrics (DoSyM)鈥� project. This project aimed to respond to the challenges companies face in selecting and then embedding sustainability metrics in new product development projects. He is currently the principal investigator in the "Managing Knowledge Flows" project that aims (1) to understand better the productivity of current knowledge flows between departments, (2) to optimize the creation, coordination, and utilization of knowledge flows, and (3) to develop policy recommendations on how to improve the management of cross-departmental knowledge flows. He is also involved in the 鈥淭ransitioning to a Circular Business Ecosystem鈥� (LINCIT) project that focuses on developing knowledge, insights, and tools for guiding companies' transition from linear supply chains to circular business ecosystems. Alex has a lot of experience advising and collaborating with companies in the deep-tech sector, such as ASML, NXP, TomTom, and Vanderlande.
Recent Publications
Current 果冻传媒al Activities
Ancillary Activities
No ancillary activities