More information about our Live Online Masterclasses

Masterclass led by Professor Erwin Rauch

Professor Erwin Rauch is an Endowed Professor for Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing at the Free University of Bolzano (Italy) and has more than 10 years of professional experience in industrial consulting. He is Head of the Smart Mini Factory Laboratory for Industry 4.0 and Head of the Sustainable Manufacturing Laboratory, as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Fraunhofer Italia. Erwin is a leading expert on Industry 4.0, Smart and Sustainable Production Systems, and Digital Manufacturing, and is one of the top 3 authors with the most scientific publications on Industry 4.0.

His current research also includes Cyber Physical Production Systems; Intelligent Human-Robot Collaboration in Assembly; Assistance Systems and Human-Centred Manufacturing; Digitalization and Data-Based Production; and Digital Twin and Simulation. Erwin is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Production & Manufacturing Research.

Previously, Erwin spent over ten years in industry as a management consultant and later Associate Partner advising manufacturing businesses on their strategy, technology implementation and workforce development.

Erwin holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart with summa cum laude; a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University Munich (TUM); a M.Sc. in Business Administration from the TUM Business School; and a B.Sc. in Logistics and Production Engineering from the Free University in Bolzano, Italy. He has also served as Visiting Research Scholar at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the USA and at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

Masterclass led by Dr. Julian Schallow

Dr.-Ing. Dipl. Wirt.-Ing. Julian Schallow is Managing Partner of IPS Engineers GmbH, an innovative consulting and software service company with a focus on Industrial IoT and Data Science. In parallel, he coordinates the industrial activities of the Institute for Research and Transfer (RIF e.V.) based in Dortmund, Germany, with the aim of transferring knowledge from research to industrial practice.

Previously he worked as a group leader to build the digital manufacturing group at the Institute of Production Systems (IPS), Technical University Dortmund. Julian has more than 15 years of industrial practice and holds a PhD in the field of Digital Manufacturing (integration of data mining functionality in Teamcenter Manufacturing).

Masterclass led by Rainer Muller

Rainer Müller is an Executive Consultant and expert in Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 implementation. He has over 30 years of experience acquired in senior leadership roles at global manufacturing companies, including most recently as Vice President Digital Transformation at TE Connectivity.

Previously Rainer was Chief Operating Officer of the global automotive business unit at TE Connectivity, with responsibility for operations across 25 sites and over 25,000 employees. Prior to that he was the Vice President Operations EMEA.

At Johnson Controls – today Adient and Visteon – he held senior positions including Plant Manager, Operations Director and Director of Continuous Improvement.

Rainer’s industrial career started with his university dual studies/co-op program at DHBW University in Karlsruhe, Germany, as well as at different sites of the BMW Corporation. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Rainer then joined Michelin tire company where his first leadership positions were in the production environment.

Through his executive consulting and coaching work Rainer now advises leading companies across various industries on Operations, Supply Chain, Digitalization, Leadership and General Management, in order to get corporations and individuals from good to great.

Masterclass led by Professor Kai Hoberg

Dr. Kai Hoberg is Full Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Strategy at Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg (Germany), Head of the Operations and Technology Department, and a member of the scientific advisory board of the German Logistics Association (BVL). He is a leading expert on Supply Chain 4.0, supply chain analytics and inventory optimization. Kai is particularly interested in developing practical solutions for real world problems using state-of-the-art methodologies, and his research has been conducted in close cooperation with leading industry partners including Procter & Gamble, SAP, Zalando and McKinsey & Company.

Previously, Kai was a Strategy Consultant and Project Manager in the Operations team at Booz & Company, where he conducted supply chain and operations management projects for clients across consumer, chemicals and discrete manufacturing industries. For the past eight years, he has been collaborating with the McKinsey & Company supply chain practice on research and training projects.

Kai’s research has been widely published in scientific journals including the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and the Journal of Production and Operations Management. In addition, he has been a frequent contributor to practitioner journals including Supply Chain Management Review and Harvard Business Manager.

Kai has held Visiting Scholar positions at top universities including the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, the Israel Institute of Technology, the NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore, the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and the University of Sydney.​