How supply chains become resilient and sustainable

Christian Thies is a new professor at TU Hamburg

21.04.2023

On March 23, 2021, the container ship Ever Given got caught in a sandstorm and ran aground in the Suez Canal. More than 400 other ships were jammed in front of and behind the ship. It was not until six days later that the freighter could be towed free. An event that had an impact on the entire global economy and its supply chains. This is where TU professor Christian Thies' research comes in: "I find the study of these supply chains very exciting, especially how they can be made resilient to better respond to unexpected events like the blockade of the Suez Canal. I am also interested in how corporate decisions regarding locations, supply structures or production technologies influence the sustainability of supply chains," explains Professor Thies and continues, "The supply chains of many products are extremely complex and span many countries. A modern electric car, for example, consists of more than 2,000 parts that are sourced from hundreds of suppliers around the world. These in turn work with numerous sub-suppliers, creating quite large networks." 

Reconciling social and economic goals
Such networks are what Christian Thies is investigating as part of the Junior Professorship for Resilient and Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management at TU Hamburg. One focus of his work is sustainability assessment in global supply chains. "My scientific work supports corporate decision-makers in making the environmental impacts in their supply chains more transparent and identifying suitable improvement measures." At the same time, it is important to ensure that this does not create new problems elsewhere, for example through strategic dependencies on certain raw materials or poor working conditions in their extraction. "Therefore, based on a holistic understanding of sustainability, I try to reconcile both ecological and social aspects with economic goals in my work," the scientist explains. 

Before Professor Thies moved to the TU Hamburg, he was a research group leader at the Chair of Production and Logistics at the Technical University of Braunschweig and co-headed the Sustainable Supply Chains and Factory Systems working group at the Battery LabFactory Braunschweig. After a research stay at the University of Rhode Island (USA), he received his doctorate - also at the TU Braunschweig. The junior professorship at TU Hamburg came at just the right time for the industrial engineer: "I'm delighted to have been offered the position." With his wife, Christian Thies enjoys extensive bicycle tours through the Alte Land. Only for his second hobby, hiking and skiing, is the long distance from Hamburg to the mountains a small disadvantage. However, the next hut tour in the Alps is already planned for the lecture-free period in summer.

For more information visit https://www.tuhh.de/oscm/home

TUHH - Public Relations Office
Elke Schulze
E-Mail: elke.schulze@tuhh.de