Name Alan Pilkington | ||
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Alan Pilkington (born 1966) is a British engineer, and Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, known for his on the Technology management, Operations management, Manufacturing strategy and Enterprise engineering.
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Biography
Pilkington attended King Edward VI School,Retford and eceived his BEng in engineering from De Montfort University in 1987, and his PhD from Aston University in 1992.
After graduation in 1987 Pilkington started his career in industry as project manager in manufacturing engineering at the Rover Group, where from 1989 to 1993 he was part of the Manufacturing Policy Unit. In 1996 he returned to academia as Associate Professor in Operations and Technology Management at the Royal Holloway, University of London, where he stayed until September 2013. Pilkington has been Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Davis between 1997 and 2003; at the University of Western Australia between 2003 and 2005; and at Cesar Ritz Colleges in 2011–12. In 2009 he became Adjunct Professor at the Hult International Business School in London. In September 2013 he became a Professor at Copenhagen Business School. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Technology Management at Westminster Business School in London.
At the IEEE Pilkington chairs the IEEE Technology Management Council for the UK and Republic of Ireland joint Chapter on Engineering Management.
Work
Pilkington research interests are in the field of enterprise engineering and innovation, particularly disruptive innovation.
Innovation
Pilkington's approach to innovation concerned "product of individual, organisational and knowledge trajectories". His idea was that "modelling the relationships between observed typologies within each of these spheres, conditions for successful innovation can be identified and failures explained. This work is leading to tools which will help managers define successful and achievable technology strategies."
Enterprise Engineering
Pilkington has initiated and directed the Pilkington research in Enterprise Engineering at Royal Holloway. According to Pilkington (2008/13):
Enterprise Engineering is the application of engineering principles to the management of enterprises. It encompasses the application of knowledge, principles, and disciplines related to the analysis, design, implementation and operation of all elements associated with an enterprise.In essence it is an interdisciplinary field which combines systems engineering and strategic management as it seeks to engineer the entire enterprise in terms of the products, processes and business operations. The view is one of continuous improvement and continued adaptation as firms, processes and markets develop along their life cycles. This total systems approach encompasses the traditional areas of research and development, product design, operations and manufacturing as well as information systems and strategic management.
This Enterprise Engineering research had focussed on five types of management specialties:
At Royal Holloway more specific topics of research in this field concerned Alternative fuel Technology, Bibliometrics and Patent analysis.
Publications
Pilkington has authored and co-authored numerous publications in the field of Management of technology, Operations management, Manufacturing strategy and Enterprise engineering. A selection: