Reconfiguration and maintenance of High Value Manufacturing in dynamic networks

The research community in Molde has analysed industrial cluster characteristics within the Norwegian ship industry since the end of the 1980ies. This industry has shown a remarkable ability to change and to adapt to new challenges. The ability to change a nd renewal as ?the world? changes is the key to long-term sustainability which is far from current success. The problem is that it is not easy to know what to keep or preserve. What should be the hub of reframing or reconfiguration and what should be chan ged or abandoned. Therefore we want to closely study 1) the drivers of clusters, 2) the conditions for viable clusters and 3) the cluster as a strategic alternative and hybrid for organizing value creation (between the pure market and the vertically inte grated company) 4) the dynamic capabilities necessary within companies to sustain competitive in a supply network configuration. This project has drawn the attention and also the interest of the milieu at Cambridge University, The Center for International Manufacturing, Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge has experience from their research on more than fifty industries worldwide, and has developed tools and models to investigate into the dynamic capabilities necessary for companies and value creating networks. They played a leading role in the study A landscape for the future of high value manufacturing in the UK on behalf of the Technology Strategy Board. Essentially, the aforementioned institutions want to define a research proje ct which aims to define a landscape and strategies for the future of high value manufacturing in the maritime industry in the region.