Doctoral program

 

INDUSTRIAL PhD

OBJECTIVES

Intensive research in industrial management implies a good mastery of the approaches, concepts and instrumentations that can be mobilized in the different disciplinary fields to which this discipline is linked. Thus, at the start of a thesis, a doctoral student must have:

  • an appropriate scientific background allowing him/her to deal with its research questions, being able to mobilize the main available approaches in supply chain management (preferred target here), as well as a number of generic instrumentations (optimization, simulation…) ;
  • a scientific and methodological perspective sufficient to understand the level of relevance of approaches and instrumentations that can be mobilized in its research and to be able to combine them in a clever way in the analysis, definition and resolution of complex problems;
  • a minimum research experience that will allow him to move quickly and effectively in a literature review on a given topic and on the writing of an article.

These different elements can be acquired during a first year, which can be called "propaedeutic", which allows the candidate to check his interest for the research and to get an idea of the expectations of the international scientific community (for example by assisting at an international scientific congress); it also allows the institution to ensure the relevance of a PhD thesis by the candidate.

PROGRAM

EMINES has thus chosen to propose an industrial PhD program in 4 years, built on the North American PhD format:

  • a preparatory year including a complementary training in industrial management tools and practices (with the possible validation of prior learning) and research learning (in connection with a real industrial subject);
  • "stop or go" decision at the end of the year in view of the results obtained;
  • in case of a positive decision, start of the PhD over 3 years, in one of the Center of Doctoral Studies of which EMINES is laboratory of reception.

This program combines specific activities and graduate courses already in place at EMINES (MILEO Specialized Master® modules or the 3rd year of the engineering cycle in particular). It is based on the following principles:

Phd principles

The objective of this program is to obtain a significant improvement in the skills of young researchers in industrial management in the following four areas:

Socio-economic environment of industrial management, for that the young researchers in industrial management must:

  • have a sufficient knowledge of general accounting and corporate finance, to be able to understand globally the operations of the company and its trade with its economic environment;
  • have a good understanding of the fundamentals of management, accounting and management control, to have relevant approaches to the economic evaluation of strategic, tactical and operational decisions that can be improved by certain spin-offs from their research;
  • be familiar with the main socio-organizational analysis grids that make it possible to understand the conditions for a successful implementation of change in a company and its continuous adaptation to changes in its socio-economic context.
  • main modeling approaches in industrial management, especially for problems that do not have analytical solutions:
  • supplements on spreadsheets, financial and statistical problems, and risk analysis techniques (Monte Carlo approach based on an Excel © add-in);
  • modeling / simulation of processes in a certain or random universe;
  • optimization problems in certain universes using modelers.

Deepening the foundations of industrial management, through complex case studies on project management, planning, supply management, forecasting techniques.

Learning of research methodology, which mobilizes several devices:

  • awareness of the different research methodologies available in industrial management;
  • research assistance for a more experienced PhD student or writing a scientific paper;
  • structuring a set of articles constituting a dedicated bibliography (Zotero will be used for this purpose) and writing this literature review in a communication perspective at a congress;
  • participation in an international congress;
  • pre-research internship in the future industrial structure hosting the doctorate.

On the basis of this approach, the industrial PhD allows the candidate to develop a high level of knowledge, intellectual rigor, scientific curiosity and creativity necessary both in advanced professional activities and in scientific research and university education.

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