Benny Tjahjono is Professor of Sustainability and Supply Chain Management and the co-leader of the Sustainable Production and Consumption cluster at the Centre for Business in Society (CBiS). His research track record has been demonstrated by winning a number of research grants from the Engineering & Physical Research Council (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Academy of Medical Sciences (ACMEDSCI), InnovateUK, European Union, overseas funding agencies and directly from the UK industry sectors. He was one of the Principal Investigators and a member of a consortium consisting of seven universities in Europe recently being awarded the Horizon2020 MSCA Innovative Training Network worth €3,995,643 in total, aiming to formulate the service-oriented business for the European Circular Economy.

Prof Tjahjono has a vested interest in sustainability and environmental conservation. Over the last five years he has focused his overarching research area on Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management, in particular, the exploration of Circular Economy principles in manufacturing processes. He is an engineer by education and has a strong background in contemporary simulation and modelling techniques, including discrete-event simulation, agent-based simulation and system dynamics. He has applied these techniques, amongst others such as Life-Cycle Assessment/Analysis (LCA), in addressing sustainability issues in modern factories, by proposing an environmentally-conscious manufacturing systems design method, as an innovative way to achieve the triple bottom line objectives, ‘doing good for people, planet and profit’.

In addition to his research activities, Prof Tjahjono has also been actively involved in supporting the research-enriched learning initiatives within the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL), which include the creation of research-informed teaching cases, delivery of guest lectures, supervision of Masters students theses, and acting as a "research buddy" to module leaders at FBL. 

He has published over 90 papers in refereed academic journals, conference proceedings, books, practitioners’ journals and newspapers. He has completed the supervision of 12 PhD and over 100 MSc students, and currently leads a team of four doctoral researchers in many emerging areas related to supply chain and operations management. As part of his duty, he is also actively involved in nurturing early career researchers.

High-calibre PhD candidates are invited to join the dynamic research team at the Sustainable Production and Consumption cluster, to work on the following research topics:

Project 1: Reverse logistics for the recovery of aluminium in the construction industry. This project investigates the reverse logistics process of aluminium that allows the construction industry to become fashionable and, at the same time, resource-efficient. The work will develop an understanding of the new industrial processes and business models enabling the recovery of increasingly complex aluminium-based building products, e.g. façades, windows and building frames, into other products, components or materials whose values have been retained throughout their life-cycle.

Project 2: Towards the new circular bio-plastics economy. This project aims to answer a seemingly simple yet important research question: what are the impacts of bio-plastics to the environment, businesses and society? The answers will transform the way in which plastics are consumed in daily life, provide a strong underpinning to the future development of sustainable bio-plastics, and ultimately address both the upstream (sourcing) and downstream (consumption/end-of-life) supply chain concerns.

Project 3: "Cash your trash”: a Reverse Logistics Network Design for Circular Supply Chain. This research concerns the design of a reverse logistics network of supply chains based on Circular Economy. The work involves the development of mathematical models combined with an investigation into practice to test the potential solutions in terms of economics and environmental impacts.

Project 4: Towards Healthcare 4.0: Cyber-Physical Systems in Healthcare. This research investigates the roles of Industry 4.0 technologies and identifies their impacts on the next generation healthcare operations and supply chain. It is expected that the adoption of these technologies will improve not only the quality of health operations but also patients safety.