1,721,044 research outputs found
Mapping Current Research for Eco-Efficient and Circular Industrial Systems
No full textWith the growing sense of urgency to tackle climate change and other environmental issues, integrating sustainability as a central component of production research and industrial practice is imperative. Eco-efficiency and circular economy are powerful concepts to guide actions as a response to these environmental concerns. To encourage the uptake of these concepts in research and development, a thematic research framework for eco-efficient and circular industrial systems was proposed in 2022. This framework is composed of ten priority areas with more specific challenges captured in the form of research questions to call for collaborative research efforts. To map current research against these challenges and priority areas, a survey was launched to reach out to experts from different overlapping research themes within the research community in the field of production management: operations management, supply/value networks, technological development, business development, human factors, and performance management. This paper presents the initial survey results based on 50 responses to investigate which priority areas are being addressed by this community, as well as point to avenues for further work to support the transition to more sustainable industrial systems. Finally, we conclude that there is a need to better engage manufacturing companies to address sustainability challenges, exploiting tools and methods available in the literature to make sustainability become the new industrial norm
Toward eco-efficient and circular industrial systems: ten years of advances in production management systems and a thematic framework
Full text linkEnvironmental sustainability urgently needs to be embraced as a driver of development for society and industry. While researchers and practitioners herald numerous benefits when adopting eco-efficiency and circular economy approaches, these green solutions are yet to become pervasive principles for designing and operating industrial systems. This study reviews the last ten years of research contributions from the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 5.7 (IFIP WG5.7) on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) through its dedicated annual conference. A systematic literature review method was employed to map the APMS conference papers against eco-efficiency principles and to identify how these principles have been addressed by this research community. A cross-thematic analysis further describes the trends around dominant themes in production research. Finally, the paper concludes with an update on eco-efficiency principles applied to manufacturing and a proposed framework to consider more systematically the environmental implications of advances in production research
Identifying and Assessing the Required I4.0 Skills for Manufacturing Companies’ Workforce
Full text linkNowadays, the diffusion of digital and industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies is affecting the manufacturing sector with a twofold effect. While on one side it represents the boost fastening the competitive advantage of companies, on the other hand it is often accompanied by several challenges that companies need to face. Among all, companies are required to invest in technologies to empower their production activities on the shopfloor without lagging behind their workforce in order to undertake a linear, aware, and structured path toward digitization. The extant literature presents some research conducted to support companies toward digitization, and they usually rely on maturity models in this intention. Nevertheless, few studies included the assessment of workforce skills and competencies in the overall assessment, and in this case, they provide a high level perspective of the investigation, mainly based on check lists which may limit the objectivity of the assessment, and usually they do not customize the assessment based on companies’ requirements. Therefore, considering the importance to balance investments in technologies with those in the workforce to move toward the same direction, this contribution aims to develop a structured, customizable, and objective skill assessment model. With this intention, it has been first clarified the set of job profiles required in I4.0, together with the needed related skills based on the extant literature findings; second, it has been identified the set of key criteria to be considered while performing the assessment of the workforce; third, it has been defined the method to be integrated in the maturity model to enable the initial setting of the weights of the criteria identified according to the company needs; and fourth, based on these findings, it has been developed the assessment model. The developed model facilitates the elaboration of the proper workforce improvement plans to be put in practice to support the improvement of the skills of the whole workforce based on company’s needs
Thermal Comfort Control in Air-Conditioned Buildings: new data-driven approaches to Neutral Temperature estimation
No full textA maturity model enhancing data-driven circular manufacturing
Full text linkCircular Manufacturing (CM) adoption is highly reinforced by data exploitation, gathered, used and shared thanks to specific technologies. Manufacturers still need to be supported in using data to make more informed decisions in CM; to do that, they first need to be conscious of their current state. To achieve this goal, this study aims to develop a maturity model (MM) to evaluate manufacturers exploiting and valuing data in CM to support their decision-making processes. The MM, based on five levels and four analysis dimensions, operates the assessment through a questionnaire composed of normative answers. The model was conceived by relying on the scientific literature. It was verified and improved through focus groups and interviews and validated through a pilot application in two different manufacturing companies. Finally, the MM was applied in two other manufacturing companies to assess the empirical evidence of the obtainable benefits
Integrating Processes, People and Data Management to Create a Comprehensive Roadmap Toward SMEs Digitalization: an Italian Case Study
No full textDigitalization is increasingly gaining interest among manufacturers. Focusing on manufacturing, this interest already turned into a necessity that cannot be further postponed. This explains why digitalization or Industry 4.0 transition characterizes most of the strategies for manufacturers irrespectively of their size or maturity level. Nevertheless, size and maturity do matter in such kind of transition. Literature and practice advocate that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)s face huge barriers to keep high the competitive advantage of their products, thus they first need to act on their processes and internal resources. Among them, lack of competencies and limited data exploitation are threatening the competitiveness for the medium-long term the most. Thus, the present contribution aims to present the results obtained from the integrated application of three maturity models focused on the skills gap, data management, and operations management within the scope of digital maturity. These maturity models were developed as stand-alone tools focusing the attention on a specific need (i.e. operations, people, or data). In this contribution, they were integrated to provide an overarching view to develop a unique roadmap towards social and economic sustainable industrial environments. The integrated model was applied to an Italian SME
Sustainability paradigm in the cosmetics industry: State of the art
Full text linkSustainability is one of the main impacting trends that is shaping today’s industries, and the cosmetics sector is no exception. The paper presents a systematic literature review of the sustainability paradigm affecting cosmetics industry, trying to investigate the state of the art of the scientific literature about the embracement of sustainability and Circular Economy paradigm by the cosmetics sector, digging deeper the distinctive practices that should be employed by companies along the cosmetic product lifecycle, and the connection with the several stakeholders involved in the Green Transition path. The study has been pursued from a double perspective: firstly, from a final customer’s point of view, trying to understand which main factors are influencing the green purchasing behavior in the cosmetics industry and their managerial implications. Then, from a product lifecycle perspective, deepening what are the best practices for the development of a sustainable cosmetic product. Moreover, the paper proposes possible insights to develop a managerial framework able to support cosmetics SMEs in their transition toward sustainability, starting from the findings identified in the literature review
Exploring space manufacturing: designing a lunar factory for space-bound products in the new space economy
Full text linkThis study proposes a Moon-based factory for space-bound products, aiming to revolutionize space exploration through In-Space Manufacturing (ISM). It defines key elements for lunar manufacturing by adapting Earth-based factory models to lunar conditions
Towards Zero-Defect Manufacturing in the Silicon Wafer Production Through Calibration Measurement Process: An Italian Case
No full textIn electronic devices, the number of transistors and components per unit of area is still significantly increasing. In this context, the quality of the substrate of these devices is consequently increasing, making stricter and more pervasive the quality controls that a silicon wafer undergoes during its production process. This issue is extremely important to be addressed to reduce costs in quality controls in production moving towards zero-defect manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to reduce time and costs spent in calibration procedures of the instruments needed to measure the mechanical parameters of silicon wafers, by revising and standardizing the already adopted procedures. To address this goal, the extant literature, patents, and standard about procedures employed for measuring the mechanical parameters of silicon wafers are studied. The results are elaborated and applied to an industrial case study, the Italian branch of a Taiwanese manufacturing company. In particular, the focus of the case is on the Bow/Warp machine’s calibration which needs to be performed periodically to guarantee a correct measurement accuracy. Such calibration has strong implications for production efficiency and flow. The results are reported and discussed to highlight the key practical and theoretical implications
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