Enhancing pharmaceutical packaging through a technology ecosystem to facilitate the reuse of medicines and reduce medicinal waste

The idea of reusing dispensed medicines is appealing to the general public provided its benefits are illustrated, its risks minimized, and the logistics resolved. For example, medicine reuse could help reduce medicinal waste, protect the environment and improve public health. However, the associated technologies and legislation facilitating medicine reuse are generally not available. The availability of suitable technologies could arguably help shape stakeholders’ beliefs and in turn, uptake of a future medicine reuse scheme by tackling the risks and facilitating the practicalities. A literature survey is undertaken to lay down the groundwork for implementing technologies on and around pharmaceutical packaging in order to meet stakeholders’ previously expressed misgivings about medicine reuse (’stakeholder requirements’), and propose a novel ecosystem for, in effect, reusing returned medicines. Methods: A structured literature search examining the application of existing technologies on pharmaceutical packaging to enable medicine reuse was conducted and presented as a narrative review. Results: Reviewed technologies are classified according to different stakeholders’ requirements, and a novel ecosystem from a technology perspective is suggested as a solution to reusing medicines. Conclusion: Active sensing technologies applying to pharmaceutical packaging using printed electronics enlist medicines to be part of the Internet of Things network. Validating the quality and safety of returned medicines through this network seems to be the most effective way for reusing medicines and the correct application of technologies may be the key enabler

The role of Industry 4.0 technologies in implementing circular economy strategies

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Interrelationships between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0: A Research Agenda for Sustainable Supply Chains

The purpose of this article is to propose a novel classification of the interrelationships between I4.0 technologies and CE principles that highlights the most conclusive findings and extant gaps in the relevant research. A Systematic Literature Review has been developed to locate, select and evaluate relevant contributions made to CE interrelationships with I4.0 technologies. Studies have been analysed and classified according to the specific I4.0 technology and CE principle addressed (10Rs). The articles have been clustered into three main groups: (i) useful application of materials; (ii) extending the lifespan of products and their parts, and (iii) smarter product use and manufacture. A mind map of the investigated articles has been used to establish the interrelationships between individual technologies and each CE principle at the supply chain level. Based on this classification, a focus group interview (FGI) was held with experts to dig deeper into the interrelationships between I4.0 technologies and CE principles. The FGI results have identified how each as yet unexplored I4.0 technology could be linked to each CE principle. A Fuzzy Delphi (FD) study was also applied to identify the most relevant I4.0 technologies for improving CE principles and closing gaps in the literature regarding the 10R CE principles. In addition, guidelines have been established to assist with practical applications and generate a research agenda on the interrelationships between I4.0 technologies and CE principles at the supply chain level. Implications for theory include the extension of view from the research gaps between I4.0 technologies and the 10Rs identified in the literature; also, an FGI and FD were performed based on the detected research gaps to identify future lines of research for academics and offer useful guidance to directors and managers on I4.0 technology interrelationships for improving at least one of the 10R CE principles. The contribution to practice aims to enable managers to easily identify which technology from the I4.0 domain should be used to advance any given CE principle. Lastly, we provide useful guidance on the application of as yet-unused technologies to improve CE principles

Exploring the influence of industry 4.0 technologies on the circular economy

In the last decade, both Industry 4.0 technologies and the circular economy have expanded exponentially and they have received epistemological attention. However, there is a lack of studies about the influence that each of these technologies has on the main areas of action covered by the circular economy. This study responds to this gap by investigating the influence of the major technologies: Additive Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Vision, Big Data and Advanced Analytics, Cybersecurity, Internet of Things, Robotics, and Virtual and Augmented Reality on the main areas of action covered by the circular economy. Namely, reduction of inputs consumption, reuse, recovery, recycling and reduction of waste and emissions. An initial study, based on a survey of 120 project managers, and a multiple case study of 27 projects, through 31 personal interviews and review of internal and external documentation have been conducted in order to investigate the real influence of each technology on the circular economy. Overall, the results confirm the existence of a wide range of influences that Industry 4.0 technologies offer to companies for improved circularity. These improvements are mainly related to reduce material and energy consumption, and waste and emissions generation. However, there are important differences between the potential impacts of each technology. In particular, there is most evidence of the positive impact of additive manufacturing and robotics. Likewise, the results obtained suggest the need to continue exploring the new impacts generated by the continuous development and integration of technologies.This study was funded by the Basque Autonomous Government (Research Group GIC 15/176) and the project METASTANDARDS, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI). We also acknowledge the technical and human support provided by Circular Economy UniversityCompany Classroom (Faculty of Engineering Gipuzkoa, UPV/EHU, Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa)

Pairing a Circular Economy and the 5G-Enabled Internet of Things: Creating a Class of “Looping Smart Assets”

The increase in the world’s population has led to a massive rise in human consumption of the planet’s natural resources, well beyond their replacement rate. Traditional recycling concepts and methods are not enough to counter such effects. In this context, a circular economy (CE), that is, a restorative and regenerative by-design economy, can reform today’s “take–make–dispose” economic model. On the other hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gradually transform our everyday lives, allowing for the introduction of novel types of services while enhancing legacy ones. Taking this as our motivation, in this article we analyze the CE/IoT interplay, indicating innovative ways in which this interaction can drastically affect products and services, their underlying business models, and the associated ecosystems. Moreover, we present an IoT architecture that enables smart object integration into the IoT ecosystem. The presented architecture integrates circularityenabling features by maximizing the exploitation of assets toward a new type of IoT ecosystem that is circular by design (CbD). Finally, we provide a proof-of-concept implementation and an application study of the proposed architecture and results regarding the applicability of the proposed approach for the telecommunications (telecom) sector

TRANSFORMING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY INTO A HELICAL ECONOMY FOR ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING

The U.N. projects the world population to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050, which will cause demand for manufactured goods to reach unforeseen levels. In order for us to produce the goods to support an equitable future, the methods in which we manufacture those goods must radically change. The emerging Circular Economy (CE) concept for production systems has promised to drastically increase economic/business value by significantly reducing the world’s resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. However, CE is inherently limited because of its emphasis on recycling and reuse of materials. CE does not address the holistic changes needed across all of the fundamental elements of manufacturing: products, processes, and systems. Therefore, a paradigm shift is required for moving from sustainment to sustainability to “produce more with less” through smart, innovative and transformative convergent manufacturing approaches rooted in redesigning next generation manufacturing infrastructure. This PhD research proposes the Helical Economy (HE) concept as a novel extension to CE. The proposed HE concepts shift the CE’s status quo paradigm away from post-use recovery for recycling and reuse and towards redesigning manufacturing infrastructure at product, process, and system levels, while leveraging IoT-enabled data infrastructures and an upskilled workforce. This research starts with the conceptual overview and a framework for implementing HE in the discrete product manufacturing domain by establishing the future state vision of the Helical Economy Manufacturing Method (HEMM). The work then analyzes two components of the framework in detail: designing next-generation products and next-generation IoT-enabled data infrastructures. The major research problems that need to be solved in these subcomponents are identified in order to make near-term progress towards the HEMM. The work then proceeds with the development and discussion of initial methods for addressing these challenges. Each method is demonstrated using an illustrative industry example. Collectively, this initial work establishes the foundational body of knowledge for the HE and the HEMM, provides implementation methods at the product and IoT-enabled data infrastructure levels, and it shows a great potential for HE’s ability to create and maximize sustainable value, optimize resource consumption, and ensure continued technological progress with significant economic growth and innovation. This research work then presents an outlook on the future work needed, as well as calls for industry to support the continued refinement and development of the HEMM through relevant prototype development and subsequent applications

A blockchain-IoT platform for the smart pallet pooling management

Pallet management as a backbone of logistics and supply chain activities is essential to supply chain parties, while a number of regulations, standards and operational constraints are considered in daily operations. In recent years, pallet pooling has been unconventionally advocated to manage pallets in a closed-loop system to enhance the sustainability and operational effectiveness, but pitfalls in terms of service reliability, quality compliance and pallet limitation when using a single service provider may occur. Therefore, this study incorporates a decentralisation mechanism into the pallet management to formulate a technological eco-system for pallet pooling, namely Pallet as a Service (PalletaaS), raised by the foundation of consortium blockchain and Internet of things (IoT). Consortium blockchain is regarded as the blockchain 3.0 to facilitate more industrial applications, except cryptocurrency, and the synergy of integrating a consortium blockchain and IoT is thus investigated. The corresponding layered architecture is proposed to structure the system deployment in the industry, in which the location-inventory-routing problem for pallet pooling is formulated. To demonstrate the values of this study, a case analysis to illustrate the human–computer interaction and pallet pooling operations is conducted. Overall, this study standardises the decentralised pallet management in the closed-loop mechanism, resulting in a constructive impact to sustainable development in the logistics industry

Internet of things

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Digital Earth was born with the aim of replicating the real world within the digital world. Many efforts have been made to observe and sense the Earth, both from space (remote sensing) and by using in situ sensors. Focusing on the latter, advances in Digital Earth have established vital bridges to exploit these sensors and their networks by taking location as a key element. The current era of connectivity envisions that everything is connected to everything. The concept of the Internet of Things(IoT)emergedasaholisticproposaltoenableanecosystemofvaried,heterogeneous networked objects and devices to speak to and interact with each other. To make the IoT ecosystem a reality, it is necessary to understand the electronic components, communication protocols, real-time analysis techniques, and the location of the objects and devices. The IoT ecosystem and the Digital Earth (DE) jointly form interrelated infrastructures for addressing today’s pressing issues and complex challenges. In this chapter, we explore the synergies and frictions in establishing an efficient and permanent collaboration between the two infrastructures, in order to adequately address multidisciplinary and increasingly complex real-world problems. Although there are still some pending issues, the identified synergies generate optimism for a true collaboration between the Internet of Things and the Digital Earth