Contextual impacts on industrial processes brought by the digital transformation of manufacturing: a systematic review

The digital transformation of manufacturing (a phenomenon also known as "Industry 4.0" or "Smart Manufacturing") is finding a growing interest both at practitioner and academic levels, but is still in its infancy and needs deeper investigation. Even though current and potential advantages of digital manufacturing are remarkable, in terms of improved efficiency, sustainability, customization, and flexibility, only a limited number of companies has already developed ad hoc strategies necessary to achieve a superior performance. Through a systematic review, this study aims at assessing the current state of the art of the academic literature regarding the paradigm shift occurring in the manufacturing settings, in order to provide definitions as well as point out recurring patterns and gaps to be addressed by future research. For the literature search, the most representative keywords, strict criteria, and classification schemes based on authoritative reference studies were used. The final sample of 156 primary publications was analyzed through a systematic coding process to identify theoretical and methodological approaches, together with other significant elements. This analysis allowed a mapping of the literature based on clusters of critical themes to synthesize the developments of different research streams and provide the most representative picture of its current state. Research areas, insights, and gaps resulting from this analysis contributed to create a schematic research agenda, which clearly indicates the space for future evolutions of the state of knowledge in this field

Socio-technical transitions towards environmental sustainability through green ICT

We adopt the broad conceptualisation of Green Information Communication Technology (ICT) used by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), incorporating perspectives on Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) which has currency with both business practitioners and policy makers. The objective of our research is to develop a theory of the institutional mechanisms that underpin socio-technical transitions to environmental sustainability through the direct, indirect and systematic effects of Green ICT in and across organisational fields. We construct our theory by drawing on published research in several disciplines focusing on the organisational field of the ICT industry. We present a mechanism-based theoretical model that explains how institutional change in organisational fields can evoke appropriate socio-technical transitions and organisational responses to Green ICT. Systems researchers agree that Green ICT can help lower GHG emissions directly, through energy efficiencies and indirectly by enabling environmentally sustainable business processes. If this research is to be of theoretical or practical relevance it must recognize that government organizations and business enterprises may not adopt policies and strategies on Green ICT because it is rational or moral to do so rather, a web of social, and institutional mechanisms interact to produce the outcomes observed in practice

Sustainability transition of production systems in the digital era - a systems perspective for building resilient and sustainable production systems

Locked-in manufacturing industries with highly structured operations and path dependencies are major contributors to the sustainability challenges currently burdening our planet. The effects of the ongoing pandemic, large-scale environmental impacts due to climate change and constant economic and social downturns are just some examples of these sustainability challenges. Increased digitalisation, awareness, global initiatives and regulations are pressuring manufacturing industries to transition towards sustainable development. However, there exists a multitude of interpretations in implementing sustainability in manufacturing industries. This makes proposing tangible actions to translate global initiatives complicated, thus hindering the sustainability transition process.The purpose of this thesis is to support the advancement of resilient production systems which can overcome sustainability challenges in the Industry 4.0 era. Hence, the thesis aims to investigate: (i) the systemic challenges of manufacturing companies which hinder their sustainability transition process and (ii) the mechanisms by which a systems perspective may be applied to support the transition. A mixed-methods approach was used to carry out the research, using qualitative and quantitative data from three (empirical and theoretical) studies. Applying a systems perspective helped reveal the challenges which hinder the sustainability transition of production systems. Understanding the production ‘system’ as a whole (and the underlying web of intricate dependencies and challenges in production operations) required this holistic perspective. Regarding the challenges, it was observed that manufacturing industries across different domains face three main types of challenge: internal (such as organisational routines, strategies and cultural mindset), external (such as regulations and collaboration with stakeholders) and technological (such as maturity levels and data). Three different enabling mechanisms were explored which may help overcome the above sustainability challenges and support the sustainability transition of manufacturing industries: (1) Industry 4.0 technologies, (2) dynamic capabilities and (3) resilience engineering. It was observed that Industry 4.0 technologies (such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, virtual development tools and sensors) are largely implemented to enable sustainable manufacturing in the form of resource efficiency and waste reduction. The results also revealed five microfoundations of dynamic capabilities – communication, organisation, resources, collaboration and technology. Based on Industry 4.0 opportunities to promote sustainability transitions, the results revealed five industrial resilience factors – robustness, agility, resourcefulness, adaptability and flexibility.This research contributes to theory by studying the convergence of emergent research topics, such as Industry 4.0, dynamic capabilities and resilience engineering in the context of sustainability transitions. In terms of a practical contribution, the sustainability transitions model developed in this thesis may support industrial practitioners in gaining a holistic understanding of the systemic challenges to sustainability, plus corresponding mechanisms to promote the sustainability transition of industries and the building of resilient production systems

CRIBs (Climate Relevant Innovation-system Builders): an effective way forward for international climate technology policy

National systems of innovation (NSIs) provide the context within which all processes of technology development, transfer and uptake occur - they refer to the network of actors (e.g. firms, universities, research institutes, government departments, NGOs) within which innovation occurs, and the strength and nature of the relationships between them. Nurturing NSIs in relation to climate technologies provides a powerful new focus for international policy with potential to underpin more sustained and widespread development and transfer of climate technologies. This working paper builds on an invited presentation by one of the authors at a workshop on NSIs convened by the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It identifies policy recommendations for consideration of the TEC. The intention is both to inform possible recommendations by the TEC to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) and to highlight potential areas for future work that the TEC could undertake on this issue

Circular supply chain management: A definition and structured literature review

Circular economy is increasingly recognized as a better alternative to the dominant linear (take, make, and dispose) economic model. Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM), which integrates the philosophy of the circular economy into supply chain management, offers a new and compelling perspective to the supply chain sustainability domain. Consequently, there is increasing research interest. However, a review of the extant literature shows that a comprehensive integrated view of CSCM is still absent in the extant literature. This prohibits a clear distinction compared to other supply chain sustainability concepts and hinders further progress of the field. In response, this research first classifies various terminologies related to supply chain sustainability and conceptualizes a unifying definition of CSCM. Using this definition as a base, it then conducts a structured literature review of 261 research articles on the current state of CSCM research. Based on the review results, the researchers call for further studies in the following directions that are important but received little or no attention: design for circularity, procurement and CSCM, biodegradable packaging, circular supply chain collaboration and coordination, drivers and barriers of CSCM, circular consumption, product liabilities and producer's responsibility, and technologies and CSCM

Data-driven review of additive manufacturing on supply chains: Regionalization, key research themes and future directions

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to greatly impact supply chains in a number of positive ways, particularly in regional and remote locations. This study aimed to identify the impact and application of AM on regional supply chains (RSCs) and address the associated challenges while promoting the sustainable use of this technology. Therefore, this study implemented a streamlined evaluation text mining method that employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)-based modeling for robust content analysis. Over the past 19 years (2004–2022), there has been a significant increase in the number of journal articles that center on AM in supply chains. Through an extensive analysis of 341 published papers, five main research themes were identified: manufacturing, environment, costs, logistics, and maintenance. The identification of a gap in research in regional locations is significant as they often face unique challenges in their supply chains, such as limited access to technology and required infrastructure and the availability of resources. These challenges may have a different impact on the implementation of AM. Further, the possible impact of using AM in the recovery of RSCs after the COVID-19 pandemic is substantial and can bring about several positive sustainable changes, including increased responsiveness to changing demands, shorter production lead times, lower material usage and waste, customizability, localized production, energy efficiency, and reduced carbon dioxide and gas emissions

Business models and supply chains for the circular economy

The Circular Economy is increasingly seen as a possible solution to address sustainable development. An economic system that minimises resource input into and waste, emission, and energy leakage out of the system is hoped to mitigate negative impacts without jeopardising growth and prosperity. This paper discusses the sustainability performance of the circular business models (CBM) and circular supply chains necessary to implement the concept on an organisational level and proposes a framework to integrate circular business models and circular supply chain management towards sustainable development. It was developed based on literature analysis and four case studies. The proposed framework shows how different circular business models are driving circular supply chain in different loops: closing loops, slowing loops, intensifying loops, narrowing loops, and dematerialising loops. The identified circular business models vary in complexity of the circular supply chain and in the value proposition. Our research indicates circular business and circular supply chain help in realising sustainability ambitions.This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability [grant number EP/I033351/1

The role of blockchain technology in the transition toward the circular economy: Findings from a systematic literature review

The circular economy (CE) has emerged as a paradigm to protect the environment and the well-being of future generations. In parallel, Blockchain technology (BC) has emerged as a critical enabler for accelerating the transition toward a CE. In order to understand and summarize prior research on the role of BC in the CE, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of 70 seminal articles published before July 2022. Six main themes emerged: a) CE approaches and practices, b) BC and the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), c) sustainable supply chain management, d) BC and the CE in the COVID-19 era, e) sector-specific BC applications, and f) barriers to BC adoption in the CE. Furthermore, we develop a comprehensive framework that integrates stakeholders, strategies and practices, industrial sectors and a BC-enabled CE