Sustainable manufacturing tactics and improvement methodology : a structured and systematic approach to identify improvement opportunities

Growing environmental concerns caused by increasing consumption of natural resources and pollution need to be addressed. Manufacturing dictates the efficiency with which resource inputs are transformed into economically valuable outputs in the form of products and services. Consequently it is also responsible for the resulting waste and pollution generated from this transformation process. This research explored the challenges faced by sustainable manufacturing as a concept and as a model for manufacturing systems. The work is strongly based on the concepts of sustainability and industrial ecology applied at factory level. The research objectives were to understand what companies are doing to improve their sustainability performance at operational level (resource productivity) and to help other companies repeating such improvements in their own factory. In other words, the aim is to generalise sustainable practices across the manufacturing industry. The work started with a review of existing theories and practices for sustainable manufacturing and other related fields of research such as industrial ecology, cleaner production and pollution prevention. The concepts, themes, strategies and principles found in the literature provided a strong foundation to approach resource productivity improvements. The industrial cases collected gave an insight into the application of these strategies and principles in a factory. From the analysis of existing theories and practices, generic tactics were developed by translating 1000+ practices into generic rules and by mapping them against strategies and principles for sustainable manufacturing to check the completeness and consistency of the tactics library. To test the tactics and assist the user in their use through factory modelling, an improvement methodology was developed based on the same strategies and principles to provide a structured guide for accessing tactics and systematically identifying improvement opportunities. The research findings were tested with a series of prototype applications. These tests were carried out as part of a wider project (THERM). This project uses a modelling and simulation approach to capture the resource flows (material, energy, water and waste), the interactions within the manufacturing system (manufacturing operations, surrounding buildings and supporting facilities) and the influence of external factors‘ variation (weather conditions, building orientation and neighbouring infrastructures). The outcomes of the prototype applications helped develop and refine the research findings. The contribution to knowledge of this research resides in bridging the gap between high-level concepts for sustainability and industrial practices by developing a library of tactics to generalise sustainable manufacturing practices and an improvement methodology to guide the tactics implementation. From a practical viewpoint, the research provides a structured and systematic approach for manufacturers to undertake the journey towards more sustainable practice by improving resource flows in their factory

Indigenous capability building as an intervention strategy for sustainable enerby implementation in vulnerable societies.

Geospatial regions have different requirements for energy development due to variations in environmental, economic, social, and political constraints which influence their energy demand profiles and generation capacities. These constraints determine the policy, strategy, and implementation priorities for sustainable energy consumption, generation, and distribution. This PhD research project focuses on the role of interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology; and its iterative feedback loop mechanism to encourage the implementation of sustainable energy systems in a vulnerable society. As a novel contribution to knowledge and practice, this PhD work concludes that: 1. Establishing a local business case for indigenous, appropriate technology, utilising a solid network which receives committed, political support, is an effective intervention strategy to fast track the deployment of sustainable energy systems, which breaks the cycle of vulnerability through social transformation and community empowerment. 2. Being aware of their own Western-Educated-Industrialised-Rich-Democratic (WEIRD) mindsets is a first step for knowledge exchange practitioners to overcome cultural differences and to introduce the intervention strategy. This was synthesised from the following new understandings which were obtained as the outputs of this PhD research: 1. Re-interpretation of the theory of vulnerable societies in relation to sustainable energy; 2. Re-interpretation of the theory of sustainable energy in relation to the proposed fourth dimension of sustainability; 3. Re-interpretation on the theory of appropriate technology in relation to technological independence and indigenous wisdom; 4. Novel conceptual model of a vulnerable societys problem system; 5. Novel conceptual model of the interfaces between sustainable energy policy and appropriate technology in vulnerable societies. It is expected that the outcome of this PhD research can bridge the gaps identified in theoretical sustainable energy policies whilst in practice provide sound advice and confidence for policy makers and initiative implementers in grounding equal access to energy as a fundamental agent of change towards sustainable societal development

Innovation for Sustainability and Networking

Throughout human history, innovation has been the main factor in adapting humanity to its settings. On the basis of earlier practice, human creativity allows the finding of new, permanent ways to do things. their applications encourage new spaces, new necessities and new lifestyles. Innovation has been an element of human capacities from its earlier stages, but it has been recognized only recently as a clear device of social and economic change

Innovation for development

Em comemoração do 30º Aniversário da Universidade do Algarve e do Ano Europeu da Criatividade e Inovação.On the commemoration of its 30th anniversary, the University of Algarve decided to promote a series of conferences on Innovation for Development and then to edit this book on the interventions prepared by the invited speakers. The overall debate on this topic – broken down into more specific objectives such as competitiveness, entrepreneurship, sustainability, geographic information systems or innovation regional policies – could not be better chosen, in the context of our country which, like many others, is seeking to become more competitive in today’s knowledge based global world economy. As a matter of fact it is unanimously accepted that, these days, innovation became a must in the search for development. The most consensual definition of innovation is probably the one provided by the OECD Oslo Manual, 2005. By entailing four types of innovation – product (be it good or service), process, organizational and marketing – it sensibly extends innovation far beyond a strictly technological perspective. But, broadly speaking, innovation can be interpreted as the conversion of knowledge into social or economic value. This synthetic definition of the innovation concept has two major implications. Firstly, it becomes clear that the generation of knowledge – i.e. Research and Development (R&D) – and its diffusion – i.e. people’s qualification – are necessary conditions for innovation to take place.Com o apoio do Centro de Investigação sobre o Espaço e as Organizações, do Centro Regional de Inovação do Algarve e da Universidade do Algarve

Products and Services

Today’s global economy offers more opportunities, but is also more complex and competitive than ever before. This fact leads to a wide range of research activity in different fields of interest, especially in the so-called high-tech sectors. This book is a result of widespread research and development activity from many researchers worldwide, covering the aspects of development activities in general, as well as various aspects of the practical application of knowledge

Innovation for sustainability and networking

The current work sought to understand the softer dimensions which constitute the building blocks of innovation networks. In particular, it addressed the individual and social aspects that bond organizations in such networks. Based on interview data collected from 45 entities involved in various innovation networks in three regions in Portugal, the findings revealed that there are three key dimensions at the micro level of analysis which contribute to understand how organization networks emerge and develop. These dimensions constitute the main theoretical contributions of the current research to the emerging field of innovation networks.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio