Collaborative approaches in sustainable and resilient manufacturing

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).In recent years, the manufacturing sector is going through a major transformation, as reflected in the concept of Industry 4.0 and digital transformation. The urge for such transformation is intensified when we consider the growing societal demands for sustainability. The notion of sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a result of this trend. Additionally, industries and the whole society face the challenges of an increasing number of disruptive events, either natural or human-caused, that can severely affect the normal operation of systems. Furthermore, the growing interconnectivity between organizations, people, and physical systems, supported by recent developments in information and communication technologies, highlights the important role that collaborative networks can play in the digital transformation processes. As such, this article analyses potential synergies between the areas of sustainable and resilient manufacturing and collaborative networks. The work also discusses how the responsibility for the various facets of sustainability can be distributed among the multiple entities involved in manufacturing. The study is based on a literature survey, complemented with the experience gained from various research projects and related initiatives in the area, and is organized according to various dimensions of Industry 4.0. A brief review of proposed approaches and indicators for measuring sustainability from the networked manufacturing perspective is also included. Finally, a set of key research challenges are identified to complement strategic research agendas in manufacturing.publishersversionpublishe

Small and Medium Enterprises’ Green Energy Strategies for Profitability

Lack of business strategies can negatively impact the generation of green energy, which may hinder business profitability and growth. Managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who struggle to generate green energy to increase profitability are at high risk of their business failure. Grounded in the diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the business strategies managers of SMEs use to generate green energy to increase profitability. The participants were three SME managers in three energy companies in Lagos, Nigeria, who effectively used business strategies to generate green energy to increase profitability. Sources for data collection were semistructured interviews, company archival documents, and field notes. Data analysis involved the use of thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: financing support, renewable energy technology and efficiency systems, education and communication, and customer service and quality of service. A key recommendation is for SME owners to organize seminars and workshops for managers on effective strategies to generate green energy to increase profitability and sustain their businesses. The implications for positive social change include the potential for managers of SMEs to create job opportunities, provide social amenities and welfare, promote a clean environment, and support the economic development of the regional communities

C-EMO: A Modeling Framework for Collaborative Network Emotions

Recent research in the area of collaborative networks is focusing on the social and organizational complexity of collaboration environments as a way to prevent technological failures and consequently contribute for the collaborative network’s sustainability. One direction is moving towards the need to provide “human-tech” friendly systems with cognitive models of human factors such as stress, emotion, trust, leadership, expertise or decision-making ability. In this context, an emotion-based system is being proposed with this thesis in order to bring another approach to avoid collaboration network’s failures and help in the management of conflicts. This approach, which is expected to improve the performance of existing CNs, adopts some of the models developed in the human psychology, sociology and affective computing areas. The underlying idea is to “borrow” the concept of human-emotion and apply it into the context of CNs, giving the CN players the ability to “feel emotions”. Therefore, this thesis contributes with a modeling framework that conceptualizes the notion of “emotion” in CNs and a methodology approach based on system dynamics and agent-based techniques that estimates the CN player’s “emotional states” giving support to decision-making processes. Aiming at demonstrating the appropriateness of the proposed framework a simulation prototype was implemented and a validation approach was proposed consisting of simulation of scenarios, qualitative assessment and validation by research community peers.Recentemente a área de investigação das redes colaborativas tem vindo a debruçar-se na complexidade social e organizacional em ambientes colaborativos e como pode ser usada para prevenir falhas tecnológicas e consequentemente contribuir para redes colaborativas sustentáveis. Uma das direcções de estudo assenta na necessidade de fornecer sistemas amigáveis “humano-tecnológicos” com modelos cognitivos de factores humanos como o stress, emoção, confiança, liderança ou capacidade de tomada de decisão. É neste contexto que esta tese propõe um sistema baseado em emoções com o objectivo de oferecer outra aproximação para a gestão de conflitos e falhas da rede de colaboração. Esta abordagem, que pressupõe melhorar o desempenho das redes existentes, adopta alguns dos modelos desenvolvidos nas áreas da psicologia humana, sociologia e affective computing. A ideia que está subjacente é a de “pedir emprestado” o conceito de emoção humana e aplicá-lo no contexto das redes colaborativas, dando aos seus intervenientes a capacidade de “sentir emoções”. Assim, esta tese contribui com uma framework de modelação que conceptualiza a noção de “emoção” em redes colaborativas e com uma aproximação de metodologia sustentada em sistemas dinâmicos e baseada em agentes que estimam os “estados emocionais” dos participantes e da própria rede colaborativa. De forma a demonstrar o nível de adequabilidade da framework de modelação proposta, foi implementado um protótipo de simulação e foi proposta uma abordagem de validação consistindo em simulação de cenários, avaliação qualitativa e validação pelos pares da comunidade científica

Diagnóstico da competitividade da cadeia de valor da geração distribuída de energia fotovoltaica

As evoluções tecnológicas e econômicas observadas nas últimas décadas conduzem as pessoas a aumentarem o consumo de eletricidade para sustentarem um ambiente com melhor qualidade de vida. A fim de atender à demanda crescente de energia elétrica com o menor impacto ambiental possível, a integração de energias renováveis na rede de distribuição tem sido consolidada nos últimos anos, com um aumento expressivo na geração distribuída de energia fotovoltaica (FV). Embora essa fonte renovável esteja se desenvolvendo e apresente perspectiva de crescimento, existem dificuldades de naturezas técnica, econômica, social, gerencial e política que podem limitar sua difusão e competitividade. Assim, é importante analisar a cadeia de valor do setor para explorar a condição dos seus elos, identificar ações que podem contribuir para a melhoria da competitividade da indústria fotovoltaica brasileira perante o mercado global. Em virtude disso, esta tese realiza um diagnóstico da competitividade da cadeia de valor da geração distribuída de energia fotovoltaica no Brasil. O estudo está baseado em uma abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, utilizando pesquisas bibliográfica e de campo para compreender e explicar as relações existentes entre as fontes de vantagem competitiva e os elos da cadeia de valor fotovoltaica. Os principais resultados obtidos envolvem: (i) compreensão do panorama nacional da geração distribuída de energia fotovoltaica e das barreiras que comprometem sua maior adoção e difusão; (ii) construção da cadeia de valor da geração distribuída de energia fotovoltaica e análise dos principais fatores que influenciam a competitividade do setor; e (iii) diagnóstico da competitividade da cadeia de valor fotovoltaica brasileira. Sob a perspectiva acadêmica e a partir de uma análise global, esta tese expande os conhecimentos sobre o mercado de geração distribuída fotovoltaica no Brasil, que até então não havia sido analisado de forma abrangente na literatura. Do ponto de vista prático, a pesquisa contribui para fortalecer a cadeia de valor fotovoltaica brasileira através de informações precisas e detalhadas sobre o segmento e da proposição de estratégias que possibilitam elevar a competitividade do setor e superar os aumentos da tarifa de eletricidade e a crise hídrica nacional. As estratégias propostas podem permitir ganhos econômicos aos diferentes atores ao identificar oportunidades para a transição energética no país e meios para apoiar o processo de tomada de decisão e superar deficiências que afetam a competitividade e crescimento do setor fotovoltaico.Technological and economic evolutions observed in recent decades have led people to increase electricity consumption to support an environment with a better quality of life. The integration of renewable energies in the distribution network has been consolidated in recent years, with an expressive increase in the distributed generation of photovoltaic (PV) energy to meet the growing demand for electricity with the least possible environmental impact. Although this renewable source is developing and has a growth perspective, technical, economic, social, managerial, and political difficulties can limit its diffusion and competitiveness. Thus, it is important to analyze the sector's value chain to explore the condition of its links and identify actions that can improve the competitiveness of the Brazilian photovoltaic industry in the global market. As a result, this thesis diagnoses the competitiveness of the value chain of distributed generation of photovoltaic energy in Brazil. The study is based on a qualitative research approach, using bibliographic and field research to understand and explain the relationships between the sources of competitive advantage and the links in the photovoltaic value chain. The main results obtained involve: (i) understanding of the national panorama of distributed generation of photovoltaic energy and the barriers that compromise its greater adoption and diffusion; (ii) construction of the value chain for distributed photovoltaic energy generation and analysis of the main factors influencing the sector's competitiveness; and (iii) diagnosis of the competitiveness of the Brazilian photovoltaic value chain. From an academic perspective and a global analysis, this thesis expands the knowledge about the photovoltaic distributed generation market in Brazil, which had not been comprehensively analyzed in the literature until then. From a practical point of view, the research contributes to strengthening the Brazilian photovoltaic value chain through accurate and detailed information about the segment and the proposal of strategies that enable to raise the sector's competitiveness and overcome electricity tariff increases and the national water crisis. The proposed strategies can allow economic gains to different actors by identifying opportunities for the energy transition in the country and means to support the decision-making process and overcome deficiencies that affect the competitiveness and growth of the photovoltaic sector