A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste by 20 Percent

The magnitude of the food waste problem is difficult to comprehend. The U.S. spends $218 billion a year -- 1.3% of GDP -- growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. The causes of food waste are diverse, ranging from crops that never get harvested, to food left on overfilled plates, to near-expired milk and stale bread. ReFED is a coalition of over 30 business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to building a different future, where food waste prevention, recovery, and recycling are recognized as an untapped opportunity to create jobs, alleviate hunger, and protect the environment -- all while stimulating a new multi-billion dollar market opportunity. ReFED developed A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste as a data-driven guide to collectively take action to reduce food waste at scale nationwide.This Roadmap report is a guide and a call to action for us to work together to solve this problem. Businesses can save money for themselves and their customers. Policymakers can unleash a new wave of local job creation. Foundations can take a major step in addressing environmental issues and hunger. And innovators across all sectors can launch new products, services, and business models. There will be no losers, only winners, as food finds its way to its highest and best use

Strategies for Value Creation Through Sustainable Manufacturing

Making the business case and establishing strategic directions for sustainable manufacturing requires a collaborative effort. Strategic capabilities that can help create sustainable value for all stakeholders must be identified. Technologies and methodologies to provide these capabilities for implementation must then be developed, through public-private partnerships. This paper presents major business imperatives and strategic capabilities necessary to enable value creation through sustainable manufacturing identified based on extensive engagement with business leaders and industry professionals as well as academic experts and government agency representatives. The paper also presents a future vision for sustainable products, processes and systems that can be derived from such capabilities

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

Characterizing Circular Supply Chain Practices in Industry 5.0 With Respect to Sustainable Manufacturing Operations

The current research investigated the significance of circular supply chain practices in Industry 5.0 with respect to their sustainable manufacturing operations. Through a comprehensive review of the literature, the current study identified key circular supply chain practices and their potential benefits for Industry 5.0. The findings indicated that closed-loop supply chains, sustainable sourcing, product design for circularity, and waste reduction may assist Industry 5.0 firms to achieve their sustainability objectives while enhancing the operational efficiency. Moreover, the study also highlighted the challenges associated with the implementation of circular supply chain practices including the necessity for collaboration among supply chain partners, investment in new technologies and infrastructure, and the development of new skills and capabilities. From a practical and managerial perspective, the implications suggest that firms aiming to adopt circular supply chain practices in Industry 5.0 should prioritize collaboration and coordination, make investments in new technologies and infrastructure, and foster the acquisition of new skills and capabilities. To complement this research, future studies could employ empirical research methods in order to validate the findings and recommendations as well as explore potential barriers to the implementation of circular supply chain practices in Industry 5.0

Circular lean product-service systems design: A literature review, framework proposal and case studies

In recent years, the Service Sector has received an increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The transition from traditional manufacturing to service-oriented integrated systems has given rise to the such called: “Servitisation Revolution”, which today is a relevant revenue generator. The definition of “Product-Service Systems (PSS)” calls for an expanded value creation system through the addition of competitive advantages based on value-added services to previous companies\u27 pure product offerings. These product-services bundled solutions have been recognized as being one of the most efficient techniques towards the achievement of resource-efficient and sustainable economies. PSS paradigm has grown beyond expectations, becoming a common term among publications of the most recognized academic journals and international conferences, and a highly discussed topic across a broad range of industrial sectors. However, recent trends based on scientific and grey literature suggest analysing the compatibility of PSS with other principles, methods and tools such as “circular” and “lean” thinking, which may help to enhance the intrinsic environmentally sustainability advantage that is refer at the first PSS definitions, but that has, unfortunately, faded through time. This paper analyses how the PSS paradigm can benefit from the “circular economy” and “lean” principles. The followed research methodology included a literature review, which aims to identify those principles, methods and tools which can help to modify each stage of a traditional PSS towards a Circular Lean PSS. Furthermore, a first Circular Lean PSS Design Framework is proposed and described. This framework is validated empirically through two case studies supported by two vessel-building companies. Further research is suggested to validate the proposed framework in different industries

Design for manufacture and sustainability in new product development

Design for manufacture is well recognised by industry and is about optimising design to aid production. Today there is a significant and growing trend of recognising what happens to a product once its user phase has finished. Post-consumer processes are now an important consideration during the ab-initio stages of design. Rather than a focus limited to design for manufacture or (more recently) design for assembly now the pressure is on for post consumer design. Companies need to do this because legislative pressures are increasing and consumers are becoming ever more aware of, and concerned about, environmental issues. End-of-life processing and design for the environment are therefore areas of growing of interest. This conference paper investigates with industry practitioners their experiences regarding for both the environmental and economic advantages of product life-cycle planning. Legislative pressures and consumer awareness are driving businesses to develop sustainable product design strategies (Jones et al, 2001 p. 27). Changes within the law, to protect our environment, cause companies to pay attention as they begin to affect profitability. The first British Standard to address design for end-of-life processing, and therefore support industry, is BS 8887-1. Over 60 UK manufacturing and design companies that had bought BS 8887-1 contributed to this by being interviewed or providing a written response. The research investigated multiple aspects of sustainable design in practice however, in this conference paper the focus is its application within the design process

Technology and quality management: a review of concepts and opportunities in the digital transformation

Purpose - The Digital Transformation brings change to organizations, their processes, and their production systems. Nevertheless, most efforts observed in its context tend to be technology-driven, and it is often argued that Quality Management is inadequately integrated into the discussion. Design/methodology/approach - Surveying the literature, this work reviews, list, and organizes the different technological concepts and integration opportunities that have been explored in the scope of Quality Management in the Digital Transformation. Findings - Findings include the expanded capacity of quality tools and methods for managerial purposes; the reinforced importance of Data Quality; the increased automation and augment resources for Quality control; and the increased process optimization and integration of systems and between organizational areas. Originality/value - It is demonstrated that although scattered in the literature, there are already a number of works exploring the impacts of technology in the management of Quality in the scope of the Digital Transformation. Three main areas for integration arise: (a) Digital Quality Management (application of industry 4.0 technologies to Quality Management itself, its tools, methods, and systems), (b) the management of the Quality of digital products and services, and (c) the management of the Quality of digital product development and production processes.(undefined

Operations Management of Satellite Launch Centers

Driven by the business potentialities of the satellite industry, the last years witnessed a massive increase of attention in the space industry. This sector has been always considered critical by national entities and international organizations worldwide due to economic, cultural, scientific, military and civil implications. The need of cutting down satellite launch costs has become even more impellent due to the competition generated by the entrance in the sector of new players, including commercial organizations. Indeed, the high demand of satellite services requires affordable and flexible launch. In this context, a fundamental aspect is represented by the optimization of launch centers' logistics. The aim of this paper is to investigate and review the benefits and potential impact that consolidated operations research and management strategies, coupled with emerging paradigms in machine learning and control can have in the satellite industry, surveying techniques which could be adopted in advanced operations management of satellite launch centers

Enabling Circular Economy with Digital Solutions: Multiple-case study in Finland

Circular economy and the benefits of digital solutions are constantly gaining interest among researchers, companies and organizations. The two trends have separately received much attention during the recent years, but the cooperative opportunities of digital solutions in the area of circular economy are still to be further researched. While circular economy is introducing a new approach to consumption by keeping materials in a continuous cycle, digital solutions are generating new opportunities and innovations. The correlation between the two trends has been recognised but the empirical research results on the subject have been missing. The conducted research focused on gaining insight into benefits, requirements and challenges related to the use of digital solutions in circular economy operations. Four organizations that operate with different circular economy solutions in Finland were interviewed based on current understanding on the subjects gained from scientific literature and expert interviews. As the interviewed companies focused on different areas of circular economy, the research provided results on all three value drivers of circular economy listed as resource efficiency, ex-tending product lifetime and closing material loops. The different digital technologies used in the context of circular economy were identified and sorted under the categories of data collection, data integration and data analysis technologies. The different categories also resemble the development and implementation status of digital solutions as the earlier technologies are required to achieve development in the next category. Despite large attention on data analysis technologies and the opportunities of Big Data, the development status of most organizations still focuses on data collection solutions revolving around Internet of Things and its applications. Clear benefits can be seen to be achieved with data analysis solutions, but implementations on that level remain to be identified especially on a large scale. Even though the focus is still on data collection technologies, several benefits and effects to promote circular economy through digitalization were identified. This indicates that digital solutions have an important part in circular economy development as large potential is still to be researched with the benefits of data integration and data analysis technologies. The results on interviews indicated that the requirements on implementing digitalized circular economy match the literature-based results, adding also new findings to the discussion. Customer interaction and consumer decision weighted heavily in the development of circular and digital solutions as the users need to agree on the development decisions for the solution to succeed. Additionally, the challenges found differed largely from the earlier research as the literature-based challenges focused on physical limitation and terminology discussion, where the interviewed organizations pinpointed the importance of finding top experts and solving data ownership issues. At the end, future development areas and directions of digitalized circular economy was discussed where four repeating key areas were identified. The upcoming key areas to follow and develop are the implementation of data analysis technologies, accessibility of customer information, solutions to promote preventive maintenance and effective use of cross-organizational unified systems.Kiertotalous ja digitaaliset teknologiat keräävät jatkuvasti lisää huomiota tutkijoiden, yritysten ja organisaatioiden keskuudessa. Näitä kahta trendiä on tutkittu viime vuosina huomattavan paljon erillisinä kokonaisuuksina, mutta niiden yhdistelmästä ilmenevät mahdollisuudet ovat vasta äskettäin nousseet tutkimuksen keskiöön. Ilmiönä kiertotalous haastaa perinteisen kulutusmallin, jossa raaka-aineet päätyvät valmistuksen ja käytön jälkeen kaatopaikalle, pitämällä tuotteet mukana materiaalikierrossa. Samaan aikaan digitalisaatio mahdollistaa uusia toimintamalleja ja innovaatioita, joilla materiaaliratkaisujen toteuttamista voidaan tukea entistä tehokkaammin. Näiden kahden trendin välillä voidaan havaita selkeä korrelaatio, mutta sen hyödyntämistä ei vielä ole empiirisesti tutkittu. Toteutettu tutkimus keskittyy perehtymään digitaalisten ratkaisujen hyötyihin, vaatimuksiin sekä haasteisiin kiertotalouden prosesseissa. Tutkimuksessa haastateltiin neljää suomalaista yritystä, jotka toimivat kiertotalouden parissa ja hyödyntävät ratkaisuissaan digitalisaatiota. Haastattelut perustuivat kirjallisuuteen ja alan ammattilaisilta hankittuun ajankohtaiseen tietoon aiheesta. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kiertotaloutta kolmen kiertotalouden ajurin avulla, joita ovat resurssitehokkuus, tuotteiden elinkaaren pidentäminen sekä materiaalivirtojen sulkeminen. Valittujen yritysten ratkaisut rakentuvat eri ajurien ympärille, joten tutkimuksessa digitalisaation hyötyjä on tarkasteltu laajasti eri lähtökohdista. Tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin eri digitaaliset teknologiat, joita hyödynnetään kiertotalouden yhteydessä. Teknologiat jaettiin dataa kerääviin, dataa integroiviin ja dataa analysoiviin teknologioihin, joiden tunnistettiin vastaavan myös teknologisen kehityksen tasoja. Seuraavan tason teknologiat vaativat edeltävän tason teknologioiden hyödyntämistä, jolloin dataa analysoivien teknologioiden käyttöönotto vaatii ensin suuria investointeja dataa integroivien ja keräävien teknologioiden implementointiin. Dataa analysoivien teknologioiden suuresta suosiosta huolimatta, niiden hyödyntäminen on vasta vähäisellä tasolla sillä suurin osa yrityksistä kehittää vielä ratkaisuja dataa keräävien teknologioiden ympärillä. Analysoivilla ratkaisuilla koetaan olevan paljon potentiaalia, mutta etenkin suuren mittakaavan ratkaisuja ei kukaan vielä ole toteuttanut. Vaikka digitaalinen kehitys kiertotalouden alueella on vielä alkuvaiheessa, tutkimuksissa tunnis-tettiin useita hyötyjä, joilla etenkin esineiden internetin avulla kiertotalouden toteutusta voidaan tehostaa. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että yritysten haastattelutuloksista sekä alan kirjallisuudesta voidaan havaita yhtenevät vaatimukset digitaalisen kiertotalouden implementoinnille. Vaatimuksissa korostuu asiakasyhteistyö sekä kuluttajiin vaikuttaminen, joilla on suuri merkitys kiertotalouden uusien ratkaisujen kehitykselle. Jotta uusia menetelmiä voidaan onnistuneesti ottaa käyttöön, tulee kuluttajien hyväksyä ja omaksua muutokset omiin käytäntöihinsä. Toisin kuin vaati-mukset, listatut implementoinnin haasteet eroavat merkittävästi kirjallisuuden ja haastattelutulosten välillä. Kirjallisuudessa haasteet perustuvat luonnollisiin rajoituksiin sekä jätteen määrittelyyn, jotka asettavat haasteita toiminnalle, kun haastattelutuloksissa haasteet keskittyvät alan osaajien löytämiseen sekä datan omistajuuskysymysten ratkaisuun. Haastattelujen lopuksi yritysten kanssa keskusteltiin digitaalisen kiertotalouden kehityssuunnista ja tärkeimmistä kohteista, jotka tulevat muuttamaan alaa. Tärkeimmiksi kehityskohteiksi tunnistettiin, analysointi tekno-logioiden implementointi, asiakastietojen hyödyntäminen, ennakoivat huoltamismenetelmät sekä yritysten välisten järjestelmien rakentaminen

Industry 4.0 and sustainability: Towards conceptualization and theory

Both Industry 4.0 and sustainability have gained momentum in the academic, managerial and policy debate. Despite the relevance of the topics, the relation between Industry 4.0 and sustainability \u2013 revealed by many authors \u2013 is still unclear; literature is fragmented. This paper seeks to overcome this limit by developing a systematic literature review of 117 peer-reviewed journal articles. After descriptive and content analyses, the work presents a conceptualization and theoretical framework. The paper contributes to both theory and practice by advancing current understanding of Industry 4.0 and sustainability, especially the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainability practices and performance