Operator-Oriented Product and Production Process Design for Manufacturing, Maintenance and Upgrading

The nature of production in the manufacturing industry is changing, and companies face large challenges. Customers expect fast delivery times, proven sustainability, flexibility, and frequent product upgrades. To stay competitive and manage rapid technological demands, a parallel, iterative and interactive development approach for product and process design is required. Closed-loop systems will increase future customer demand for easy upgrading. This requires highly modular and operator-friendly product designs. Because the complexity, variety and unpredictability of products and production tasks will increase, information and support systems for operators are crucial elements. Human factor engineering methodologies are essential to take full advantage of new technologies that support operators in all stages of the product life cycle. Methods and tools that could support companies in improving product, process, and workstation design are presented, and directions for future research and tool development are discussed

Public sector and circular business models : from public support towards implementation through design

In the last decade researchers interest in Sustainable Business Models has raised significantly, due to economic, social and environmental problems of the contemporary world. The philosophy and movement of Circular Economy plays an influential role therein, mainly because it provides opportunities for economic growth through environmental friendly solutions. This chapter employs literature review to further the understanding of the role public sector plays in shifting towards Circular Business Models. This work contributes to the debate on sustainable business models in several ways. It outlines the facilitating role of the public sector which aims to support private sector business models through six types of interventions. It also attempts to provide an early conceptualization of public sector circular business model. Building on that, it argues for the significant role of design in pursuing opportunities to change such business models into a more circular ones