Polygon Interface Analysis: A Concept For Analyzing Production Site Interactions In Urban Areas

Urban production bears the potential to not only reduce the negative impacts of production processes and global supply chains but also to generate a positive contribution to society and the environment when integrated symbiotically into the urban context. However, especially in urban areas, production is often associated with negative impacts on the surrounding environment. Therefore, the interactions between producing companies and their environment need to be considered and analysed. Hence, we derive a conceptual model that allows the exploitation of the potentials of urban locations for production by focusing on the interfaces between urban production and the urban environment. For this purpose, the Polygon Interface Analysis [P.I.A.] is introduced. It makes use of the principle of a Rubik's Cube or a Caesar Cipher by altering layers for matchmaking and integrates the business, city and interface perspective into an applicable analysis approach. To conceptualize this model existing approaches from the fields of factory planning and strategy development are examined in regard to their suitability for applying those for a location analysis of urban factories. Based on this, a suggestion for the application of the P.I.A. is given. The application of the model allows for the improvement of manufacturing integration in urban environments by supporting factory planning decisions, production system design, as well as location and site analysis for urban production

Supplementary information "Model-based analysis of the dynamic capacity ramp-up of closed-loop supply chains for lithium-ion batteries in Japan and Germany"

Mathematical formulation of a capacity planning model for the proceedings paper for the EcoDesign 2023 conference in Japan

Sustainability Assessment and Engineering of Emerging Aircraft Technologies: Challenges, Methods and Tools

Driven by concerns regarding the sustainability of aviation and the continued growth of air traffic, increasing interest is given to emerging aircraft technologies. Although new technologies, such as battery-electric propulsion systems, have the potential to minimise in-flight emissions and noise, environmental burdens are possibly shifted to other stages of the aircraft’s life cycle, and new socio-economic challenges may arise. Therefore, a life-cycle-oriented sustainability assessment is required to identify these hotspots and problem shifts and to derive recommendations for action for aircraft development at an early stage. This paper proposes a framework for the modelling and assessment of future aircraft technologies and provides an overview of the challenges and available methods and tools in this field. A structured search and screening process is used to determine which aspects of the proposed framework are already addressed in the scientific literature and in which areas research is still needed. For this purpose, a total of 66 related articles are identified and systematically analysed. Firstly, an overview of statistics of papers dealing with life-cycle-oriented analysis of conventional and emerging aircraft propulsion systems is given, classifying them according to the technologies considered, the sustainability dimensions and indicators investigated, and the assessment methods applied. Secondly, a detailed analysis of the articles is conducted to derive answers to the defined research questions. It illustrates that the assessment of environmental aspects of alternative fuels is a dominating research theme, while novel approaches that integrate socio-economic aspects and broaden the scope to battery-powered, fuel-cell-based, or hybrid-electric aircraft are emerging. It also provides insights by what extent future aviation technologies can contribute to more sustainable and energy-efficient aviation. The findings underline the need to harmonise existing methods into an integrated modelling and assessment approach that considers the specifics of upcoming technological developments in aviation

Self-Assessment Framework for Corporate Environmental Sustainability in the Era of Digitalization

The shift towards a climate-neutral economy will affect businesses in the upcoming decades. Companies will need to increase their transformation towards environmentally sustainable businesses in the following years, in which digitalization might be a practical enabler to accelerate this transformation. However, as a starting point, companies require knowledge of their current sustainability performance to manage this transition and need a method that provides the necessary information. The use of self-assessment tools is a widely acknowledged method for such processes. Nevertheless, there is a lack of self-assessment tools that integrate sustainability and digitalization perspectives to overcome different organizational barriers. This paper focuses on how managers can be supported in planning their transformations by interlinking sustainability and digitization. Our objective is to enable the managers of companies to assess their current state in terms of corporate environmental sustainability and to explore their policies, information systems, and actions to support their transformation towards sustainable and digital businesses. A self-assessment tool based on a rapid questionnaire is presented after reviewing and synthesizing different approaches, including maturity modeling, sustainability reporting, and digital assessment tools. The self-assessment tool is improved upon evaluation by industry experts and the framework is tested on a case company.</jats:p

Lebenszyklusorientierte Flottenplanung mit alternativ angetriebenen Fahrzeugkonzepten

Strukturveränderungen auf dem deutschen Fahrzeugmarkt, wie die Einführung der Elektromobilität, erfordern zunehmend die Berücksichtigung alternativ angetriebener Fahrzeugkonzepte in der Planung von Unternehmensflotten. Hierbei ergibt sich der Bedarf für eine lebenszyklusorientierte Sichtweise u.a. aufgrund von divergierenden Eigenschaften verschiedener Fahrzeugkonzepte. Vor diesem Hintergrund liefert diese Dissertation einen Beitrag zur lebenszyklusorientierten Flottenplanung mit alternativ angetriebenen Fahrzeugkonzepten. Ansatzpunkt ist die Entwicklung einer generischen Planungsunterstützung. Aufbauend auf den theoretischen Grundlagen wird die lebenszyklusorientierte Flottenplanung mit alternativ angetriebenen Fahrzeugkonzepten als Betrachtungsgegenstand dieser Dissertation eingeführt und Anforderungen an eine Planungsunterstützung abgeleitet. Wesentliche Anforderungen sind u.a. die Abbildung der Entscheidungssituation eines Flottenplaners, die Verknüpfung der strategischen Bestands- mit der operativen Einsatzplanung, die resultierende notwendige Erfassung dynamischer Effekte des Flottenbetriebs sowie die integrative lebenszyklusorientierte Berücksichtigung funktionaler, ökonomischer und ökologischer Zielgrößen. Im Anschluss zeigt die detaillierte Analyse und Bewertung des aktuellen Standes der Forschung und Technik, dass bestehende Ansätze diese Anforderungen nicht erfüllen können. Insbesondere fehlt ein Konzept, das unter Abbildung der spezifischen Entscheidungssituation und der Zielstellungen eines Flottenplaners eine transparente lebenszyklusorientierte Analyse und Bewertung verschiedener Fahrzeugkonzepte hinsichtlich funktionaler, ökonomischer und ökologischer Zielgrößen für verschiedene Flottenanwendungen ermöglicht. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird in dieser Dissertation ein eigenes Konzept zur Unterstützung der lebenszyklusorientierten Flottenplanung mit alternativ angetriebenen Fahrzeugkonzepten entwickelt und prototypisch umgesetzt. Kernstück ist eine innovative Umgebung zur Konfiguration unterschiedlichster Fahrzeugkonzepte (z.B. Elektrofahrzeuge), Flottenanwendungen (z.B. Poolfahrzeugflotte) und Randbedingungen (z.B. Strompreise) sowie eine sich anschließende Simulation des Flottenbetriebs. Als methodischer Lösungsansatz dient eine Kombination aus den lebenszyklusorientierten Bewertungsmethoden nachfrageorientierte Lebenszyklusrechnung (TCO) und Ökobilanzierung (LCA) und der agentenbasierten Flottensimulation. Die entwickelte Lösung ermöglicht die Abbildung verschiedenster Anwendungsfälle und Entscheidungssituationen von Flottenplanern aufgrund einer modularen Konzeptstruktur. Durch die Einbettung in eine formularbasierte Prozessführung durch den Flottenplanungsprozess wird ein praktikables Werkzeug bereitgestellt, das unter integrierter Berücksichtigung der Flottenbestands- und Flotteneinsatzplanung sowie einer lebenszyklusorientierten Sichtweise die Planungsunterstützung zur Integration alternativ angetriebener Fahrzeugkonzepte in Unternehmensflotten ermöglicht. Das entwickelte und umgesetzte Konzept wird erfolgreich für zwei verschiedene Fallstudien (Handwerkerflotte und universitäres Pool-Konzept) angewandt. Die Fallstudien demonstrieren die breite Verwendbarkeit und Potenziale der entwickelten Lösung. Schließlich zeigt die finale Evaluierung des eigenen Konzepts, dass ein signifikanter Fortschritt im Vergleich zum Stand der Forschung erreicht werden konnte.Structural changes on the German automotive market such as the introduction of electric mobility increasingly require the consideration of alternatively powered vehicle concepts in the planning of corporate fleets. Here, the need for a life cycle oriented perspective arises due to (inter alia) divergent properties of different vehicle concepts. Against this background, this dissertation provides a generic methodology and tool for supporting the life cycle oriented planning of corporate fleets with alternatively powered vehicle concepts. Based on the description of the theoretical background, the life cycle oriented fleet planning with alternatively powered vehicle concepts is introduced as the subject matter for this dissertation. This serves the deduction of requirements for a planning support in this context. Essential requirements are amongst others: the mapping of the decision situation of a fleet planner, the integrated consideration of the strategic and operational fleet planning including the resulting dynamic effects of fleet operations as well as the integrative life cycle oriented examination of functional, economic and environmental objectives. In the following a detailed analysis and evaluation of the current state of the art and research shows that existing approaches do not meet these requirements. In particular, there is no concept yet that enables a transparent life cycle oriented analysis and evaluation of various vehicle concepts in terms of functional, economic and environmental objectives for different fleet applications under consideration of the specific decision situation of a fleet planner. Against this background, an own concept to support the life cycle oriented fleet planning with alternatively powered vehicle concepts is developed and prototypically implemented. The core element is an innovative environment for the configuration of different vehicle concepts (e.g. electric vehicles), fleet applications (e.g. pool fleets) and surrounding conditions (e.g electricity prices) as well as the subsequent simulation of the fleet operation. The methodological approach consists of a combination of the life cycle oriented evaluation methods demand-driven life cycle costing (TCO) and life cycle assessment (LCA) as well as an agent-based fleet simulation. The developed solution allows the mapping of different applications and decision situations of fleet planners due to a modular concept structure. It is embedded in a form-based process guide through the fleet planning process, and thus a practicable tool is provided. It allows the strategic and operational planning support for the integration of alternatively powered vehicle concepts in corporate fleets under consideration of a life cycle perspective. The developed and implemented concept is successfully applied to two different case studies (fleet of a craftsman company and a university pool concept fleet) in order to demonstrate the applicability and potential of the concept. Finally, the critical evaluation of the underlying dissertation shows that significant advances could be achieved in comparison to the former state of research

Systematic Development of Sustainability-Oriented Cyber-Physical Production Systems

Manufacturing companies increasingly have to address the risks and contributions related to their environmental impacts. Therefore, more data are needed in order to provide full transparency with regard to production, and to highlight the potential relationships between the process data and the environmental impacts. In order to achieve this data transparency, targeted digitalization is needed that is tailored to the goal of reaching minimized environmental impacts. Cyber-physical production systems (CPPSs) are central for the digitalization of manufacturing. However, they may also come with an initial environmental backpack. Due to unawareness of relevant interdependencies when setting up CPPS, data may be collected which is not helpful or necessary for the development of sustainability-oriented CPPS. Therefore, a critical assessment is required which data is necessary to support sustainable manufacturing and to avoid unreflective data collection. This requires the identification of the relevant factors and their interdependencies within the context of sustainability in production. By identifying the influencing factors, the measurement strategy can be linked to the appropriate sensor technologies that explicitly contribute to the target fulfillment. The design of more sustainable data structures using a cross-impact analysis is illustrated in this paper as a generic methodological approach, which will be applied to a 3D-printing use case

Simulation-Based Evaluation Of The Hub-And-Spoke Concept To Support The Centrally Managed Supply Of Urban Factories

The progressive urbanization and increasing decentralization of manufacturing lead to a growing need for the integration of manufacturing plants into urban areas. As a result, industrially induced traffic volumes and emissions are increasing in these areas. Therefore, it is important to manage urban logistics as effective as possible to reduce costs and environmental impacts. A promising approach to support the effective supply of urban factories can be seen in a centrally managed supply. Especially the hub-and-spoke concept is known to solve the problem of the last mile, e.g. within the parcel-industry. That is why most past research activities about hub-and-spoke concepts focus on deliveries to individuals or deliveries in the retail sector while only considering parcel deliveries. However, differing from the parcel industry the supply of urban factories requires especially just in time and just in sequence deliveries. Therefore, new approaches are required which help to analyse if and how a centrally managed supply of urban factories can support the reduction of traffic volumes and with this costs and environmental impacts. In this contribution we conduct a feasibility study on the effectiveness of a centrally managed supply of urban factories using a simulation approach. Based on the analysis of possible stakeholders and different hub concepts, we take a closer look on the application of the hub-and-spoke concept for urban logistics and provide a simulation based evaluation realized with the software Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO)

Self-Assessment Framework for Corporate Environmental Sustainability in the Era of Digitalization

The shift towards a climate-neutral economy will affect businesses in the upcoming decades. Companies will need to increase their transformation towards environmentally sustainable businesses in the following years, in which digitalization might be a practical enabler to accelerate this transformation. However, as a starting point, companies require knowledge of their current sustainability performance to manage this transition and need a method that provides the necessary information. The use of self-assessment tools is a widely acknowledged method for such processes. Nevertheless, there is a lack of self-assessment tools that integrate sustainability and digitalization perspectives to overcome different organizational barriers. This paper focuses on how managers can be supported in planning their transformations by interlinking sustainability and digitization. Our objective is to enable the managers of companies to assess their current state in terms of corporate environmental sustainability and to explore their policies, information systems, and actions to support their transformation towards sustainable and digital businesses. A self-assessment tool based on a rapid questionnaire is presented after reviewing and synthesizing different approaches, including maturity modeling, sustainability reporting, and digital assessment tools. The self-assessment tool is improved upon evaluation by industry experts and the framework is tested on a case company

Smart Manufacturing for Smart Cities—Overview, Insights, and Future Directions

With ‘smart’ being the order of the day, the shift in the landscape of a typical production‐oriented manufacturing environment to a more data‐oriented, automated and smart manufacturing is imminent. However, what is meant by smart manufacturing? And how can smart manufacturing contribute to a bigger picture by acting as enablers of smart cities? Given the paucity in literature that seeks to make sense in this direction, herein, first, six indices that represent or define a smart city are identified. Then, a holistic perspective of smart manufacturing is presented by collectively dwelling into the concepts of cyber physical production systems (CPPS) and industrial symbiosis—the recent and ongoing developments, applications, and relevant examples. In each subsequent section, the Review addresses how smart manufacturing contributes to smart cities, not just from a technology perspective, but also by satisfying the ergonometric factors and sustainability issues which are equally important indices that make up a smart city. A brief overview of Singapore as a smart nation and smart manufacturing hub is presented toward the end, along with highlights of a real‐world smart manufacturing platform called the Model Factory and its relevant modules