Sustainable value analysis tool for value creation

Product-service systems (PSS) have been regarded as a promising business model to achieve sustainable production and consumption. Recent research and practice suggest the need for tools to help companies integrate sustainability into the development of PSS. The purpose of this paper is to present a Sustainable Value Analysis Tool (SVAT), and provide empirical evidence for the development and use of the tool. The tool builds on a multi-disciplinary literature analysis and qualitative data from five Chinese manufacturing companies. It is developed to assist manufacturing companies in identifying opportunities for sustainable value creation in the process of PSS development. The use of the tool in an industrial context is illustrated.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Inderscience Publishers via http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/AJMSA.2014.07064

Digitalisation for water sustainability: Barriers to implementing circular economy in smart water management

“Clean water and sanitation” is listed as one of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and implementing circular economy principles in the water sector has been widely regarded as an important approach in achieving this goal. In the era of Industry 4.0, research and practice in the digitalisation of the water sector to create a smart water system have attracted increasing attention. Despite the growing interest, limited research has been devoted to how digital technologies might enhance circularity. In practice, smart water systems often fail to promote circularity in such aspects as water reuse and resources recovery. This paper aims to identify the main barriers to implementing circularity in the smart water management system in Zhejiang, China. The research adopts a mixed research method that includes a literature review to identify the potential barriers from the existing studies, a case study to determine the most critical barriers in practice, and a fuzzy Delphi method to reach a consensus on the crucial barriers. The research identified 22 main barriers to implementing circular economy in smart water management. The barriers are divided into three categories: infrastructure and economic, technology, and institution and governance. The results show that the barriers related to recycling technologies, digital technology know-how, and the lack of CE awareness raise the most concern. Our findings also indicate that experts are interested in the decentralized wastewater treatment system. This research provides significant insights that practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can use in developing and implementing digital-based CE strategies to reduce water scarcity and pollution

Reinforcement learning based optimal decision making towards product lifecycle sustainability

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely used in robotics, automation, finance, healthcare, etc. However, using AI for decision-making in sustainable product lifecycle operations is still challenging. One major challenge relates to the scarcity and uncertainties of data across the product lifecycle. This paper aims to develop a method that can adopt the most suitable AI techniques to support decision-making for sustainable operations based on the available lifecycle data. It identifies the key lifecycle stages in which AI, especially reinforcement learning (RL), can support decision-making. Then, a generalised procedure of using RL for decision support is proposed based on available lifecycle data, such as operation and maintenance data. The method has been validated in a case study of an international vehicle manufacturer, combined with modelling and simulation. The case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the method and identifies that RL is the current most appropriate method for maintenance scheduling based on limited available lifecycle data. This paper contributes to knowledge by demonstrating an empirically grounded industrial case using RL to optimise decision-making for improved product lifecycle sustainability by effectively prolonging the product lifetime and reducing environmental impact.Vinnova [2017-01649]

From total quality management to Quality 4.0: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Quality 4.0 is an emerging concept that has been increasingly appreciated because of the intensification of competition, continually changing customer requirements and technological evolution. It deals with aligning quality management practices with the emergent capabilities of Industry 4.0 to improve cost, time, and efficiency and increase product quality. This article aims to comprehensively review extant studies related to Quality 4.0 to uncover current research trends, distil key research topics, and identify areas for future research. Thus, 46 journal articles extracted from the Scopus database from 2017 to 2022 were collected and reviewed. A descriptive analysis was first performed according to the year-wise publication, sources of publication, and research methods. Then, the selected articles were analyzed and classified according to four research themes: Quality 4.0 concept, Quality 4.0 implementation, quality management in Quality 4.0, and Quality 4.0 model and application. By extracting the literature review findings, we identify the Quality 4.0 definitions and features, develop the quality curve theory, and highlight future research opportunities. This study supports practitioners, managers, and academicians in effectively recognizing and applying Quality 4.0 to enhance customer satisfaction, achieve innovation enterprise efficiency, and increase organizational competitiveness in the era of Industry 4.0.National Social Science Fund of China: Grant No. 21ZDA02

A framework of digital technologies for the circular economy: digital functions and mechanisms

Digital technology is regarded as providing a promising means of moving production and consumption towards the circular economy. However, it is still unclear which functions of digital technologies are most useful to improving circularity, and how these functions could be used to enhance different circular economy strategies. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap by conducting a systematic literature review. After examining 174 papers, creating 782 original codes and 259 second-round codes, the study identifies 13 critical functions of digital technologies which are most relevant to circular economy strategies. The paper then proposes a framework which reveals seven mechanisms of how these digital functions can enhance different circular economy strategies. The framework also reveals which combinations of the digital functions and circular economy strategies have already been studied extensively as well as where there may be gaps. This indicates which digital functions are more mature in terms of possible implementation for circular economy as well as what missing links there are in the empirical and theoretical research. The study advances the synergies between digital technologies and the circular economy paradigm through the lens of digital functions. The proposed framework and mechanisms build a theoretical foundation for future research, and we highlight five research areas for further studies. This study also provides a structured way for managers to explore the appropriate digital functions for their CE strategies, so as to identify required digital technologies and new value creation through digital functions.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): EP/R045127/1. São Paulo Research Foundation. Grant Number: 2019/23655-9. Royal Society. Grant Number: NMG\R1\191115

Digital twin for Advanced Service delivery systems: Opportunities and challenges

Implementing an Advanced Services strategy may bring economic, social and environmental sustainability, but requires orchestration of a complex system of interdependent actors. Customers, suppliers, contractors and other intermediaries must be co-ordinated effectively for mutual benefit. Doing so requires appropriate data not only related to products, but also service delivery and (customers’) use environment. This research proposes a Digital Twin approach to capturing and processing real-time data from each of these three levels, in order to orchestrate successful value creation

Barriers to transitioning towards smart circular economy: A systematic literature review

This paper defines smart circular economy as an industrial system that uses digital technologies to implement circular strategies such as reduce, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling. The smart circular economy has been regarded as a promising approach to enhance sustainability. However, barriers exist in various stages of the transition towards smart circular economy. This paper employs a systematic literature review to identify the main barriers that prevent companies from this transition. We adopt a change management perspective to study this transition and propose that it follows a classical three-step process of organizational change: unfreeze, move, and refreeze. We identified 24 barriers in five categories: finance, management, infrastructure, network, and technology. Then, we placed the barriers into the three steps to further investigate how they affect each stage of the transition. Our analysis suggests that: (a) stakeholders play a central role in the process; (b) companies often have financial issues in the early steps of change; (c) technological challenges emerge in the advanced steps. The findings can help diagnose companies’ current status, identify solutions to tackle the barriers and predict future challenges

Learning from histories:a systematic review of historical industrial transitions

The transition to sustainability coincides with an industrial digitalization. While this latest industrial revolution creates new challenges, it also revives historical ones encountered in previous transitions. Through two parallel systematic reviews, challenges are identified for the current digitalization transition and historical transitions: mechanization, electrification and computerization. The aim of this research is to identify lessons from history that may help overcome the challenges of industrial digitalization. The paper provides illustrative examples of social factors that are either internal to a technology adopting organization or external, related to wider societal change. These factors suggest actionable insights that may support the adoption of Industrial Digital Technologies

The circular economy in China: Achievements, challenges and potential implications for decarbonisation

China's wide-ranging circular economy (CE) efforts have been studied multiple times from a range of perspectives. Synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides a critical reflection on the transition to a CE in China. Key factors for China's success in shifting towards a CE are seen in multi-level indicators and upscaling niches. This paper makes a novel contribution on limitations to progress, based on emerging evidence on CE projects that fail to sustain. Enriched by experts feedback, this paper critically addresses future challenges to a deep transition resulting from implementation gaps between early majorities and mass markets and coordination challenges arising through regional and sectoral differences. In light of China's commitments to climate neutrality by 2060, such challenges are considered serious. Based on feasible policy learning, the paper however proposes synergies between the CE and decarbonisation driven by efficiency improvements, comprehensive core indicators, upscaling and urban policies as trigger for deeper transformations. Finally the paper undertakes broader reflections and an outlook on evidence-orientated policy learning for a CE and decarbonisation in China

The circular economy in China: achievements, challenges and potential implications for decarbonisation

China's wide-ranging circular economy (CE) efforts have been studied multiple times from a range of perspectives. Synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides a critical reflection on the transition to a CE in China. Key factors for China's success in shifting towards a CE are seen in multi-level indicators and upscaling niches. This paper makes a novel contribution on limitations to progress, based on emerging evidence on CE projects that fail to sustain. Enriched by experts feedback, this paper critically addresses future challenges to a deep transition resulting from implementation gaps between early majorities and mass markets and coordination challenges arising through regional and sectoral differences. In light of China's commitments to climate neutrality by 2060, such challenges are considered serious. Based on feasible policy learning, the paper however proposes synergies between the CE and decarbonisation driven by efficiency improvements, comprehensive core indicators, upscaling and urban policies as trigger for deeper transformations. Finally the paper undertakes broader reflections and an outlook on evidence-orientated policy learning for a CE and decarbonisation in China