How Environmentally Sustainable Is the On-Going Industrial Digitalization? Global Trends and a Swedish Perspective

While industrial digitalization presents great opportunities to enhance the efficiency, flexibility, and reliability of production systems, the environmental implications of these improvements are not systematically considered. As digitalization is a relatively new field of research, there are no unified framework to guide its development towards achieving sustainability goals. To support researchers and practitioners towards such a framework, this study aims to formalize the relationship between industrial digitalization and environmental sustainability by reviewing published literature intersection of these two topics. The work was carried out in four steps: (1) Define and scope the problem around environmental considerations when adopting and exploiting digital technologies in manufacturing; (2) Design the literature analysis process to identify publications at the intersection of environmental sustainability and digitalization; (3) Categorise the literature based on established eco-efficiency principles; (4) Visualise and discuss the results about which principles are covered by current research and to what extent. The global trends in the literature collected and analysed are presented along with a more detailed content analysis for Swedish research. While the results confirm that digitalization has the potential to address eco-efficiency principles, relatively few studies explicitly mention the sustainability implications of the research and proposed technological solutions. The paper proposes an eco-efficient smart production model using eco-efficiency as guiding principles. The main argument put forward in this paper is that digital technologies should more systematically contribute to greener industrial systems through energy and material efficiency, pollution prevention, sustainable use of renewable sources, product quality and durability, value retention through remanufacturing, recycling and servitization

Toward eco-efficient and circular industrial systems: ten years of advances in production management systems and a thematic framework

Environmental sustainability urgently needs to be embraced as a driver of development for society and industry. While researchers and practitioners herald numerous benefits when adopting eco-efficiency and circular economy approaches, these green solutions are yet to become pervasive principles for designing and operating industrial systems. This study reviews the last ten years of research contributions from the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 5.7 (IFIP WG5.7) on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) through its dedicated annual conference. A systematic literature review method was employed to map the APMS conference papers against eco-efficiency principles and to identify how these principles have been addressed by this research community. A cross-thematic analysis further describes the trends around dominant themes in production research. Finally, the paper concludes with an update on eco-efficiency principles applied to manufacturing and a proposed framework to consider more systematically the environmental implications of advances in production research

Teaching sustainability leadership in manufacturing: a reflection on the educational benefits of the board game Factory Heroes

Sustainability is a complex and interdisciplinary topic which can be challenging to teach. We need to adopt a student-centred and participative approach to invite learners to reflect on societal challenges and their role as individuals to tackle them. Therefore, we need appropriate educational tools to encourage creativity, an open mind and broad thinking to raise awareness and teach about sustainability. Gamification and serious games have recently emerged as promising tools to engage students by immersing them in various complex situations and giving them an opportunity to play an active role in decision-making. Gamification lends itself particularly well to sustainability education as it provides a safe and fun environment for students to experiment, to take complex decisions and to reflect on the impact of their actions. It can deliver the necessary skills to address today\u27s global challenges: envisioning, critical thinking and reflection, systemic thinking, collaboration and decision-making in uncertain conditions. This paper introduces a board game, Factory Heroes, and discusses its potential in raising awareness and fostering the skills and knowledge for sustainability leadership in manufacturing. Early findings from 8 pilot sessions are presented along with some of the benefits and pitfalls of gamification

Environmental impact assessment of boatbuilding process with ocean plastic

Ocean ecosystems are suffering from plastic pollution. To prevent further damage, the 3Rs approach suggests reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. Current solutions include developing waste management systems, public awareness, and waste collection projects to reduce and recycle. However, reuse of reclaimed plastic is limited. This study is as part of an ocean-cleaning campaign. The manufacturing process to produce optimists using ocean plastic was evaluated and compared with conventional boat building as baseline. The environmental impact is higher than the baseline due to more material- and energy-intensive processes. However, adapting processes and integrating recycled materials is necessary for more sustainable and circular production systems

Driving vehicle dismantling forward - A combined literature and empirical study

To move towards a more sustainable and circular economy, a more efficient recovery processes for end-of-life vehicles and their constituent components and materials is needed. To enable reuse, remanufacturing, high-value recycling and other circular strategies, a well-functioning disassembly is essential. This article presents a literature review of studies focusing on vehicle dismantling and surrounding end-of-life treatment systems. Furthermore, topics considered as the most critical for practitioners were identified through focus groups composed of industry representatives and researchers from various Swedish organizations. By comparing findings from the literature and empirical results, it is concluded that there are differences and gaps between the areas researched and those considered as important by industry, thus calling for further research to address practical challenges in improving vehicle end-of-life management. The four areas highlighted as the most prominent are: i) plastics, ii) batteries, iii) investments and ownership structures, and iv) the workforce

Environmental Sustainability of Digitalization in Manufacturing: A Review

The rapid development and implementation of digitalization in manufacturing has enormous impact on the environment. It is still unclear whether digitalization has positive or negative environmental impact from applications in manufacturing. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the overall implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability through a literature study, within the scope of manufacturing (product design, production, transportation, and customer service). The analysis and categorization of selected articles resulted in two main findings: (1) Digitalization in manufacturing contributes positively to environmental sustainability by increasing resource and information efficiency as a result of applying Industry 4.0 technologies throughout the product lifecycle; (2) the negative environmental burden of digitalization is primarily due to increased resource and energy use, as well as waste and emissions from manufacturing, use, and disposal of the hardware (the technology lifecycle). Based on these findings, a lifecycle perspective is proposed, considering the environmental impacts from both the product and technology lifecycles. This study identified key implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability in manufacturing to increase awareness of both the positive and negative impacts of digitalization and thereby support decision making to invest in new digital technologies

Organisational sustainability readiness: a model and assessment tool for manufacturing companies

Manufacturing plays a major role in the economic and social development of society, yet this often comes at a high environmental cost. Despite great advances in our understanding of sustainability issues and solutions developed to tackle this challenge, current production and consumption models are still largely unsustainable. Strong industrial actions are required to move towards safer and cleaner practices respectful of the planetary boundaries. This paper puts forward a novel approach for top and middle management in manufacturing companies to build capabilities for sustainable manufacturing by assessing their organisational sustainability readiness. The proposed model and tool for organisational sustainability readiness were developed based on themes emerging from empirical data collected via interviews and focus groups in six companies. The resulting themes were consolidated and validated with relevant literature to create four levels of readiness, displaying a crescendo of operations management practices on the shop floor that positively affect sustainability performance. Finally, an industrial application was used to further validate the tool and demonstrate how it can help companies develop a roadmap for a more sustainable manufacturing industry

Enabling the Twin Transitions: Digital Technologies Support Environmental Sustainability through Lean Principles

Manufacturing companies seek innovative approaches to achieve successful Green and Digital transitions, where adopting lean production is one alternative. However, further investigation is required to formulate the approach with empirical inputs and identify what digital technologies could be applied with which lean principles for environmental benefits. Therefore, this study first conducted a case study in three companies to collect empirical data. A complementary literature review was then carried out, investigating the existing frameworks, and complementing practices of digitalized lean implementations and the resulting environmental impact. Consequently, the Internet of Things and related connection-level technologies were identified as the key facilitators in lean implementations, specifically in visualization, communication, and poka-yoke, leading to environmental benefits. Furthermore, a framework of DIgitalization Supports Environmental sustainability through Lean principles (DISEL) was proposed to help manufacturing companies identify the opportunities of digitalizing lean principles for Environmental sustainability, thus enabling the twin transitions and being resilient

Implications of Virtual Reality on Environmental Sustainability in Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study

Research on Virtual Reality (VR) in manufacturing is rarely driven by environmental sustainability. This paper explores the feasibility of developing VR technologies to reduce environmental impact, drawing from a case study in an automotive company. We developed a VR demo to support the communication for design review between the technology centre in Sweden and the manufacturing site in China, thus reducing travel frequencies. This reduction was verified through user experience and feedback from focus group discussion and questionnaire. The results show a reduction of travel frequencies for design review, therefore contributing to environmental sustainability

Energy and material efficiency strategies enabled by metal additive manufacturing – A review for the aeronautic and aerospace sectors

Conventional manufacturing of aeronautic and aerospace parts requires substantial amount of resources (energy and materials) while generating high quantities of waste and carbon dioxide emissions. Metal\ua0additive manufacturing\ua0(MAM) has the potential to reduce resource consumption, which is particularly important for energy-intensive materials such as titanium. We undertake a\ua0systematic literature review\ua0of\ua0MAM processes\ua0for the aerospace/aeronautic sector focusing on energy and material efficiency. Relevant literature was classified and discussed based on the life cycle stages at which resource efficiency strategies for MAM were identified: (1) product design; (2) material development and sourcing; (3) processes development, control, and optimization; (4) end-of-life extension and circular economy. Results highlight the key factors required to optimize MAM and the relevance of assessing its environmental impact compared to conventional manufacturing. Material and energy efficiency vary significantly between different MAM processes due to several factors directly linked to the process but also associated with the supply chain, e.g. electricity mix or material sourcing. Further research could explore new trends in technological development for\ua0circularity\ua0or multi-material MAM