Production Management and Smart Manufacturing from a Systems Perspective

The traditional view of production systems relies on the organization of physical and information flows enabling customer satisfaction with products or\ua0services, following inputs from strategy, policies, rules and principles, supported by tools, systems and methods, and improved through performance management systems. Moving forward to new levels of industrialization, smart manufacturing represents systems integration and automation supported by Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) to enable more autonomous, agile and sustainable production processes, which can at the same time be influenced by, as well as influencing the organizational system in real time. As a new managerial topic, this research paper intends to study and systematically organize the literature related to smart manufacturing and production systems design in order to identify whether smart manufacturing can be implemented through the production systems approach and, if so, what are the requirements for implementation and integration of different management systems (e.g. quality, and environment systems)

Maturity Framework Enabling Organizational Digital Readiness

Digitalization and the use of advanced technologies for more flexible and resource efficient production processes are changing the industrial competitiveenvironment. However, new technologies are not seldom implemented without the whole organization being ready to fully utilize its benefits. This readiness can be expressed as organizational digital maturity. Previous studies identified that the level of digitalization is increasing, but, in many cases, due to lack of foundation, it is not aligned with the business strategy and/or supported by the organizational and technological infrastructures. There is a gap in existing models to provide practical starting-up steps to support the organizational digital readiness. A conceptual readiness framework for organizational digital readiness was tested through the analysis and reflection of four cases implemented by a Swedish manufacturing company. Findings point out that it is important to create a proper organizational foundation, a readiness, to ensure a company to evolve in digital maturity. That canbe developed based on three main stages of change management practices. The tool can be used to identify the organizational readiness and thereby the gaps and thresholds necessary to overcome. This will enable companies to utilize the technology level necessary to increase cost and resource efficiency, and hence competitiveness. In addition, dimensions and a roadmap for organizational, digital, and smart readiness is presented

Sustainable manufacturing in Industry 4.0: an emerging research agenda

This systematic review intends to identify how sustainable manufacturing research is contributing to the development of the Industry 4.0 agenda and for a broader understanding about the links between the Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Manufacturing by mapping and summarising existing research efforts, identifying research agendas, as well as gaps and opportunities for research development. A conceptual framework formed by the principles and technological pillars of Industry 4.0, sustainable manufacturing scope, opportunities previously identified, and sustainability dimensions, guided analysis of 35 papers from 2008–2018, selected by a systematic approach. Bibliometrics data and social network analysis complement results identifying how research is being organised and its respective research agendas, relevant publications, and status of the research lifecycle. Results point to that the current research is aligned with the goals defined by different national industrial programs. There are, however, research gaps and opportunities for field development, becoming more mature and having a significant contribution to fully developing the agenda of Industry 4.0

Digital organisational readiness: experiences from manufacturing companies

Purpose: This research aims to identify and organise the conditions of organisational readiness for digital transformation. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study comprises three case studies within manufacturing companies from different sizes and industries located in Sweden. Plant visits and in-depth interviews bring to light companies\u27 experiences with initial steps towards digital transformation. A set of conditions for digital organisational readiness was translated into a questionnaire and tested with one of the studied companies. Findings: This paper organises and tests digital organisational readiness conditions to support companies\u27 initial steps on digital transformation. The results are put in perspective of established change management theory and previous studies about digital transformation. The findings will conclude in a questionnaire to support dialogue and digital organisational readiness assessments. Research limitations/implications: Additional conditions for the initial phase of digital transformation could possibly be found if more cases had been included in the study. Practical implications: The article identifies a set of conditions translated into a questionnaire that should be used as a dialogue tool to create strategic alignment and support companies in their initial discussions. If this process can be faster and more efficient, the company can achieve a competitive advantage against competitors. Originality/value: This research\u27s relevance relies on the fact that companies are advancing in adopting digital technologies without being ready from an organisational perspective. This gap creates barriers for companies\u27 digital maturing processes, stopping them from having full access to digital technologies\u27 benefits

Reviewing Digital Manufacturing concept in the Industry 4.0 paradigm

Digitalization of manufacturing is once again on the industry application research agenda and Digital Manufacturing plays a fundamental role in this process. However, there is a lack of commonality in the literature about the purpose of Digital Manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept and application domain of Digital Manufacturing considering the increasingly established Industry 4.0 paradigm. Based on a content analysis concepts are framed, and new technological characteristics identified. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the future challenges that companies face by positioning Digital Manufacturing conceptually and delimiting its application domain

Additive manufacturing from the sustainability perspective: proposal for a self-assessment tool

Emergent technologies and additive manufacturing have a significant role in shaping the future of manufacturing, enabling companies to produce complex products and parts in a more efficient and sustainable way. However, companies are struggling to identify and achieve the full potential of the technology from a sustainability perspective. The purpose of this paper is to develop a checklist to assess the sustainability performance of additive manufacturing adoption and exploitation, based on secondary data from the academic literature, technical reports, and company cases. Results rely on the identification of critical sustainability aspects for additive manufacturing and key performance indicators

Industry 4.0 readiness in manufacturing companies: challenges and enablers towards increased digitalization

Digitalization is changing the business environment and companies face challenges to make progress. A first step to support companies is to verify their digital readiness, capabilities, and developing clear plans for improvement. This paper aims to evaluate the digital readiness of seven companies through the application of a self-check tool, followed by a deeper investigation through a case study, to identify reasons, challenges/barriers and enablers towards digitalization. A workshop was conducted to evaluate the use of a self-check tool and collect other analysis. Results include the readiness level and comparison between companies, actions and practices towards increased digitalization

Developing capabilities for Sustainable Operations Management

Integrating sustainability in companies’ agenda is a complex and multidisciplinary task. Based on the results of a survey conducted in 2015 with 106 respondents from manufacturing and infrastructure companies in Brazil, this research aims to verify the organization of a list of the main sustainable operations management capabilities that can provide companies with a path to achieve a higher level of maturity regarding sustainability integration. The research contributes by mitigating the lack of frameworks that seek alignment between operations with sustainability issues, helping to guide the strategy and to audit the level of sustainability integration

Digitalization for sustainable production: exploring the use of digital maturity models

Many companies start a journey towards becoming more digital, seeking to improve productivity, flexibility, resource efficiency, and safety. However, some are looking for guidelines on how to organize themselves to reach these goals. Assuming that digital maturity goes beyond technology, requiring a transformation in business, this paper explores the content of existing digital maturity models, identifying practices and necessary capabilities for increasing digitalization towards more sustainable processes. Qualitative analysis of 21 digital maturity models and an assessment within eight Swedish companies allowed to identify their current-state, andthat digitalization implementation needs to be supported by specific organizational capabilities

Assessing challenges, barriers, practices and capability towards digitalization

Digitalization involves transformations of organizational structures, with the establishment of new practices and developing digital capabilities. However, many companies are struggling with the development of their digital strategy and many others’ digital strategies are failing. Due this reason, this paper aims to organize information regarding challenges, barriers, practices and capabilities towards digitalization. To support the objective, this research performs a case study in an automotive plant of an international company situated in Brazil. The data collected comes from interviews, technical documents and visits to the plant. The main results revealed a list of challenges and barriers: few people have the proper digital skills; lack of a common framework; misalignment with headquarters’ strategies and initiatives; higher cost to acquire technologies in Brazil; insufficient understanding of how to implement digital technologies in different contexts. Regarding the practices, the company listed the creation of innovation labs; regular meetings and visits to the shop floor; development of governance policies for processing, storage, management and presentation of data; increase collaboration with universities and research institutes; increasing investments in digital technologies. The processes for developing digital capabilities are based on trainings, workshops and pilot or conceptual projects focused on developing of a new service-based business model