•The paper aims at introducing the way toward eco-factories of the future.•A focus group study is conducted with 22 European experts.•We highlight research directions and solutions for eco-factories ...in the next 20 years.•Human participants in a manufacturing system can foster change toward eco-factories.•Firm-intern characteristics determine successful transition and competitiveness.
The integration of environmental sustainability and eco-efficiency has been recognized as a means to foster economic and environmental performance, increase competitiveness and use it as a lever to spur innovation. Besides integrating green technologies in the manufacturing system, putting environmental goals on the company agenda, and pursuing green norms and directives, the question is: quo vadis eco-factory? Based on a focus group study with 22 European experts and high-level representatives from industry, policy-makers and academia, we raised the question of what might be the research directions and solutions for eco-factories in the next 20years. Our two major findings suggest that (i) research should more focus on the opportunities that human participants in a manufacturing system can foster change toward eco-factories and that (ii) firm-intern characteristics like enabling environmental capability, organization and structure will likely determine upon successful transition and increased competitiveness.
The literature on energy management in manufacturing is rapidly growing. Since the literature is also quite fragmented, we believe that the time has come to delve into current knowledge in the ...research field to provide directions for policy makers and guidance for future research. To achieve this, we present a detailed analysis of the research literature on energy management in manufacturing, now encompassing 365 articles published from 1995 to 2015 in a variety of academic journals. Six main lines of research related to energy management appear in the area of the study: (i) drivers and barriers, (ii) information and communication technologies, (iii) strategic paradigms, (iv) supporting tools and methods, (v) manufacturing process paradigms, and (vi) manufacturing performances in the trade-off. Thus, a framework is derived inductively based on a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the literature to describe the dynamic process of energy management in manufacturing. The review and the proposed framework might be useful for both academicians and practitioners, as the study raises central theoretical and managerial questions as well as providing suggestions for further research on this important yet complex topic.
•We present a detailed analysis of the research literature on energy management in manufacturing.•The analysis encompasses 365 articles published from 1995 to 2015 in a variety of academic journals.•Six main lines of research related to energy management emerge in this area of study.•A framework is derived inductively to describe the dynamic process of energy management in manufacturing.•The framework could be of use in guiding future research on this important yet complex topic.
•We propose a 7-step methodology to develop firm-tailored energy-related KPIs (e-KPIs).•We provide a practical guide for companies to identify their most important e-KPIs.•e-KPIs support ...identification of energy efficiency improvement areas in production.•The method employs an action plan for achieving energy saving targets.•The paper strengthens theoretical base for energy-based decision making in manufacturing.
Measuring energy efficiency performance of equipments, processes and factories is the first step to effective energy management in production. Thus, enabled energy-related information allows the assessment of the progress of manufacturing companies toward their energy efficiency goals. In that respect, the study addresses this challenge where current industrial approaches lack the means and appropriate performance indicators to compare energy-use profiles of machines and processes, and for the comparison of their energy efficiency performance to that of competitors’. Focusing on this challenge, the main objective of the paper is to present a method which supports manufacturing companies in the development of energy-based performance indicators. For this purpose, we provide a 7-step method to develop production-tailored and energy-related key performance indicators (e-KPIs). These indicators allow the interpretation of cause-effect relationships and therefore support companies in their operative decision-making process. Consequently, the proposed method supports the identification of weaknesses and areas for energy efficiency improvements related to the management of production and operations. The study therefore aims to strengthen the theoretical base necessary to support energy-based decision making in manufacturing industries.
The paper investigates the effects of production scheduling policies aimed towards improving productive and environmental performances in a job shop system. A green genetic algorithm allows the ...assessment of multi-objective problems related to sustainability. Two main considerations have emerged from the application of the algorithm. First, the algorithm is able to achieve a semi-optimal makespan similar to that obtained by the best of other methods but with a significantly lower total energy consumption. Second, the study demonstrated that the worthless energy consumption can be reduced significantly by employing complex energy-efficient machine behaviour policies.
The successful development and deployment of adequate sustainable manufacturing strategies are still open issues and of utmost interest for research and practice. Guided by this particular challenge, ...we investigate the significance of organisational change management for sustainable competitiveness in manufacturing. By using six case studies from the Lombardia region in Italy and basing our research on the theoretical constructs of competitive aggressiveness and organisational change, we discover four archetypes of companies that show an increasing sustainable competitiveness with an increasing formalism and persistence in organisational change. Our findings suggest that change management practices are conditional hypothesis for creating competitive advantage through sustainability, and implementation gaps do hinder companies in realising the full potential. The study offers guidance to stakeholders, on how change management actions may potentially affect company performance in the manufacturing sector, as well as providing direction on the impact improved planning and leadership instances can have on the sustainability performance.
A New Human-centric Factory Model May, Gökan; Taisch, Marco; Bettoni, Andrea ...
Procedia CIRP,
2015, 2015-00-00, Letnik:
26
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The traditional manufacturing concept puts tasks at the center of the production system and the workers’ role is rather passive. However, the workplaces of the future will be worker-centric instead ...of task-centric, and the role of the workers is expected to increase, leading to an optimization of the production performance. In this manner, it is of paramount importance to define new social sustainable workplaces where the human dimension is a key cornerstone, highlighting the requirements for shifting from a traditional task-centric production to a worker centric production. The idea of this study is to design the workplaces of the future and to understand how the worker's role will change in the next years, focusing on the workers’ perspective to create workplaces that fit to their needs. The study therefore highlights a new human-centric factory model and provides a taxonomy of the aspects to be considered in designing these worker-centric factories of the future. The EU-Funded Man-Made Project is used for the development and validation of the concepts of the research work utilizing case studies in the transportation and white-goods industries.
The focus of the paper is the development of a reference model for manufacturing strategy implementation. While many empirical research endeavors report the lack of vigor in implementing ...sustainability as a manufacturing strategy, also current popular theory-driven approaches are not sufficient to understand the dynamics and organizational barriers in implementing sustainability as a manufacturing strategy. This paper develops a reference model based on systems theory principles and the Viable System Model (VSM). The complexity-based approach helps decision-makers to manage firm-tailored sustainable manufacturing improvement programs.
The use of discrete event simulation integrated with energy consumption computation is nowadays very useful for the efficient design of an industrial production plant. In this paper a serial ...manufacturing line made by four operating machines has been modelled by means of SIMIO discrete event simulator, focusing on the production line energy consumption computation. Each operating machine has been described according to three different aspects. Firstly the mechanical behaviour, that is guaranteed from the simulator modelling functionalities itself. Secondly the control functionalities that have been designed by means of Finite State Machines (FSMs), then translated into the C# programming language and finally integrated into the SIMIO platform. Finally the energy consumptions, that have been computed by modelling the energy states associated to the different operating machine working functions. In the end a simulation experiment has been run and the regarding results have been presented. The power absorbed and the energy consumed from the whole plant and from each single machine have been compared in order to allow the discussion about possible actions to be taken in order to respect the maximum amount of energy supplied to the plant, value that often represents a primary economic constraints for the industrial plant management. Main limitations coming from the proposed work regard the missing of plant power and energy measurement and the level of approximation used to model the different machines energy consumption.
Agitated by the financial crisis in 2008 and occupied by the national debt debate since 2010, European companies need to take actions to recover from lost opportunities during the last years. The ...manufacturing sector still plays a major role in the European economy and is seen as a vital sector for the successful future of a common Europe. Acclaiming success in the private sector on a regularly basis, ICT has been identified as a key driver with a high potential to enhance European manufacturing industry in a sustainable way. The paper presents an approach of deriving new research priorities in Europe for the Horizon 2020 agenda. Based on agile roadmapping methodology, six ICT core areas for investments in research projects have been identified.
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