Distributed and Sustainable Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing pressure on the environment from human activity necessitates a shift in attitudes to the way industry currently operates. Manufacturing organizations across the globe now recognize the need for reductions in waste, longer reliable usage patterns for products, predictive monitoring of industrial processes, and whole-life consideration of products with particular regard to the recycling and remanufacture of defunct products. The rise of the circular economy is one specific response to this need, promoting a holistic view of both production and consumption of goods and services. Often used in tandem with this paradigm is the Distributed or Re-distributed Manufacturing (RdM) model. Enabled by the emergence of new technologies promoted in visions such as Industry 4.0, decentralized, on-demand, localized, and customizable manufacturing provides a new route to the production of often highly customized products to a local market of consumers.

Existing business models for RdM have shown that there is a need for robust facilities in close proximity to the customer. Such facilities could be store fronts that can also manufacture, remanufacture, and provide services. This combination can reduce costs, improve sustainability, and provide customizable products and services to customers. Furthermore, the reduction in transportation and increase in customer involvement throughout the production process are key benefits realizable from the use of a re-distributed model.

This Special Issue aims to bring together works relating to redistributed and sustainable manufacturing. We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue by submitting either a case study or an original research article.

Dr. Christopher Turner
Dr. Ying Liu
Dr. Mariale Moreno
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.