Special Issue "New and Renewed Manufacturing Paradigms for Sustainable Production"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Daryl Powell
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Development of Product and Production, SINTEF Manufacturing, 2830 Raufoss, Norway
Interests: lean manufacturing; digitalization
Prof. Dr. David Romero
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Advanced Manufacturing Research Group, Center for Innovation in Design and Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, 64849 Monterrey, N.L., Mexico
Interests: circular manufacturing; digital lean manufacturing; smart manufacturing; sustainability
Prof. Dr. Paolo Gaiardelli
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy
Interests: lean manufacturing; smart manufacturing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has continued to usher in a decade of ambitious action to deliver on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Though progress is being made in many places, unfortunately, such action is not advancing at the speed and scale required. At the same time, optimism concerning the potential of new manufacturing paradigms such as “digital manufacturing” and “smart manufacturing” continues to grow—primarily in terms of the economic bottomline, but also with an increasing focus on both environmental and social bottomlines, such as in the case of the “circular manufacturing” paradigm. The promise of digital connectivity, big data analytics, blockchain, cyberphysical systems, and the industrial Internet of Things in these areas remains significant and begs for more specific examples of how new and renewed manufacturing paradigms can indeed contribute toward a more sustainable future, particularly when it comes to more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

In this Special Issue, we invite scientific contributions addressing this challenge from various perspectives which provide innovative answers to this multidimensional problem. Guest Editors specifically welcome interdisciplinary work and encourage the submission of action-oriented case studies to provide empirical evidence.

Prof. Dr. Daryl Powell
Prof. Dr. David Romero
Prof. Dr. Paolo Gaiardelli
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind 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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • Sustainability
  • Circular manufacturing
  • Digital manufacturing
  • Lean manufacturing
  • Smart manufacturing
  • Circular economy
  • Digitization
  • Digitalization
  • Digital transformation
  • Triple bottomline
  • Industry 4.0
  • Big data analytics
  • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine learning
  • Digital supply networks
  • Zero defect manufacturing
  • Responsible consumption and production
  • Decent work and economic growth
  • Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
  • Partnerships for the goals

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Positive and Negative Impacts of COVID-19 in Digital Transformation
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9470; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169470 - 23 Aug 2021
Viewed by 386
Abstract
This study was designed to research the impact of pandemic situations such as COVID-19 in digital transformation (DT). Our proposed study was designed to research whether COVID-19 is a driver of digital transformation and to look at the three most positive and negative [...] Read more.
This study was designed to research the impact of pandemic situations such as COVID-19 in digital transformation (DT). Our proposed study was designed to research whether COVID-19 is a driver of digital transformation and to look at the three most positive and negative DT disruptors. Our study suggests that COVID-19 is a driver of digital transformation, since 94 percent of respondents agreed that COVID-19 is a driver of DT. The second phase of our study shows that technology, automation, and collaboration (TAC) is the most positive significant factor which enables work from anywhere (WFA) (or work from home) arrangements and also leads to the third positive factor of a work-life balance (WLB). The top three negative factors are no work-life balance (NWL), social employment issues (SEI), and data security and technology issues (DST). The negative factors show a contradictory result since NWL is the most negative factor, even though WLB is the third most positive factor. While the pandemic situation is leading to a positive situation for economies and organizations at a micro level, the negative impacts, which will affect overall economic growth as well as social, health, and wealth wellbeing, need to be kept in mind. The motivation of this study was to research positive and negative effects of COVID-19 on DT, since COVID-19 is impacting everyone and everyday life, including businesses. Our study developed a unique framework to address both positive and negative adoption. Our study also highlights the need for organizations and the economy to establish mitigation plans, as the pandemic has already been disrupting the entire world for the past three quarters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New and Renewed Manufacturing Paradigms for Sustainable Production)
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Article
Exploring the Inclusion of Sustainability into Strategy and Management Control Systems in Peruvian Manufacturing Enterprises
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5127; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095127 - 03 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 559
Abstract
The aim of this work is to explore the incorporation of sustainability into strategy and management control systems (MCSs) in Peruvian manufacturing enterprises in the plastics sector. The study focuses on identifying and analyzing the current way they incorporate and manage sustainability to [...] Read more.
The aim of this work is to explore the incorporation of sustainability into strategy and management control systems (MCSs) in Peruvian manufacturing enterprises in the plastics sector. The study focuses on identifying and analyzing the current way they incorporate and manage sustainability to determine the shortcomings that must be corrected in the future to design an effective performance management system (PMS) that includes sustainability to help companies achieve sustainable growth. The method of multiple case study analysis was used. Data was obtained from four Peruvian manufacturing firms in the plastics sector through seven semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that sustainability is partially incorporated into the company’s strategy, and that especially in medium-sized enterprises, managers do not know how to implement sustainable management accurately. Concerning MCSs used, in medium-sized companies, short-term planning is carried out and they are limited to the control of the economic operational perspective and lack concrete measures regarding social and environmental aspects. Finally, we conclude that this study allowed us to know how sustainability is really managed in Peruvian manufacturing enterprises in the plastics industry and that it is necessary for these companies not only to incorporate sustainability into their strategy but also to implement a holistic PMS to be used as a broad-scope MCS to achieve sustainable growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New and Renewed Manufacturing Paradigms for Sustainable Production)
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Article
A Fuzzy Network DEA Approach to the Selection of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
by
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4236; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084236 - 11 Apr 2021
Viewed by 466
Abstract
The selection of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) is an essential yet complex decision that requires careful consideration of various performance criteria. In real-world applications, there are cases that observations are difficult to measure precisely, observations are represented as linguistic terms, or the data [...] Read more.
The selection of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) is an essential yet complex decision that requires careful consideration of various performance criteria. In real-world applications, there are cases that observations are difficult to measure precisely, observations are represented as linguistic terms, or the data need to be estimated. Since the growth of engineering sciences has been the key reason for the increased utilization of AMTs, this paper develops a fuzzy network data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the selection of AMT alternatives considering multiple decision-makers (DMs) and weight restrictions when the input and output data are represented as fuzzy numbers. By viewing the multiple DMs as a network one, the data provided by each DM can then be taken into account in evaluating the overall performances of AMT alternatives. In the solution process, we obtain the overall and DMs efficiency scores of each AMT alternative at the same time, and a relationship in which the former is a weighted average of the latter is also derived. Since the final evaluation results of AMTs are fuzzy numbers, a ranking procedure is employed to determine the most preferred one. An example is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New and Renewed Manufacturing Paradigms for Sustainable Production)
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