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Achieving Sustainability in Production Management with a Focus on Industry 4.0 and Lean Philosophy

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 September 2024 | Viewed by 3765

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, University of Debrecen, Ótemető utca 2-4, H-4028 Debrecen, Hungary
Interests: cleantech technology; materials science – cellular materials; sustainable production; low cost process development

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, University of Debrecen, Ótemető utca 2-4, H-4028 Debrecen, Hungary
Interests: sustainable economy, regulation and growth; corporate performance measurement; human capital investment and education economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue in the journal Sustainability entitled “Achieving Sustainability in Production Management with a Focus on Industry 4.0 and Lean Philosophy”.

Human knowledge, and its continuing expansion and classification at the systemic level, highlights the fact that a significant proportion of human activity has a detrimental impact on the Earth's ecosystems. It is therefore inevitable that processes and activities need to be reviewed and redesigned. In this way, it may be possible to reduce, minimize or even reverse adverse impacts. 

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an opportunity to present new theories, methods and process models that focus on creating cleaner and more sustainable production and/or service processes. It also aims to investigate the impact of Industry 4.0 and lean philosophy on sustainability.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Modelling processes for cleaner production;
  • Lean philosophy to achieve zero emissions;
  • Using clean-tech to reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing processes;
  • The impact of Industry 4.0 on the development of sustainable activities;
  • The importance of sustainability in product innovation;
  • Analyzing the interaction between sustainability and digitalization;
  • The role of education in achieving a sustainable economy.

Dr. István Budai
Dr. Judit T. Kiss
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 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 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.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • lean philosophy
  • Industry 4.0
  • modelling
  • clean-tech
  • environmental impact
  • LCA (life cycle assessment)-green lean

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 3172 KiB  
Article
Life-Cycle Assessments of Meat-Free and Meat-Containing Diets by Integrating Sustainability and Lean: Meat-Free Dishes Are Sustainable
by Viktoria Mannheim and Judit Lovasné Avató
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12014; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512014 - 04 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1140
Abstract
Nowadays, sustainable food choices are taking on an increasingly central role. This paper assesses the environmental loads and energy resources of meat-free (vegan and pescovegetarian) and meat-containing (traditional) restaurant soups and main dishes. The applied life-cycle assessment focuses on determining environmental loads and [...] Read more.
Nowadays, sustainable food choices are taking on an increasingly central role. This paper assesses the environmental loads and energy resources of meat-free (vegan and pescovegetarian) and meat-containing (traditional) restaurant soups and main dishes. The applied life-cycle assessment focuses on determining environmental loads and energy resources in restaurant products’ preparation, cooking, and end-of-life phases. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis statistical methods were applied to investigate restaurant products’ distribution and carbon footprints. Furthermore, a sustainability assessment model was developed by integrating green-lean and life-cycle assessment approaches called “GreenCycLEAN”. Based on the analysis results, the whole life cycle of meat-free dishes has a lower environmental impact. However, the primary energy requirement of a vegetable soup is less favorable than that of a meat-containing soup. The preparation phase has higher burdens, and the cooking phase is the most energy intensive. Research results are helpful for the sustainability of catering establishments. Full article
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19 pages, 1569 KiB  
Article
A Risk Management Framework for Industry 4.0 Environment
by László Péter Pusztai, Lajos Nagy and István Budai
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1395; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021395 - 11 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1817
Abstract
In past decades, manufacturing companies have paid considerable attention to using their available resources in the most efficient way to satisfy customer demands. This endeavor is supported by many Industry 4.0 methods. One of these is called MES (Manufacturing Execution System), which is [...] Read more.
In past decades, manufacturing companies have paid considerable attention to using their available resources in the most efficient way to satisfy customer demands. This endeavor is supported by many Industry 4.0 methods. One of these is called MES (Manufacturing Execution System), which is applied for monitoring and controlling manufacturing by recording and processing production-related data. This article presents a possible method of implementation of a risk-adjusted production schedule in a data-rich environment. The framework is based on production datasets of multiple workshops, which is followed by statistical analysis, and its results are used in stochastic network models. The outcome of the simulation is implemented in a production scheduling model to determine how to assign the production among workshops. After collecting the necessary data, the reliability indicator-based stochastic critical path method was applied in the case study. Two cases were presented based on the importance of inventory cost and two different scheduling results were created and presented. With the objective of the least inventory cost, the production was postponed to the latest time possible, which means that workshops had more time to finish their previous work on the first day due to the small production quantity. When the cost was not relevant, the production started on the first day of each workshop, and the production was completed before the deadline. These are optimal solutions, but alternative solutions can also be performed by the decision maker based on the results. The use of the modified stochastic critical path method and its analysis shed light on the deficiency of the production, which is a merit in the continuous improvement process and the estimation of the total project time. Full article
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