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1 – 5 of 5Valérie Rocchi and Daniel Brissaud
Industry 4.0 is a promising concept that allows industries to meet customers’ demands with flexible and resilient processes, and highly personalised products. This concept is made…
Abstract
Industry 4.0 is a promising concept that allows industries to meet customers’ demands with flexible and resilient processes, and highly personalised products. This concept is made up of different dimensions. For a long time, innovative digital technology has been thought of as the only dimension to succeed in digital transformation projects. Other dimensions have been identified such as organisation, strategy, and human resources as key while rolling out digital technology in factories. From these findings, researchers have designed industry 4.0 theoretical models and then built readiness models that allow for analysing the gap between the company initial situation and the theoretical model. Nevertheless, this purely deductive approach does not take into consideration a company’s background and context, and eventually favours one single digital transformation model. This article aims at analysing four actual digital transformation projects and demonstrating that the digital transformation’s success or failure depends on the combination of two variables related to a company’s background and context. This research is based on a double approach: deductive and inductive. First, a literature review has been carried out to define industry 4.0 concept and its main dimensions and digital transformation success factors, as well as barriers, have been investigated. Second, a qualitative survey has been designed to study in-depth four actual industry digital transformation projects, their genesis as well as their execution, to analyse the key variables in succeeding or failing. 46 semi-structured interviews were carried out with projects’ members; interviews have been analysed with thematic content analysis. Then, each digital transformation project has been modelled regarding the key variables and analysed with regards to succeeding or failing. Investigated projects have consolidated the models of digital transformation. Finally, nine digital transformation types have been identified.
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Robin Hofmeester and Daniel R. Eyers
There is now much emphasis in both research and practice on the principles of circular economies. In this paper remanufacturing is examined as a key enabler of circular practices…
Abstract
Purpose
There is now much emphasis in both research and practice on the principles of circular economies. In this paper remanufacturing is examined as a key enabler of circular practices, and the concept of “Product-Agnostic Manufacturing” (PAR) is proposed. This work differentiates PAR from many traditional approaches to remanufacturing by virtue of PAR's treatment of product variety. Most existing approaches to remanufacturing feature low variety and standardisation; this study instead suggests that the exploitation of flexibilities in both operations and supply chains leads to new competitive strategies for firms to exploit.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual study that builds on a thorough exploration of contemporary remanufacturing literature in the development of the new PAR concept.
Findings
Through a detailed literature review it is shown that there are a range of benefits, challenges, and critical success factors that underpin the remanufacturing concept. Building on this understanding and bridging literature in operations flexibility and supply chain design, a detailed discussion on the nature of PAR is provided, and an agenda for future research developed.
Originality/value
Whilst there has been much literature on remanufacturing, there is a general tendency to treat supply chain and remanufacturing operations quite distinctly in individual articles. Additionally, there has been little consideration of multi-product remanufacturing, and for the limited studies where this is done, the emphasis is typically on problem avoidance. This study aims to provide a detailed insight into the developed PAR concept, showing how the remanufacture of a wide range of product varieties may be achieved through flexible operations and supply chain design.
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Marina Fernandes Aguiar, Jaime A. Mesa, Daniel Jugend, Marco Antonio Paula Pinheiro and Paula De Camargo Fiorini
Although product design is a fundamental element in the transition towards the circular economy, the knowledge of practices, methods and tools oriented to circular product design…
Abstract
Purpose
Although product design is a fundamental element in the transition towards the circular economy, the knowledge of practices, methods and tools oriented to circular product design has not been widely developed. This study aims to contribute to the circular economy research area by investigating and analyzing the main design approaches to circular products and their relationship to new product development.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic review and qualitative analysis of 120 articles. In these studies, the authors analyzed aspects such as design strategies used, the barriers to the adoption of circular product design and the relationships between the phases of new product development processes with circular product design studies.
Findings
The findings revealed that the circular product design approach has added new design strategies to those already recommended by ecodesign, such as multiple use cycles, emotional durability and biomimicry. Furthermore, the results showed that most circular product design articles focus on the planning and concept development phases of the new product development process.
Originality/value
In this article, the authors systematized the findings of an emergent research area: the development of new products for the circular economy. Its main contributions lie in the identification of design strategies, the classification of Design for X approaches, analysis of such approaches during the new product development process and discussion of their main barriers. Finally, this study presents contributions for managers and designers who are starting the transition to a circular strategy.
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This study aims to develop a synthetic knowledge repository consisted of interrelated Web Ontology Language.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a synthetic knowledge repository consisted of interrelated Web Ontology Language.
Design/methodology/approach
The ontology composes the main framework to categorize data of product life cycle with eco-design mode (PLC-EDM) and automatically infer specialists’ knowledge for data confirmation, eventually assisting the utilizations and generation of strategies toward decision-making
Findings
(i) utilization of a novel model with ontology mode for information reuse cross the different eco-design applications; (ii) generation of a sound platform toward life cycle evaluation; and (iii) implementation of the PLC-EDM model along the product generation process.
Research limitations/implications
It cannot substitute an evaluation tool of life cycle. Certainly, this model does not predict the “target and range” and/or the depiction of the “utility module” that are basic activities in life cycle assessments as characterized through the international organization for standardization regulations.
Practical implications
As portion of this framework, a prototype Web application is presented which is applied to produce, reuse and verify knowledge of product life cycle.
Social implications
By counting upon the ontology, the information conducted by the utilization is certainly semantically represented to promote the data sharing among various participants and tools. Besides, the data can be verified against possible faults by inferring over the ontology. Hence, a feasible way to a popular topic in the domain of eco-design applications extension in the industry.
Originality/value
The goals are: to lean on rigid modeling principles; and to promote the interoperability and diffusion of the ontology toward particular utilization demands.
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Yi-An Chen and Chun Liang Chen
The purpose of this study is to explore how creative-cultural hotels can achieve sustainable service design through the development of a holistic conceptual framework.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how creative-cultural hotels can achieve sustainable service design through the development of a holistic conceptual framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors created this framework using a qualitative exploratory multi-case study of four creative-cultural hotels in Taiwan. The framework comprises strategic, organizational and interface levels to describe the design process and implementation of service offerings that co-create value within a multifaceted network of actors.
Findings
The findings of this study show that incorporating local arts and culture into sustainable service design can generate unique value and experiences for customers. From the perspective of sustainable development, these hotels seek to add value by using local creative and cultural resources to ensure that they have a sound commercial base from which to showcase their cultural features. As such, this study recommends that the hotel industry shift its focus to a paradigm that provides a strategic and sustainability-framed vision to create value for society while protecting local natural and cultural resources.
Originality/value
This multilevel model reframes the development of customer value constellations through a holistic understanding of user experience, eco-design practice, service encounters aligned with user touchpoints and front-line employee capabilities. To integrate the perspectives of both service providers and their customers, the proposed model embeds these stakeholders within a single model through the vehicle of local value co-creation. This holistic framework can assist in designing sustainable service within the hospitality industry to deliver better services and customer experiences. The findings provide an illustration of how the proposed multilevel sustainable-development-oriented service design framework can serve as a useful tool in guiding hotels toward corporate sustainability.
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