Currently, the market for wearable devices is expanding, with a growing trend towards the use of these devices for continuous-monitoring applications. Among these, real-time posture monitoring and assessment stands out as a crucial application given the rising prevalence of conditions like forward head posture (FHP). This paper proposes a wearable device that combines the acquisition of electromyographic signals from the cervical region with inertial data from inertial measurement units (IMUs) to assess the occurrence of FHP. To improve electronics integration and wearability, e-textiles are explored for the development of surface electrodes and conductive tracks that connect the different electronic modules. Tensile strength and abrasion tests of 22 samples consisting of textile electrodes and conductive tracks produced with three fiber types (two from Shieldex and one from Imbut) were conducted. Imbut’s Elitex fiber outperformed Shieldex’s fibers in both tests. The developed surface electromyography (sEMG) acquisition hardware and textile electrodes were also tested and benchmarked against an electromyography (EMG) gold standard in dynamic and isometric conditions, with results showing slightly better root mean square error (RMSE) values (for 4 × 2 textile electrodes (10.02%) in comparison to commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes (11.11%). The posture monitoring module was also validated in terms of joint angle estimation and presented an overall error of 4.77° for a controlled angular velocity of 40°/s as benchmarked against a UR10 robotic arm.

Nowadays, global resources management intersects with collaboration and Industry 4.0 paradigms, namely for collaboratively managing cyber-physical systems. Only organizations that cooperate with their business partners, along with their suppliers and remaining stakeholders, including their clients, will be able to permit and promote the much-needed endowing of agility, effectiveness, and efficiency in their management processes. For that, suitable decision-making paradigms, along with underlying approaches, will be needed, in order to properly fulfil current companies’ decision requirements and practices. The main purpose of this paper is to show that this can be achieved by applying combined global resources management paradigms and approaches, to reach collaboration further supported by recent technology made available through Industry 4.0. In doing so, the interaction of companies and stakeholders, supported by appropriate networks, along with varying kind of other communication and problem-solving technology, will enable them to promote and reinforce interoperation to reach the best-suited management decisions, by considering each ones’ objectives and priorities, along with common goals. To this end, in this paper, a systematic literature review methodology is used to synthetize the main contributions about the relation of these domains. The study carried out and the results obtained permitted us to realize that dynamic, integrated, distributed, parallel, intelligent, predictive, and real-time-based decision paradigms are of the upmost importance currently, but are still just scarcely being combined, which is suggested though its encompassing through a proposed collaborative management framework that is recommended to be applied, either in industry or academia, to improve global resources management processes and practices.

This paper proposes a novel and comprehensive framework for the integration of manufacturing management processes, spanning strategic and operational levels, within and across organizational boundaries. The framework combines a robust set of technologies—such as cyber-physical systems, digital twins, AI, and blockchain—designed to support real-time decision-making, interoperability, and collaboration in Industry 4.0 and 5.0 contexts. Implemented and validated in a Portuguese manufacturing group comprising three interoperating factories, the framework demonstrated its ability to improve agility, coordination, and stakeholder integration through a multi-layered architecture and modular software platform. Quantitative and qualitative feedback from 32 participants confirmed enhanced decision support, operational responsiveness, and external collaboration. While tailored to a specific industrial setting, the results highlight the framework’s scalability and adaptability, positioning it as a meaningful contribution toward sustainable, human-centric digital transformation in manufacturing environments.