An organisation's sustainability performance is influenced by its capabilities (skills, resources and competences) which in turn affects the performance of its entire supply chain. However, recent research has not sufficiently explored the convergence of dynamic capabilities, circular economy, resilience and Industry 4.0 concepts for manufacturing supply chains. Therefore, this study aims to identify how dynamic capabilities theory can enable circular and resilient supply chains. A qualitative research process was deployed in three stages: literature review, European project and nine expert interviews. Key investigative variables were used to identify capabilities used in manufacturing, and five research propositions were developed to address the gaps found in literature. The empirical data helped reveal challenges to circular economy implementation and validate the literature findings. The main contributions include a dynamic capabilities model, a causal relationship model and five research propositions for circular economy implementation.

The rapid development and implementation of digitalization in manufacturing has enormous impact on the environment. It is still unclear whether digitalization has positive or negative environmental impact from applications in manufacturing. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the overall implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability through a literature study, within the scope of manufacturing (product design, production, transportation, and customer service). The analysis and categorization of selected articles resulted in two main findings: (1) Digitalization in manufacturing contributes positively to environmental sustainability by increasing resource and information efficiency as a result of applying Industry 4.0 technologies throughout the product lifecycle; (2) the negative environmental burden of digitalization is primarily due to increased resource and energy use, as well as waste and emissions from manufacturing, use, and disposal of the hardware (the technology lifecycle). Based on these findings, a lifecycle perspective is proposed, considering the environmental impacts from both the product and technology lifecycles. This study identified key implications of digitalization on environmental sustainability in manufacturing to increase awareness of both the positive and negative impacts of digitalization and thereby support decision making to invest in new digital technologies.

Manufacturing simulation and digital engineering tools and procedures have had a positive impact on the manufacturing industry. However, to design a sustainable manufacturing system, a multitude of system dimensions must be jointly optimized. This paper proposes an integrated simulation tool helping to maximize production efficiency and balance environmental constraints already in the system design phase. Lean manufacturing, identification and elimination of waste and production losses, and environmental considerations are all needed during development of a sustainable manufacturing system. Engineers designing the manufacturing system need decision support, otherwise sub-optimization is more likely to occur. We present methods for calculating energy efficiency, CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts integrated into factory simulation software.

This paper presents a framework for developing extended reality (XR) systems within manufacturing context. The aim of this study is to develop a systematic framework to improve the usability and user acceptance of future XR systems. So that manufacturing industry can move from the “wow effect” of XR demonstrators into the stage whereas XR systems can be successfully integrated and improve the conventional work routines. It is essential to ensure the usability and user acceptance of XR systems for the wider adoption in manufacturing. The proposed framework was developed through six case studies that covered different XR system developments for different application areas of manufacturing. The framework consists of five iterative phases: (1) requirements analysis, (2) solution selection, (3) data preparation, (4) system implementation and (5) system evaluation. It is validated through one empirical case and seven identified previous studies, which partly aligned with the proposed framework. The proposed framework provides a clear guideline on the steps needed to integrate XR in manufacturing and it extends the XR usage with increased usability and user acceptance. Furthermore, it strengthens the importance of user-centered approach for XR system development in manufacturing.

Increasing numbers of companies in the manufacturing industry have identified market potential for implementing sustainable and green manufacturing. Yet, current sustainability assessment tools for companies are complicated, requiring vast amounts of data and technical expertise to use them. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is founded on lean practices, and it uses a simple method to analyze various types of material, energy, and information flow needed to bring products and services to the end-customer. The objective of this paper is to introduce and illustrate the application of a VSM-based assessment, termed as Sustainable Manufacturing Mapping (SMM). SMM takes chosen sustainability indicators into consideration and is based on VSM, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and Discrete Event Simulation (DES). The main phases of SMM include goal definition, identification of the sustainability indicators, and modeling the current and future state process maps. In this paper, some example indicators were identified and an SMM process map was generated for illustrative purposes.