sustainability

Assessing the impact of digital industrial platforms on the dynamics and resilience of supply chains requires clear classification of such platforms. This article examines the extent to which a current classification proposal from the field of supply chain management must be further developed in the context of digital platforms for implementing the circular economy (CE). The authors conclude that a fundamental revision is not necessary, as the digital CE platforms under consideration fit well into the existing classification system. However, new research questions arise regarding the distinction between digital service platforms and digital data-oriented platforms, as well as the link between the circular economy and supply chain management—particularly in connection with supply chain control towers, which are becoming increasingly established in supply chain management practice.

The topic of Openness is of growing importance for industry, especially in Europe. However, the term Openness is used very differently. Openness includes several concepts, including Open Source Hardware, Open Source Software, Open Data, Open Standards, Open Innovation, Open Science and Open Education. The concepts address different dimensions of Openness, all based on some kind of participation and with the goal to create more transparency and accessibility. This article defines the concepts and provides a basic understanding of their importance for industry and for greater sustainability.

Sustainability is gaining importance and the economy is changing into a circular economy, especially with regard to climate change and the need to create more resilient value chains. The organization of work is meeting these challenges with, among other things, the digitalization of increasingly changeable production. Collecting and understanding data is becoming increasingly complex, as not only internal production data is of interest, but also cross-company sustainability indicators play a role in decision-making. The research results presented under the main topic “Digitization of the work environment for sustainable production” address this problem of compliance with sustainability requirements by means of digitization and its impact on the workplace and workers. The members of the Scientific Society for Work and Business Organisation (WGAB) present innovative concepts and research results for practitioners and scientists and thus provide valuable input for current challenges.

Advanced analytics applications in smart manufacturing provide beneficiary effects such as predictive maintenance, energy optimized factories, and automized quality management of products. While the benefits and thus the sustainability effects are well investigated, the research field is characterized by many single applications with little conceptual synthesis. Therefore, this research aims to systematize the field and to identify specific sustainability themes in context of advance analytics applications. This chapter provides an overview of existing advanced analytics applications in smart manufacturing and clusters the addressed sustainability themes. Applying a systematic literature review, following the PRISMA statement, 65 different applications within four research perspective could be identified. Furthermore, ten different sustainability-related effects of the applications in smart manufacturing unfold. The content analysis resulted in 27 sustainability themes, which ...

Supply chains have to be designed and managed to handle complexity and uncertainties. Recent events (e.g. Covid-19) have shown how fragile supply chains can be when assumptions for the design and management of supply chains are challenged. In addition, governments are striving for systemic changes towards more sustainability (e.g. European Green Deal). To meet the resulting requirements, the concept of circular economy and with it, circular supply chain management (CSCM) are gaining attention as they could contribute to building a sustainable and resilient system. The German wind energy industry, with its long track record, is a suitable application for further research on CSCM, as the industry operates predominantly in a linear system and relies on finite materials. Despite, research on CSCM for the wind energy industry is still rare. The aim of the paper is therefore to present conceptional ideas that enable an efficient design of a circular wind energy industry in Germany. Aspects ...