Manufacturing industry is put under the lens of policymakers and consumers because of the remarkable relative environmental impact that this industry generates. Consequently, manufacturing firms are increasingly pushed to seek more environmentally sustainable actions that range a broad spectrum of solutions encompassing the increase in overall efficiency of current systems up to the investigation of new business models. Such efforts are reportedly supported by digital technologies (both ICT and Industry 4.0), which enabled and fostered many sustainability practices like resource optimisation, virtualisation, repairing, etc. In this direction, academia has produced fruitful literature on the role digital technologies, primarily Industry 4.0, play in accelerating the sustainability transition. However, literature and empirical evidence show that such knowledge still struggles to gain traction among practitioners. These latter are now called keeping the pace of an already started digital transition to maintain their competitiveness in the market and, synergically, review their processes and products to answer the need for undertaking a sustainability transition. The thesis refers to this twofold change as Twin Transition and to achieve it, thus filling this gap, Technology Roadmaps (TRMs) stand out as effective and comprehensive tools. However, no consensus on their structure has yet been reached, and they still suffer from limited applicability when addressing digital and sustainable transition. Therefore, the Research Objective that drove the following thesis is “To develop a methodology to support manufacturing firms in defining sustainable and advanced business practices enabled by Industry 4.0 technologies”, by exploiting the characteristics of TRM. The methodology, called DeStRa (Digitally enabled Sustainability Roadmap), was developed through Design Research Methodology. First, the research investigates the main barriers manufacturers face in undertaking a twin transition. Overall, 39 barriers were detected clustered according to their typology (Process, Technology, Economic and financial, Regulations and market, and Culture and organisation) and impact boundaries (Micro, Meso, and Macro level). The thesis also presents the currently documented TRMs designed to foster digitalisation and sustainability in manufacturing industry. From this analysis, the research identified 21 requisites that TRM must respect. Those have been divided into three areas: TRM development, TRM content, and TRM structural characteristics. Thereafter, the thesis proceeds by presenting the DeStRa methodology and its 5 constituting steps. The methodology is designed to develop a holistic roadmap encompassing operations processes and to be applied at single plant level. It also includes a qualitative and a quantitative approach to prioritising criticalities to address and provide solutions accordingly. The methodology has been formulated through the involvement of 13 case studies and has been tested on four manufacturing application cases. The testing and validation phase showed that 17 of the 20 challenges faced by manufacturers at the micro level are tacked by DeStRa. By proposing a novel methodology to foster Twin Transition in manufacturing, this research sheds light on the sequential nature of such projects, also emphasising the role of process optimisation and ICT integration before implementing Industry 4.0. The thesis also shows that corporate size has limited influence on twin transition projects when adopting a plant viewpoint. For practice, the research proposes a methodology to help manufacturers plan actions and investments to achieve non-apriori definable goals. This is achieved by tackling operations' physical and information flow and identifying potential synergies with other functions. Also, it provides a guideline to support manufacturers in linking criticalities to possible solutions, gaining a deeper understanding of root causes and prioritising actions for improvement quantitatively.
L'industria manifatturiera è sotto la lente dei regolatori e dei consumatori a causa del notevole impatto ambientale relativo generato da questa industria. Di conseguenza, le aziende manifatturiere sono sempre più spinte a cercare azioni più sostenibili dal punto di vista ambientale che coprono un ampio spettro di soluzioni, che vanno dall'aumento dell'efficienza complessiva dei sistemi attuali fino all'indagine di nuovi modelli di business. Tali sforzi sono riportati essere supportati dalle tecnologie digitali (sia ICT che Industria 4.0), che hanno reso possibili e favorito molte pratiche di sostenibilità come l'ottimizzazione delle risorse, la virtualizzazione, la riparazione, ecc. In questa direzione, l'accademia ha prodotto una letteratura fruttuosa sul ruolo delle tecnologie digitali, principalmente Industria 4.0, nel accelerare la transizione verso la sostenibilità. Tuttavia, la letteratura e le prove empiriche mostrano che tale conoscenza fatica ancora a ottenere consenso tra i praticanti. Questi ultimi sono ora chiamati a tenere il passo di una transizione digitale già avviata per mantenere la loro competitività sul mercato e, sinergicamente, rivedere i loro processi e prodotti per rispondere alla necessità di intraprendere una transizione verso la sostenibilità. La tesi si riferisce a questo cambio doppio come "Twin Transition" e per realizzarlo, riempiendo così questa lacuna, le "Technology Roadmaps" (TRM) spiccano come strumenti efficaci e completi. Tuttavia, non è ancora stato raggiunto un consenso sulla loro struttura e soffrono ancora di limitata applicabilità quando si affronta la transizione digitale e sostenibile. Pertanto, l'Obiettivo di Ricerca che ha guidato la tesi seguente è "Sviluppare una metodologia per sostenere le aziende manifatturiere nella definizione di pratiche aziendali sostenibili e avanzate abilitate dalle tecnologie Industry 4.0", sfruttando le caratteristiche delle TRM. La metodologia, chiamata DeStRa (Digitally enabled Sustainability Roadmap), è stata sviluppata attraverso la Design Research Methodology. In primo luogo, la ricerca indaga le principali barriere che i produttori affrontano nel intraprendere una transizione gemella. Complessivamente, sono state rilevate 39 barriere raggruppate in base alla loro tipologia (Processo, Tecnologia, Economiche e finanziarie, Regolamentari e di mercato, e Cultura e organizzazione) e ai confini di impatto (Micro, Meso e Macro livello). La tesi presenta anche le attuali TRM documentate progettate per promuovere la digitalizzazione e la sostenibilità nell'industria manifatturiera. Da questa analisi, la ricerca ha identificato 21 requisiti che le TRM devono rispettare. Questi sono stati divisi in tre aree: sviluppo TRM, contenuto TRM, e caratteristiche strutturali TRM. Successivamente, la tesi procede presentando la metodologia DeStRa e i suoi 5 passi costituenti. La metodologia è progettata per sviluppare una roadmap olistica che comprende i processi operativi e deve essere applicata a livello di singola pianta. Include anche un approccio qualitativo e quantitativo per prioritizzare le criticità da affrontare e fornire soluzioni di conseguenza. La metodologia è stata formulata attraverso il coinvolgimento di 13 casi studio e è stata testata su quattro casi di applicazione manifatturiera. La fase di test e validazione ha mostrato che 17 delle 20 sfide affrontate dai produttori a livello micro sono affrontate da DeStRa. Proponendo una nuova metodologia per promuovere la Twin Transition nella manifattura, questa ricerca fa luce sulla natura sequenziale di tali progetti, sottolineando anche il ruolo dell'ottimizzazione dei processi e dell'integrazione ICT prima di implementare l'Industria 4.0. La tesi mostra anche che le dimensioni aziendali hanno una limitata influenza sui progetti di transizione gemella quando si adotta un punto di vista a livello di pianta. Per la pratica, la ricerca propone una metodologia per aiutare i produttori a pianificare azioni e investimenti per raggiungere obiettivi non predefiniti a priori. Ciò viene ottenuto affrontando il flusso fisico e informativo delle operazioni e identificando potenziali sinergie con altre funzioni. Inoltre, fornisce una linea guida per supportare i produttori nel collegare le criticità alle possibili soluzioni, ottenendo una comprensione più profonda delle cause principali e prioritizzando le azioni di miglioramento quantitativamente.
Development of a TRM methodology enhancing twin transition in manufacturing
Spaltini, Marco
2023/2024
Abstract
Manufacturing industry is put under the lens of policymakers and consumers because of the remarkable relative environmental impact that this industry generates. Consequently, manufacturing firms are increasingly pushed to seek more environmentally sustainable actions that range a broad spectrum of solutions encompassing the increase in overall efficiency of current systems up to the investigation of new business models. Such efforts are reportedly supported by digital technologies (both ICT and Industry 4.0), which enabled and fostered many sustainability practices like resource optimisation, virtualisation, repairing, etc. In this direction, academia has produced fruitful literature on the role digital technologies, primarily Industry 4.0, play in accelerating the sustainability transition. However, literature and empirical evidence show that such knowledge still struggles to gain traction among practitioners. These latter are now called keeping the pace of an already started digital transition to maintain their competitiveness in the market and, synergically, review their processes and products to answer the need for undertaking a sustainability transition. The thesis refers to this twofold change as Twin Transition and to achieve it, thus filling this gap, Technology Roadmaps (TRMs) stand out as effective and comprehensive tools. However, no consensus on their structure has yet been reached, and they still suffer from limited applicability when addressing digital and sustainable transition. Therefore, the Research Objective that drove the following thesis is “To develop a methodology to support manufacturing firms in defining sustainable and advanced business practices enabled by Industry 4.0 technologies”, by exploiting the characteristics of TRM. The methodology, called DeStRa (Digitally enabled Sustainability Roadmap), was developed through Design Research Methodology. First, the research investigates the main barriers manufacturers face in undertaking a twin transition. Overall, 39 barriers were detected clustered according to their typology (Process, Technology, Economic and financial, Regulations and market, and Culture and organisation) and impact boundaries (Micro, Meso, and Macro level). The thesis also presents the currently documented TRMs designed to foster digitalisation and sustainability in manufacturing industry. From this analysis, the research identified 21 requisites that TRM must respect. Those have been divided into three areas: TRM development, TRM content, and TRM structural characteristics. Thereafter, the thesis proceeds by presenting the DeStRa methodology and its 5 constituting steps. The methodology is designed to develop a holistic roadmap encompassing operations processes and to be applied at single plant level. It also includes a qualitative and a quantitative approach to prioritising criticalities to address and provide solutions accordingly. The methodology has been formulated through the involvement of 13 case studies and has been tested on four manufacturing application cases. The testing and validation phase showed that 17 of the 20 challenges faced by manufacturers at the micro level are tacked by DeStRa. By proposing a novel methodology to foster Twin Transition in manufacturing, this research sheds light on the sequential nature of such projects, also emphasising the role of process optimisation and ICT integration before implementing Industry 4.0. The thesis also shows that corporate size has limited influence on twin transition projects when adopting a plant viewpoint. For practice, the research proposes a methodology to help manufacturers plan actions and investments to achieve non-apriori definable goals. This is achieved by tackling operations' physical and information flow and identifying potential synergies with other functions. Also, it provides a guideline to support manufacturers in linking criticalities to possible solutions, gaining a deeper understanding of root causes and prioritising actions for improvement quantitatively.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
36_SPALTINI_FINALE.pdf
non accessibile
Descrizione: Development of a TRM methodology enhancing Twin Transition in manufacturing
Dimensione
7.72 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
7.72 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/216294