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55th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems, CMS2022, Lugano, Switzerland, 29 Jun 2022 - 1 Jul 2022; Procedia CIRP 107, 804-809 (2022). doi:10.1016/j.procir.2022.05.066 special issue: "Leading manufacturing systems transformation : proceedings of the 55th CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems 2022 / edited by Emanuele Carpanzano, Claudio Boër, Anna Valente", Published by Elsevier, Amsterdam [u.a.]

Protected geographical indications (PGIs) are an increasingly popular strategy for securing price premiums on food products in the interest of preserving associated rural livelihoods, however they often fail to show clear benefits for small or otherwise marginalized farmers. Their environmental record for supporting low-impact farming practices is also mixed. This case study of the PGI for Spanish almond-based desserts Turron de Jijona and Turron de Alicante details a yet unstudied form of such failures, where manufacturers seeking to scale production removed the requirement to source their primary ingredient (almonds) from the region's low-input farms and opted for intensively produced ingredients imported from abroad. This uprooting of turron from its agroecological origins highlights how the GI designation creates tension between the need to legitimate a product as rooted in traditional agrarian lifeways and the incentive to expand exports by industrial means. While previous studies show how such tension can result in agricultural intensification benefitting larger landholders within a given region, I argue this inequity and ecological risk operates at a global scale. Importantly, the turron case reveals that “quality” of a product is a moving target shaped not only by culinary legacies but also forged by a global political economy of agriculture suffering chronic overproduction. Finally, the role of the state in structuring PGI institutions more inclusively and adjudicating conflicts among actors along the value chain is fundamental to the capacity of these programs to achieve social and environmental goals.

Objective To examine and identify the scope of research addressing health information requirements for gout patients using value chain analysis. Methods Five electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Embase, and Scopus) and grey literature (WorldCat) were searched in accordance with a published protocol. Only English language articles were included, with no limitations for date of publication. The findings of the 33 studies included for final analysis were subsequently divided into 6 groups according to the stages of the care delivery value chain their research most closely pertained to: screening/preventing (n = 2), diagnosing (n = 1), preparing (n = 7), intervening (n = 11), recovering/rehabilitating (n = 5), and monitoring/managing (n = 13). Results The 33 studies focused on one or more of the following information phenotypes: 1) pathophysiology; 2) medical treatment; and 3) nonpharmaceutical interventions. Long term treatment adherence was a popular topic amongst studies that focused on gout patient education. Conclusion Based on the identified studies, gout patients are being told what to do, but are not being adequately educated regarding why recommended interventions are important or how to accomplish them. Practice implications This review provides a foundation to develop and evaluate personalized education materials using value chain analysis.

The cocoa sub-sector in Ghana is an economically active sector, serving as a major export earner for the country and contributing up to 7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The cocoa value chain in Ghana includes pre-harvest, post-harvest and processing stages, which consist of activities such as seed production, nursery, replanting, cultivation, harvesting, fermentation, drying, scaling and sale, certification and bulking, export or processing. Along the entire chain for all these stages is the intensive use of water and energy, although intensities vary for the different stages. An energy and water mapping was therefore conducted to analyse the energy and water usage along each value chain activity. The studies indicate that mainly rainwater and a little stream and dugout water are used in the pre-harvest stage for nursery activities. The main energy used here is direct sunlight for drying the cocoa beans, manpower used on the farm and about 10% of total petrol and diesel usage along the entire value chain used for transportation during field visits and in tractors for land preparation. During the post-harvest stage, 75% of fossil fuel is used in vehicles and trucks for transportation. The processing stage of the value chain is where the bulk of energy is used, largely from the national grid and about 15% diesel/petrol used in small backup generators and for running processing machineries and equipment. Energy and water estimation and requirements used along each stage in the value chain was conducted. The processing companies, undertaking activities in the processing stage, pay commercial tariffs for water usage (approximately US$1.82 per 1000 litres) and US$0.14 per kWh of electricity usage. The studies showed that besides these high tariffs, which affect production and profits, efficiency levels are very low. The paper concludes that despite the numerous challenges with high cost of production and low efficiencies, there are many opportunities and strengths that can be harnessed to bring about innovation, efficiency and increased productivity along the value chain of cocoa in Ghana. Key amongst these are; collaborating with the vibrant private and public sectors involved in the value chain; harnessing the abundant and high solar radiation to improve drying activities; using the existing regulatory and institutional frameworks to introduce innovative initiatives in the value chain, for example converting the large quantities of organic waste generated from cocoa products production to produce bio-energy; introducing energy efficiencies measures, etc. These, amongst many others, are recommended as opportunities that can be harnessed, together with the enabling environment in the country, to add value to the cocoa sector.

In the pursuit of a sustainable economy, several transitions are initiated which affect the way of doing business. The most prominent transitions, the energy transition and the transition towards a circular economy, are exemplary for the way companies are impacted. By the analysis of the differences and similarities between the two transitions, the challenges for companies are identified. The value chain needs to implement the demanded adaptations to be competitive. Therefore, the environmental performance and capacity to make the required adaptation of all value chain partners are of relevance for business continuation. A future tool should support companies in the assessment of the value chain partners to be adaptive. The paper describes the design brief for the development of the tool that should incentivize companies to focus on and provide guidance for a multi-capital approach for value creation and to transition to a sustainable value chain.

In an environment with digital disruptions, retailers must adopt a customer-centric approach to survive and compete effectively. Retailers need to be agile and forward-looking in adopting the relevant analytics and performance metrics to bring a customer-centric approach across upstream and downstream activities in the retail value chain. However, retailers in emerging markets (EMs) need clarity on the specific analytics and performance metrics in the value chain that will enable them to transition from their current product-centric state to the desired customer-centric state. Employing a triangulation approach (i.e., literature review, marketplace evidence, and managerial interviews) in the fragmented retail landscape of EMs, this study provides an organizing framework that explains: (i) the need for a customer-centric approach across the retail value chain, (ii) the specific performance metrics that need to be adopted across upstream and downstream activities in the retail value chain to enable EM retailers to achieve their desired customer-centric state, and (iii) the role of analytics in providing insights to achieve these performance metrics and improving monetary and non-monetary firm performance outcomes. We also provide firm-specific and macro-level conditions that can influence the EM retailers’ adoption of relevant analytics and explain the different paths retail formats can follow to adopt analytics. We present a strategy matrix that enables retail managers to identify the appropriate analytics to be adopted at different retail value chain stages to achieve desired performance metrics. We also highlight future research opportunities in retailing in EMs.

The Thailand Integrated Energy Blueprint (TIEB), launched in 2014, has been updated to TIEB 2018 and approved by the Thailand’s cabinet in October 2020. The Thailand’s Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) in 2019 was 140,027 ktoe. One-third of the TPES is natural gas, which is expected to increase around 2% annually. The proportion of natural gas used for power generation will reach 53% and the total consumption will meet 5,348 MMSCFD in 2037. For the aforementioned reasons, it is the best to focus on the whole supply chain of the natural gas. The key factor to sustain the energy sector in Thailand according to the TIEB is the energy data standard which shows the value chain of all energy sources in the form of energy balance. Nonetheless, there are the complications of the classification, definitions, and processes. Therefore, international standards and manual shall be applied to ease these complications. Two new terms, Feed Gas and Sale Gas, are created and used to clarify the uniqueness of the Thailand’s natural gas flow. This flow is one of the most complete versions illustrating the whole supply chain of natural gas in Thailand from the domestic supply to the total demand and to the final consumption.

The rapid development of the labor division system of the global value chain not only improves the technological level of developing countries but also creates opportunities for developed countries that dominate the global value chain to transfer pollution-intensive production links to developing countries. When faced with the pressure of environmental governance, the production efficiency of enterprises in the value chain may change significantly. Therefore, this study establishes a global value chain analysis framework, considering environmental factors, that is, the global environmental value chain (GEVC). It discusses the impact of the embeddedness of enterprises in the GEVC on their production efficiencies. Based on the consolidated data from 2000 to 2006 in the China Industry Business Performance Data and the China customs database, the following conclusion is drawn: The embeddedness of enterprises in the GEVC reduces the production efficiency of enterprises, but the changes of production efficiencies of enterprises with different profitability in the GEVC are significantly different. Specifically, the embeddedness of enterprises with positive earnings in the GEVC can improve production efficiency, while that of enterprises with negative earnings in the GEVC will reduce production efficiency. Furthermore, the learning effect and the competition effect reinforce the positive effect of GEVC on enterprise production efficiency, while the "capture effect" weakens this effect, and the scale effect is insignificant. Moreover, foreign-funded enterprises benefit more from the improvement of production efficiency that resulted from GEVC embeddedness.

This paper analyses how technological and sectoral context structures influence the functional pattern of a focal technological innovation system (TIS), focusing on value chain interdependencies. Through a case study of the ‘embryonic’ bio-succinate from mixed food waste TIS in Sweden, we show that all identified context structures exert both negative and positive influences on TIS functions by influencing resource availability and accessibility, market conditions and the wider selection environment. Contextual influences result from interdependencies throughout the value chain, but in contrast to previous studies, direct structural overlaps are not as relevant as competition for resources, markets and policy support. Competition does not only come from the regime but also from other related TISs and sectors. The study also confirms the importance of contextual influences from the international TIS. These findings suggest that a wide perspective on context structures and selection pressures should be considered in future research.

This paper develops conceptual value chain alliance models through literature review and case studies. And it analyzes economic, industrial and logistics environments of Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Ghana. Then the structure, flow and partnership of VC and SC and willingness to participate in the alliance of manufacturers, distributors and logistics firms in those countries are analyzed, through literature review, questionnaire analysis, site visits, interviews and case studies. Based on such analyses, the business models and strategies for global alliance among VC participants including manufacturers, distributors, LLPs and logistics SMEs are developed.

Prosecco, a wine that two decades ago was virtually unknown outside of Italy and was considered inferior to other sparkling wines, has become immensely popular. But how did Prosecco producers gear up to meet a booming demand in a highly regulated wine industry such as Italy's? Is this an example of an inclusive growth trajectory? Who is capturing the benefits of this growth and who is bearing its hidden costs? Through the case study of Prosecco, I identify the everyday practices and struggles that underpin the growth of Prosecco in relation to nature, landscape and land use, and examine how the environmental, health and other hidden costs of agro-food value chains shape various layers of visible conflict. The great growth that has characterized the ‘Prosecco miracle’ of the 2010s arises from the reinvention of a geographic origin that was under threat following the 2008 EU wine reform. The ‘discovery’ of a village named Prosecco, located quite far from the original core area of Prosecco production, provided the vector for a large expansion of Prosecco viticulture and wine production, and the emergence of a veritable export bubble. This expansion, supported by key institutions, regulators and the regional political elite, is putting pressure on nature and landscapes and is fomenting local protests against indiscriminate agro-chemical spraying. I find that, while the industry claims to be addressing its key sustainability challenges, a number of conflicts and tensions persist. Ultimately, the case study of Prosecco provides key insights to current debates on the hidden costs of agro-food value chains and their resulting conflicts – confirming that commodity expansion is often linked to processes of appropriation of nature, landscapes and territories, and to the ability of business to capture surplus while externalizing the hidden social, health and environmental costs of production.

The circular economy concept can enhance sustainability through restructuring consumption and production patterns using innovative designs and business models. This core premise is highly relevant for the interlinked water and food supply sectors in arid regions, which are threatened by natural scarcity and resource overuse. This paper transfers the idea of the circular economy into the practice of the water and food sectors using the example of the region of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It develops a framework for identifying circular economy strategies and issues applicable to basic supply sectors. In analyzing the value chain and circular strategies of the water and food sectors, the circular economy idea has resulted in numerous industrial applications. The range of applications is illustrated in the key industries of wastewater and local food production. Expanding the reuse options for municipal wastewater and valorizing organic waste represent important circular economy directions for the basic supply sector of the GCC. Incorporating these ideas is positive, but a more comprehensive set of measures is needed to generate low-carbon and low-metabolism economic development in the region. In addition to the current sporadic supply-side initiatives, there is a need for non-technical circular economy strategies related to demand management and waste reduction.

Crowdsourced manufacturing enables companies to outsource and share manufacturing resources based on demand and capacity across the value chain. A postponement strategy is well recognized as an effective means to deal with supply chain risks and uncertainties of producing customized products. However, coordinated decision-making among product design, postponement contracting and subcontracting is a challenging problem area that requires innovative modeling and decision support. This study develops a model that emphasizes interactive decisions within a three-level non-cooperative game that determines the optimal solutions for a single manufacturer, multiple distributors, and multiple subcontractors by maximizing their net profits. This study formulates a postponement contracting with subcontracting (PCS) problem for product family architecting to interact with postponement contracting and subcontracting decisions based on optimal planning of crowdsourced manufacturing activities. The PCS problem differs from traditional postponement design models that assume a (fixed) product architecture is given at the outset. In this study, interaction among different stakeholders is modeled as a non-linear, mixed-integer, three-level game-theoretic model based on the Stackelberg game theory. A novel virtual postponement structure is introduced to concretize optimization of the PCS problem and to justify which product module(s) should be postponed. Analytical solutions are developed incorporating a nested genetic algorithm. A practical case study of postponement contracting decisions in an electric vehicle company is reported to verify the feasibility and potential of the proposed approach for product family architecting. The optimal product family design, the types of postponed product modules, some parts in the postponed product modules that need to be further subcontracted, and other decision results are determined simultaneously in the case study. The sensitivity analyses on the proposed postponement cost and demand parameters indicate that the changes of their values greatly influence the decision makers’ net profit, and the net profit situation of each decision maker in different regions is obtained by the sensitivity analysis of the union of the two parameters. Thus, the PCS problem for product family architecting in crowdsourced manufacturing provides a more complete solution for the current implementation of the postponement strategy, and our proposed three-level game-theoretic model can handle well the coordination among the PCS problem.

Data on rice harvest and postharvest loss in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is scanty making it difficult for stakeholders to appreciate the loss and set priority areas for loss reduction along the value chain. To address this problem, a protocol was developed and validated for postharvest loss (PHL) quantification in SSA. Quantitative losses at each segment were determined by field measurements. Interactive effect of origin of rice (domestic versus imported) and type of processing (white versus parboiled milled) on rice price in 33 markets in Africa was used to estimate qualitative loss for both white and parboiled milled rice. Total PHL for rice in SSA in 2018 is estimated at about US$ 10.24 billion, representing 47.63% of the expected total production. The highest loss recorded was quantitative loss before and during harvesting, followed by qualitative loss along the entire value chain, quantitative loss during milling, parboiling, threshing in that order, with the lowest being quantitative loss during drying. Priority areas to be targeted for PHL reduction in SSA and some loss mitigation tools and technologies piloted or suitable for SSA are proposed.

Today, the benefits of climate diversity and scaling up farmers' coordination to the landscape are particularly crucial in meeting increasing food demand and planning crop cultivation. The growing population with changing dietary patterns creates a higher demand for sustainable, coordinated agri-food networks, which consolidated the value chain of the agri-foods at both the farmers and the market side. In this paper, a strategic planning framework from a large-scale crop supply chain perspective is presented for National crop Growers’ Associations (NGAs). The proposed framework aims to better equip crop growers, in a complex decision situation in taking advantage of complementary climate and market opportunities, to plan: what, when, and how to produce crops by using water-sustainable cropping plans. The coverage of this framework is at the national level to be able to take advantage of climate diversity and complementary markets in provinces with various climatic conditions. Using a multi-stage model on a countrywide management level and crop evapotranspiration and water requirement estimates, during crop growth in the different geographical and climatic ranges, it provides advisedly estimation for the regional (counties) quantity of optimum cultivation, storage, and transportation at the minimum cost and optimum land and water usage as a reform plan for optimizing existing harvesting practices. Moreover, assurance of total local farmers' income, re-cultivation in the planning horizon, and perishability of crops are considered. These considerations allow the proposed comprehensive framework to support the successful high yield practices and more water productivity in susceptible regions and months by using the regional climatic advantages, including crop evapotranspiration, effective precipitation, and irrigation productivity. In order to illustrate the application of the framework, it was applied to 429 counties and 30 provinces of Iran for potato, onion, and tomato farming systems in 2020. Computational results guarantee small-scale farmers' income, stabilize food demand coverage, and save 397 million m3 of irrigation water yearly.

This paper addresses the ‘smile curve hypothesis’ which suggests that the potential for generating value added varies significantly across the value chain with the production stage being the least promising segment. Based on granular greenfield FDI data a metric is developed that allows capturing the functional specialisation of countries in global value chains at the industry level. The measure not only provides new insights into the specialisation of countries as ‘factory economies’ or ‘headquarter economies’ but is also used to test and confirm econometrically the smile curve hypothesis by showing that countries specialised in the production stage of the value chains tend to generate less value added per unit of output produced than those specialised as headquarter economies.

The paradox that tonnes of food is wasted while people go hungry has raised concern from national and international authorities. In developed countries, reducing these problems has focused on surplus food distribution as a ‘win-win’ solution contributing to sustainable development goals. While the existing literature acknowledges the role of third-sector organisations, research on the supply chain of surplus food distribution and the coordination among actors is limited. This research explores actors and organisations in the value chain of surplus food distribution at the city level. Based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation, our findings highlight the need for a coordinated effort between actors as an essential arrangement to capture the value of surplus food. Despite the close cooperation, hierarchical power relationships exist between organisations in the supply chain. We unpack challenges in the surplus food supply chain, such as lack of a legislative framework for food donations and organisational sustainability issues that have forced third-sector organisations to work independently to reduce the uncertainties of food quality and quantity. We shed light on the practical implications by highlighting how multiple stakeholders could improve the efficiency of surplus food distribution.

The Business Model Canvas as a template for strategic management serves the development of new or the documentation of existing linear business models. However, the change towards a Circular Economy requires new value creation structures and thus changed business models. To develop business models for circular economies, it is necessary to adapt the existing template, since the actors involved along the value chain take on changed roles. In the context of this paper, a template is presented, based on the existing Business Model Canvas, which allows to develop and document business models for a Circular Economy.

Visual inspection-based quality control systems are deployed to meet the growing demand of high-quality products. In this paper, an inexpensive RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) technology and a machine vision system have been integrated within an existing learning factory. RFID technology is used to trace a product/part from its origin, enabling the visibility of the product/part’s entire movement in the value chain. The goals of the paper are to track the workpieces in real time (i) to provide immediate feedback, through visibility, to operators and floor managers and (ii) to develop a database to trace parts, in future, backward through value chain. The system can be used to predict the probability of defective parts in the value chain using machine learning algorithms. This will help the manufacturers to trace the parts in value chain at any point of time including aftersales. Traceability has been a pain point for manufacturers during product recalls.

Digitalization has enabled the networking of production facilities and the interaction of all stakeholders across the value chain. Smart factories helped reversed the decline of manufacturing and increased its total value added. The resultant Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has led to an explosion of innovation reflected in the exponential growth of related patents and other forms of intellectual property rights (IPR). IPR and protection mechanisms are presumed drivers of global innovation and the interrelationship between innovation, IPR and economic growth is well-established. This paper addresses the question of propensity of manufacturing firms for specific forms of IPR across firm sizes. Using data from a large swath of German manufacturing firms, a novel model is developed to predict the probability of any given firm registering a specific form of IPR depending upon its size and innovativeness.

The purpose of this work is to study the evolution of lean thinking and optimize the value stream in the transport provision of enterprises. An overview of the creation and development of lean thinking is presented, a historical and genetic research method, methods of comparison, analysis and synthesis are implemented, and a mathematical model of the optimization criterion for implementing lean transportation is proposed. It is established that the creation of lean thinking should be associated with the development of scientific management methods, which were implemented in Ford Motor Company. Adapting the principles of the American automobile industry to the specifics of enterprises in Japan in the late 1940s allowed Toyota to create a production system. It was significantly different from the American experience, although it was based on it. The peculiarity of technological processes of Japanese enterprises provided high efficiency. When describing the Japanese experience, American researchers in the late 1980s used the term lean. Under this name, experts from the United States have studied and popularized the achievements of Japanese managers. Analysis of the value stream has shown the difference between this concept and the concepts of the value chain and use value. The analysis of the value stream has a separate specificity when considering the transport support of the company’s activities. For these purposes, an optimization criterion is proposed that requires coordinated management of cargo flows and reserves.

Indian Railway is an Indian state- owned and operated by the government of India through the Ministry of Railways. The Indian Railways was in effect for the most part condemned for releasing human waste on the railroad tracks which makes natural contamination and makes everyday existence of humankind awkward. Indian Railway is investing a great deal of energy to defeat this issue by actualizing eco-friendly toilet systems which are implemented as bio toilets, to overcome the problems of open discharge sanitary system Indian railway along with DRDO did research and fitted the bio toilet in Indian Railways, which can stop the direct discharge of human waste in to the railway track by bacterial degradation of waste. The bio toilet system which in turn converts the human waste in to methane gas and disinfected water thus it is working towards the solution for open discharge sanitary system in Indian Railways. This paper explains about the issues produced by bio-toilets and steps to convert human waste from Indian Railway sanitary system to energy, nutritious product for the agricultural sector using value chain concept, which fulfills the significant target of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan.

Reducing waste and pollution are imperative needs of our time. Manufacturers, especially large, transnational companies, can lead the way by adopting more sustainable practices. One of the practices is the adoption of circular economy models in manufacturing enabling the transition from the current linear “take-make-dispose” model to closed loop economy models that reduce waste production. One of the largest, most innovative sectors in Europe is the automotive industry. The aim of this study is to formalise the main key performance indicators that actors across the value chain of the automotive industry need to monitor as they were brought forward from the EU funded H2020 research programme DigiPrime.

Transport systems significantly impact our environment, accounting for 29% and 25% of the global energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, respectively. Therefore, international efforts promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce overall GHG emissions with the aim of achieving the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. As a result, the world’s demand for EVs is expected to increase exponentially, leading to increase in using lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Therefore, the battery is considered the most important component of an EV, and a vital industry with increasing importance for the economy and environment. Based on secondary data, this study aims to underline the most relevant factors for developing a circular design system of LIBs across the value chain of EVs. Due to the dynamic nature of LIBs and EVs market over time and complex interrelationship among processes and stages of their value chain, this study adopts a system dynamics approach. The results of the study reveal the impacts of different factors and their interrelations in the value chain of EVs. The findings of this study would contribute to the decision making and management at different stages in the EVs’ value chain to accelerate a sustainable mobility and energy transition in line with eight relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A digital twin is a digital representation of an unique product or product service system that is sufficient to meet the requirements of a set of use cases. Following this definition, the implementation of a digital twin must be derived from concrete use cases along the life cycle of a product. However, the involvement of a variety of different stakeholders and frequent changes of ownership in the value chain complicate the identification of use cases as well as the specification of the digital twin and its governance. This leads to a need for a systematic approach that enables various partners to implement the digital twins needed for their specific use cases. This paper presents a specification technique that combines aspects from Model-Based Systems Engineering with Product Lifecycle Management to support a collaborative front-end planning and specification of digital twins. It integrates the different views of various digital twin stakeholders (product manager, systems engineer, developer, data scientist etc.) in a collaborative model across the value chain. As part of the systematic approach, a digital twin specification grid that structures guidelines for the aspects of a digital twin (e.g. the data sources) across the product life cycle is provided. The presented approach also supports the derivation of a digital twin by integrating different use cases. This specification technique is the first step towards a holistic, Model-Based Digital Twin Design Framework.

The photovoltaic systems connected to the grid consist of a renewable technology growing in the world energy matrix. However, for the competitiveness and diffusion of this technology to be boosted, it is necessary to integrate different actors in the photovoltaic value chain in a collaborative environment to overcome technical, economic, managerial, political and market barriers. Thus, the objective of this article is to identify the actors that compose the sector's value chain and the main factors that influence competitiveness and the adoption of distributed generation of photovoltaic energy. For this, a systematic review of the literature was conducted using the review protocol Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes, resulting in 81 articles distributed between 1989 and 2019. The conclusions point out that the actors in the value chain and the factors that influence the sector's competitiveness are concentrated in several spheres, presenting dependency relationships established in the upstream, midstream, downstream, and auxiliary chain segments. The developed value chain presents uniquely the compilation of interactions between different actors. Also, the factors that make photovoltaic technology competitive are discussed, helping the government, investors, companies, electricity concessionaires, and consumers to expand the diffusion of this renewable energy source and contribute to economic, environmental, and social developments.

Sustainable management of vehicles at their end-of-life stage (ELVs) offers a significant potential for resource recovery by closing the material loop and thus contributes to dealing with scarcity of resources. Although ELVs till date in countries like India are considered as waste and not as secondary resource material (SRM), but, if used judiciously, may obviate the extraction of primary or virgin materials. Although policymakers have focused on ways to ensure higher resource efficiency in the automobile sector, research on the role of the informal sector in recovering useful materials and parts from ELVs is limited. The present study examines the current situation of ELV processing at Mayapuri scrap market, one of the largest informal markets for ELVs in Asia wherein, mass-balance approach is used to examine how hatchback cars are disposed. A conceptual framework depicting process flow and the interactions between the multiple stakeholders involved in this sector has been developed. Further, approximately 7% of aluminium and 76% of iron, by weight, were recovered from the sampled hatchback cars. These results were used for estimating the potential to recycle and to recover useful materials from ELVs that are processed by the informal sector in India. Under the business-as-usual scenario, the estimates show that the sector can recover about 0.34 million tonnes of aluminium and 4.03 million tonnes of iron by 2030. These figures indicate the huge potential of this sector in a circular economy and highlight the need to make operations in this sector more formal and to include informal players in the value chain to address the scarcity of these resource.

The WHO Rehabilitation 2030 agenda recognises the importance of rehabilitation in the value chain of quality health care. Developing and delivering cost-effective, equitable-access rehabilitation services to the right people at the right time is a challenge for health services globally. These challenges are amplified in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), in which the unmet need for rehabilitation and recovery treatments is high. In this Series paper, we outline what is happening more broadly as part of the WHO Rehabilitation 2030 agenda, then focus on the specific challenges to development and implementation of effective stroke rehabilitation services in LMICs. We use stroke rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines from both high-income countries and LMICs to highlight opportunities for rapid uptake of evidence-based practice. Finally, we call on educators and the stroke rehabilitation clinical, research, and not-for-profit communities to work in partnership for greater effect and to accelerate progress.

Onshore wind energy can be conceptualized as a “Global Innovation System” in which resources drive technological development and diffusion: Knowledge, markets, investment and legitimacy. This paper investigates the regional embeddedness of resource formation along the industry’s value chain, and explores how these processes are coupled to each other and to the national and global scale. Empirically, the contribution focusses on a well-developed region within the GIS and highlights different spatial patterns of resource formation: Turbine manufacturing is characterized by spatially sticky knowledge and price-driven global valuation. The diffusion of the technology by downstream value chain and service-based firms reveals different processes: Knowledge for turbine management and system integration is similarly footloose and sticky. The regional level is vital for market formation (siting decisions) and technological legitimation (community acceptance). These valuation processes rest on distinct and diverse kinds of knowledge, and are interlinked, customized and facilitated by regional actor networks.

Global fashion represents one of the most economically relevant contemporary industrial activity, but is fraught with sustainability problems. As a response, the fashion industry has turned its attention towards environmentally sustainable innovation. In many cases, such innovations require collaborative development, which by its turn highlight various difficulties associated with stakeholder collaboration. This study contributes to the literature on sustainable innovation by describing established processes for developing green environmentally sustainable innovations in a collaborative manner. Specifically, it intends to understand how drivers and inhibitors for stakeholder integration are disordered and reorganized in different situations, creating examples of systems that link interorganizational elements and events. We combine a large-scale systematic literature review with two case studies. Drivers and inhibitors of stakeholder collaboration from previous literature were identified and critically assessed in the case studies, which allowed us to reorganize the previous findings from the literature using insights from the case studies. The results point out that the main drivers are related to external and competitive environment pressures, search for competitive advantage, and joint development of resources and capabilities.

Recent literature has seen a growing appreciation of livelihoods based on informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) that supplements women’s primary reproductive roles, leaving a gap in the parts women play at the trading end of the value chain of ASM. This paper fills that void by adding to the growing body of research on gendered trade in ASM. It focuses on women traders and the complex challenges and opportunities they face while carrying out this informal trade. The paper is based on extensive field research, interviews, and focus group discussions of women sapphire traders in southwest Madagascar, colloquially known as “ladies in hats,” who work in clan-based associations described as nascent proto-institutions. It draws upon institutional and entrepreneurial theory to understand their position in the sapphire value chain, and illuminates how women’s status could be strengthened to create the foundation for a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper also asks how women traders can be empowered in view of the current opportunities and challenges, and suggests that the proto-institutions could form the basis of a cooperative or a small company if regulatory and financial settings for these women can be improved and if there is an opportunity for them to formalize their trade.

The importance of the charcoal sector is growing rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to providing an affordable energy source for residents in the continent's growing urban centers, the charcoal value chain offers a critical income source for millions of people. Despite recent studies suggesting that women are taking on an increasing role in charcoal value chains, data and analysis on the role of women and the influence of gendered power relations in the often male-coded charcoal value chain have remained limited. This literature review interrogates the gender dynamics of participation and benefits across charcoal value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. We find significant support for women's participation throughout value chains, thereby contrasting conventional views of charcoal as a male activity. However, while dynamics change between different contexts, women's participation tends to be significantly higher in retail, while women tend to constitute a minority in other parts of the value chain – often joining the sector in the absence of alternative livelihood opportunities. The review also finds that gender differences exist across various nodes in terms of the scope, nature and outcomes of participation. While significant regional differences exist, our study finds that participation and outcomes tend to generally be influenced by gender differences and inequalities in: 1) access to and control over productive resources and income; 2) social and political capital, and; 3) gender roles and responsibilities. Importantly, other axes of social differentiation, such as generation, marital status, wealth and social class, often intersect with gender relations in influencing outcomes. In addition to structuring the extent, nature and outcomes of women and men's participation, we argue that gender roles and relations may significantly influence the efficiency and sustainability of the charcoal value chain. Based on our findings, we call for placing gender at the core – rather than periphery – of charcoal value chain studies, and propose a conceptual framework for incorporating gender analysis in future value chain studies in the charcoal sector.

Concerns about climate change are gaining notoriety and are exerting pressure for tougher environmental regulations for the mining sector. Demand for sustainable methods of production has increased and has created opportunities for Peruvian mining suppliers that offer green innovations. In this paper, we follow the technological trajectories of a set of local firms who successfully undertook green innovations in order to analyze the main factors that determined their development and integration into the mining value chain. In particular, our findings show that these suppliers share internal factors such as highly specialized human capital and considerable technological effort that led to their innovations. Likewise, there are some external factors that drive innovation in local suppliers such as the market structure and value chains as well as linkages with stakeholders within the mining sector and research centers and access to external funding provided by the government. However, the examples of successful innovative firms are still scarce and limited by the captive structure of the value chain in the industry. In this structure, multinational mining companies favor incumbent suppliers with a positive trajectory in the market. The structure also generates financial constraints and a lack of communication and coordination channels among the stakeholders.

As an immanent necessity to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the energy transition poses a major challenge for the next 30 years, as it includes a cross-sectoral increase of fluctuating renewable energy production, grid extension to meet regional electricity supply and demand as well as an increase of energy storage capacity. Within the power-to-gas concept, hydrogen is considered as one of the most promising solutions. The paper presents a scenario-based bottom-up approach to analyse the hydrogen supply chain to substitute diesel with fuel cell buses in the Rhine-Main area in central Germany for the year 2025. The analysis is based on field data derived from the 6 MW power-to-gas plant “Energiepark Mainz” and the bus demonstration project “H2-Bus Rhein-Main”. The system is modelled to run simulations on varying demand scenarios. The outcome is minimised hydrogen production costs derived from the optimal scheduling of a power-to-gas plant in terms of the demand. The assessment includes the energy procurement for hydrogen production, different hydrogen delivery options and spatial analysis of potential power-to-gas locations.

Nowadays, not many areas exist where no IT device is available, moreover, these tools are mostly interconnected via internet. In many cases, private life and work are not separated, but they are integrated into each other. Industry 4.0 represents a new step in the value chain, pushing production also towards the utilization of cyber-physical systems. It is necessary that the control of these IT eco-systems is established. The regulation is very important in case of protected / controlled areas both in terms of technology and human behavior. Regulation forms are trying to keep up with this challenge. It is clear that there are existing uniform methodologies (e.g. COBIT, ITIL) and globally established procedures as well (e.g. ISO27000 and NIST800). In the course of the research of controlled areas, it is necessary to investigate the currently available standards from the aspect of information security. The study demonstrates how those organizations and regulations are shaped which define today’s IT security recommendations and norms. Moreover, it describes those standards on a personal approach, the parallel application of which can accomplish the complex security of controlled areas.

Along the value chain of lithium-ion battery production, there are several process-related changes in the batch structure which are associated with technical challenges for cell-specific traceability. A holistic approach is needed to eliminate the information gaps between the processes and to ensure the traceability of components and process steps up to the finished product. Thus, a solution morphology for the integration of traceability concepts with focus on identification technologies in battery production was developed. This paper presents the developed morphology and its implementation examples. The presented research is carried out together with VARTA in the German research project DigiBattPro 4.0.

Advances in Computer Vision have helped the manufacturing industry achieve superior quality norms with a minimal inspection time due to optical quality surveillance systems. These inspections most often take place at the end of the value chain, insuring the quality standards of the manufactured pieces. The downside to this approach is that defective parts can still continue through the value chain. Wasting a lot of resources and increasing the lead time. To avoid this drain, the machines in the value stream should only produce error-free parts or at least detects them. An optical quality inspection system at every production step would add a high price cost. For this reason, existing sensors should detect unwanted states. With structured data, a person with specific domain knowledge could rate this. This is a tough task, as a lot of unknown factors can influence each step. Therefore, this paper proposes steps to improve quality in rotogravure manufacturing using deep learning. Further research will be conducted in the coming months to expand these results. The proposed procedures will be applied to live data of a rotogravure manufacturing site and the effectiveness of this approach will be analysed.

Driving automation technology is attractive for the road freight transport sector since driverless trucks (DL-trucks) may drastically reduce driver costs, increase truck utilization and improve road safety. Although DL-trucks may bring significant impacts to the transport system, research on the future diffusion and impacts of DL-trucks is scarce compared to passenger transport. In this paper the sociotechnical innovation system developing, diffusing and utilizing DL-trucks in Sweden is analyzed based on the technological innovation systems (TIS) framework. The analysis is based on 20 expert interviews with a total of 23 representatives from 16 actors in the DL-truck TIS in Sweden. The TIS analysis shows that there are significant uncertainties in the timeline, operational capabilities, infrastructure requirements and regulative landscape for a widespread DL-truck deployment. There is a general view among the interviewees that DL-trucks is an important opportunity for Swedish industry and the economy. From a transport system perspective, DL-trucks are expected to bring sustainability benefits but it remains uncertain whether these benefits will be realized and what the negative side effects might be. The development of DL-trucks is heavily influenced by incumbent firms in the truck manufacturing industry but new actors from the telecom sector, energy sector and emerging truck technology companies are entering the area and shaping the development. The current relatively rigid institutions for truck manufacturing and road freight transport will require significant alignment to adapt to DL-truck operations in areas such as laws and regulations, business models and operational practices. The value chain of road freight transport may be disrupted as some of the current key actors, for instance traditional road carriers, could become less relevant in future DL-truck value chains. A critical uncertainty is how and by which actors the setting of requirements, deployment and financing of digital infrastructure for DL-trucks will be done.

Policy and industry decision makers place high priority on the contribution of biomass to the emerging low carbon, circular economy. Optimisation of performance, from the perspectives of environmental, social and economic sustainability and resource efficiency, is essential to successful development and operation of biomass value chains. The complexity of value chains, which comprise interrelated stages from land use to conversion and multiple end products, presents challenges.To date, decision makers have approached from the viewpoints of single market sectors or issues, such as market shares of bioeconomy and reduction of carbon emissions to mitigate climate change. This approach does not achieve a full understanding of value chains and their competitive priorities, limits consumer awareness, and poses risks of sub-optimal performance and under-development of potential local capacity.This paper presents a conceptual framework that combines value chain analysis and competitive priority theory with indicators suitable to measure, monitor and interpret sustainability and resource efficiency at value chain level. The case of biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is used to illustrate how optimisation strategies can be focused to address challenges in value chain stages which will lead to better performance and uptake of sustainably sourced, widely accepted biomass options. Highlights •Biomass is a key component in policy for low carbon and circular economy.•Decision makers are increasingly exploring varied, innovative value chains with high complexity.•They face challenges with sustainability, fragmented metrics, and decisions often lack coherent systems thinking.•This prevents developing optimisation strategies to overcome challenges and create value at local level.•This paper combines value chain and competitive priority theory to assess performance and enable efficient decision making.

In the steel industry, logistics is very often part of the value chain since storage processes and therefore cooling processes contribute to the product quality to a very larger degree. As a result, steel logistics is concerned with the storage and movement of – in our case – work in process (WIP) materials. Thousands of tons of steel are transported with cranes and heavy-duty vehicles and stored in stacks at large yards every day. The whole industry is under pressure to reduce costs, which strongly influences logistics operations. The efficiency of transport and storage processes is a crucial success factor and is challenged by highly dynamic processes and environments. In this article we focus on slab logistics with respect to logistics performance measurement, quality assurance, and operational control in the processes that directly follow the continuous caster. Closely related to this, we concentrate on selected aspects of the steel production value chain, especially concerning the logistics part. We evaluate the performance measurement and simultaneously show how quality assurance may be supported. Finally, methods from the domain of prescriptive analytics are employed to automate or support human resources in handling complex logistics operations.

Inclusive Business (IB) is increasingly popular as a way to address the sustainable development goals (SDG) by including the poor in business. While the IB model is commonly believed capable of making a real impact on poverty reduction, it is not without critique. With the empirical evidence still largely lacking, and with continued power imbalances and knowledge disparity among actors, the question of how much IB as a top-down business-led approach can push towards the SDG agenda remains unanswered. New inclusive business models need to be developed, based on inclusive decision-making throughout the value chain. Here, we show the untapped potential of serious gaming, that is, games for serious purposes rather than entertainment, as a ‘truly’ inclusive approach to facilitate IB. © 2019 The Authors

Accurate and detailed cost information is crucial for decision makers when deciding about important long-term business aspects, such as capacity investments, the product range to offer or the markets to serve. The economic assessment of these options is supported by a company’s accounting team and is based on analyses that the accountants usually run in spreadsheet models of the value chain under consideration. However, solely working with the available cell formula functionality requires model simplifications, e.g., when it comes to cyclic production relationships or by-products, two common characteristics in the chemical industry. This might lead to a distorted cost and profitability assessment. In this paper, we present a two-step approach for creating detailed cost transparency, which easily takes the production and supply chain characteristics into account. In a first step, we propose a mathematical programming model to determine the optimal procurement, production, and sales quantities. Such models can easily account for the existing operations and technical constraints. In a second step, we complement the first-stage results with another mathematical programming model that takes the predetermined quantities as inputs and allocates the variable and fixed costs to the individual products. To clarify the approach and highlight its benefits, we discuss it in the context of a real-world implementation in the chemical industry at BASF. Due to by-products, the compact formulation of the cost-allocation model is non-linear. We develop a workaround to convert it into a linear and easily solvable one.

In emerging economies, the demand for milk and milk products is growing speedily, leading to rapidly evolving dairy chains. However, milk quality and safety are not yet up to standard, despite substantial efforts to support actors in these emerging dairy chains. The aim of this study was therefore to get insight in possible causes of persisting poor milk safety and hygiene practices. The Tanzanian dairy chain was taken as a case for an emerging dairy chain, because of its evolving nature and potential for growth. Depicting the organization of the dairy system involved a value chain analysis using focus group discussions and interviews with chain actors (in total 71). Face-to-face in-depth interviews and systematic on-site observations at actor locations in two different regions provided insights into current safety and hygiene control practices from the farm to the processor. Furthermore, 22 farmers were interviewed to examine how they perceived existing support programs in assisting their safety and hygiene practices. Data showed that the organization of control activities and enforcement of requirements on dairy quality is not uniform across the dairy chain. Overall, safety and hygiene practices were basic or rudimentary. Preventive practices related to animal health care, hygiene, and feed storage control, were mostly lacking. Milk cooling is not a common practice along the dairy chain, monitoring of milk safety and quality parameters is limited, particularly for pathogenic bacteria, indicating a risk for milk safety. Farmers perceived the support of the non-commercial program as more supportive to their on-farm safety and hygiene control practices than the commercial program. To avert public health risks of the increasing milk consumption, multiple safety and hygiene control practices require significant improvement. Support programs could more explicitly enhance awareness and competences on these safety and hygiene practices.

With the spread of sustainable thinking, people have come to recognize that profitability is not the only element for the long-term success of businesses. Of equal importance is the issue of the use of natural resources and people's living conditions. Within this realization, consumers' interest in knowing the implications of their consumption is increasing through information on how products and services are produced. This increasingly leads organizations to seek to differentiate their brands through Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). In this context, the aim of this paper is to present a taxonomy of value chain upgrading types through VSS adoption by farmers. Empirical evidence to test the proposed framework is presented focusing on the adoption of the 4C system by coffee farmers in Brazil. Although all five types of upgrading were identified in the field research, most of the improvements can be characterized as environmental. Furthermore, the results indicated that the adoption of the 4C standards was an upgrading form for farmers to enhance the coffee production process, as well as to control management activities within the production unit. The paper is innovative in integrating and proposing a framework for the value chain by adding value through VSS. It also empirically applies the proposed framework in the context of the Brazilian coffee chain.

Increasing population, accelerated urbanisation and rise in income generation have led to the increased concern on sustainable production and consumption of food. This has put severe stress on farmers and plantation owners to rapid expansion of crop lands and plantations to meet the demand. However, the expansion has resulted in large scale unplanned deforestation. The proposed work presents a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to strategies for minimal crop land and plantation expansion based on the predicted future demand of agro-products. The proposed model is based on the concept which used previously to strategies operation of utility systems. In this work, the proposed model is used to determine the minimal lands for expansion (if required) when there is an increased demand. However, if the demand of the agro-product is projected to decrease, then the model identifies the optimised excess existing crop land(s) or plantation(s) that can be removed from the value chain. Based on the optimised result, the cost involved in expansion (i.e., deforestation and planting costs, etc.) and the transport cost can be determined. The selection of truck capacity for the optimised logistics of the agro products from the cropland to the processing facility can also be determined. By minimising the total cost (expansion cost and transport cost), the area of expansion and transportation distance can be minimised to meet the increased demand requirement, thereby resulting in lesser environmental impact. Note that, the model provides strategic optimisation for expansion of croplands and tactical optimisation for the logistics between crop lands and processing facility. A palm oil value chain is solved in this work to illustrate the proposed model. Five different scenarios with increasing and decreasing palm oil demands were solved and their respective results are discussed. The scenarios analyse the expansion in different types of lands — grasslands, tropical forests and peat forests. It is noted that the model selected grasslands over the other land types due to their least expansion cost and Land Use Change (LUC) tax rates; showing that the proposed approach promotes sustainability through cost. At higher palm oil demands scenario, apart from grasslands, tropical or peat forest lands are also seletected for expansion. Sensitivity analysis of increasing palm oil demand on expansion cost and LUC tax rates on total cost is also presented.

The purpose of this paper is to create a technology foresight method in which the visual analogue scale is used to harness the wisdom of expert crowds, namely, industry experts, in anticipating potential disruptions in an industry. In an empirical demonstration, we investigate experts' views and perceptions of possible future disruption caused by digitalization in an established machine-building industry. We demonstrate the usability of the proposed method in detecting future worldviews of experts grouped by their position in the value chain. The results show polarized responses, with considerable clustering among groups. For example, respondents who were inclined to view digital technologies as disruptive (i.e., as changing the paradigm of value creation in machine-building) also viewed them as related more to service and business models than to products and operation. We discuss the theoretical and practical contributions of the proposed method and suggest fruitful avenues for future research.

Interest from the research and policy community in the circular economy (CE) is growing. This research describes how the potential for a circular economy in open economies can be estimated by using different assessment methods. Methods and indicators have been selected that have a relevance for one or more of the public policy objectives for circular economy: Openness Index, economic structure, Balassa Index, value chain analysis, substitution potential of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) strategies, waste treatment scenarios based on physical and hybrid Input-Output (IO) analysis. These methods differ in scope and degrees of complexity and are used at different assessment levels. The potential for a circular economy in this paper is assessed by evaluating the contribution to the public policy objectives for CE: resource efficiency, reduction of dependency on materials, competitiveness, creation of domestic jobs, reduced Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Results obtained by these methods are shown for Belgium and, in some cases, compared to the results of other countries to illustrate the differences between economies. CE activities (in response to public policy objectives) will enhance the ongoing trend of reducing the share of primary sectors in economies. The openness of an economy is expressed as the ratio of sum of import and export and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Imported products add to the potential of domestic closed-loop circular initiatives like re-use, repair, remanufacture, recycling, but this will require knowledge about composition and spare part availability. Exported products are no longer available for these domestic CE initiatives, reducing the domestic potential for CE and the domestic export activity is vulnerable to CE activities abroad. Especially the increasing geographical distance in trade complicates the practical and legal barriers to close the loop. In open economies, both global and domestic substitution effects due to new circular economy policy initiatives are important to consider.