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In the very present moment, every fiber of the worldwide manufacturing fabric is under threat since we are in the midst of a perfect storm. This storm is the Industry 4.0 revolution that is and will be disrupting the long-establish industrial practices. The core feature that makes this industrial revolution so pervasive is the fact that it stems from a combination of nine technologies. If introduced individually, their impact is meager but when connected in the appropriate manner, their full potential is untapped. Yet, not all that comes with this new scenario are advantages, it also comes by hand with an in-crease of the complexity in managing and designing industrial facilities since all these newcomer technologies must be intertwined in the proper way. Therefore, stronger emphasis must be placed on how these technologies are taught in the university environment as, more than often, university gradu-ates are the ones that bring new praxes into their labor world. Problem-based learning (PBL) mainly relies on using complex real-world problem to drive students learning and boost the knowledge transfer. When PBL is coupled with discrete event simulation (DES), synergies are created, and students are able not only tackle real-world problems but also to experiments within an immeasurable number of scenarios. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate and propose a practical application case which can be used Politecnico di Mi-lano’s Industrial technologies course based on simulation technologies to in-crease students’ engagement and better prepare them for the real-world. To reach such a goal, first, a literature review was undergone following a struc-tured methodology. Second, relying upon I4.0 lab as a real system in which the case study is built upon, a five-steps methodology was used to create the application case study., Outgoing

Design for X (DfX) approaches are very important for designing products with a focus on whole lifecycle, to achieve cost reduction and product quality. The move to achieve competitiveness and unique offerings have resulted in the switch from a product to a Product Service Systems (PSS) business model. DfX concept is insufficient to address the complexity of PSS, therefore, additional concepts such as Design for Product Service Supportability (DfPSSu) are emerging. Existing research argued the role of support in ensuring customer satisfaction, revenue generation etc., which strengthens the motivation for PSS and servitization. The integration of support services into PSS has initiated the focus on DfPSSu, aiming at the synergic use of the different DfX approaches to concurrently support the services with the product features according their own heterogeneity. PSS complexity necessitates collaboration within the Supply Chain (SC) to deliver value to the customer, yet existing research focuses on individual firms. This highlights the importance of value creation in Design for SC (DfSC) in order to achieve competitiveness. This research would explore DfX from a value creation perspective while investigating the place of DfSC into the DfPSSu concept. This because DfSC encourages innovation in linking product design, process design and SC design together, according to the Concurrent Engineering paradigm. While there is need to DfSC, this idea is under-researched in literature. This paper would share the findings from a state of the art review of DfSC in relation to DfPSSu, identifying the evolution of the concept while identifying much research gap in understanding and application of this concept in theoretical and empirical research.

Circular economy is a concept even more exploited by governments and companies to share green principles. However, its real adoption at industrial level remains limited to either small-scaled pilot plants or appositely constituted startups. The main aim of the FENIX project is the development of new business models and industrial strategies for three novel supply chains to enable value-added product-services. Through a set of success stories coming from the application of circular economy principles in different industrial sectors, FENIX wants to demonstrate in practice the real benefits coming from its adoption. In addition, Key Enabling Technologi es (KETs) will be integrated within the selected processes to impr ove the efficient recovery of secondary resources, Postprint (author's final draft)