Marco Taisch

• Professor (Full) at Politecnico di Milano

This paper addresses the problem of integrating sustainability and business issues in manufacturing through the implementation of Industry 4.0 and process management. The objective of this work is to propose a novel methodology to guide companies in benefitting the so-called Twin Transition (digital and sustainable) drivers at the operation level f...

“Made in Italy” products and Italian manufacturing are worldwide recognized for their quality. Nonetheless, businesses and societies are evolving, affected by structural transformations. To maintain their competitive advantage, Italian companies are asked to move towards a transformation aligned with global call for actions addressing critical issu...

Data analytics is increasingly becoming fundamental, especially for manufacturing companies which are asked to improve their sustainable-related performances to compete on the market. In this context, hence, Industry 4.0 enabling technologies integrated with specific industrial communication protocols appear as opportunities to upgrade obsolete mac...

The diffusion of the circular economy (CE) paradigm in manufacturing companies, also known as Circular Manufacturing (CM), has been triggered by the intensive exploitation of natural resources and the associated negative environmental impacts generated. According to CM, natural resources consumption should be minimized, and their life cycle should...

Nowadays the transition to circular economy represents a significant challenge for both manufacturing companies and society as a whole. Despite their importance, little attention has been given to the human aspects and the role that people-driven factors play in the transition. This study aims to address this gap by outlining a set of competencies...

Purpose The depletion of natural resources and the downgrading of the environment, driven by globalization and consumerism phenomena, are worldwide pushing the interest in sustainable manufacturing paradigm and environment preservation. It is moreover clear to academia and practitioners that the cosmetics industry needs to update its current operat...

The contemporary era is pushing companies worldwide in undertaking a digital transformation path to keep high their competitive advantages acquired throughout the years thanks to their engineering competencies. Companies, especially Small & Medium ones, are getting forced to set up clear roadmaps towards an enhanced digital maturity level to addres...

The traditional linear approach to economy has been recognized as not sustainable any longer. Among the different approaches identified to reverse the current socioeconomic system, Circular Economy (CE) appears a promising field. This approach is based on 3 pillars: preservation and enhancement of natural capital, optimization of resource yields co...

The cosmetics industry requires a long-term sustainable strategy to balance its continuously growing trend worldwide and its resources consumption. In this view, the suppliers’ selection process is gaining more attention affecting products’ overall sustainability. The objective of this contribution is hence to develop and validate the Cosmetics Sus...

The transition towards circular economy represents a major challenge faced by manufacturing companies and society alike. One key enabler of this transition is the availability of a skilled workforce, as new competencies are needed for the adoption and implementation of circular strategies, processes and practices (Jabbour et al., 2019, Bertassini e...

Sustainability is one of the main impacting trends that is shaping today’s industries, and the cosmetics sector is no exception. The paper presents a systematic literature review of the sustainability paradigm affecting cosmetics industry, trying to investigate the state of the art of the scientific literature about the embracement of sustainabilit...

Recently, the increasing lack of raw materials is forcing the manufacturing sector in revising the internal operating and strategic activities to embrace Circular Economy (CE) principles thus, moving towards Circular Manufacturing (CM). CE principles are pursued during product design, product realisation, as well as product end-of-life. As an enabl...

Circular economy (CE) paradigm fosters manufacturing companies’ sustainability taking place through different circular manufacturing (CM) strategies. These strategies allow companies to be internally committed to embrace circular values and to be externally aligned with several stakeholders not necessarily belonging to the same supply chain. Nevert...

In the contest of Manufacturing Industry, in order to keep competitiveness and adapt to the current trends of the market that range from the need for new Business Models up to the capability to turn their processes according to the incoming trends, Industry 4.0 is now considered a major opportunity for enhancing such transformation. However, before...

The Operator 4.0 represents a recent paradigm within the transformation potential heralded by Industry 4.0. Since there is a lack of practice-oriented tools, grounded in sound theory, to implement the Operator 4.0 successfully, this paper presents the assessment tool developed within the \xABDigitally Enhanced Operator\xBB project. The tool covers...

Circular Economy (CE) is gaining momentum and its diffusion in manufacturing companies remains a key element to be addressed. Indeed, the principles and practice of circularity can enhance sustainability in the manufacturing sector, but changes are required in organizations in order to fully embrace this paradigm. Therefore, several assessment mode...

Circular Economy (CE) is gaining momentum and its diffusion in manufacturing companies remains a key element to be addressed. Indeed, the principles and practice of circularity can enhance sustainability in the manufacturing sector, but changes are required in organizations in order to fully embrace this paradigm. Therefore, several assessment mode...

In the extant literature, circular economy (CE) is considered a driver for sustainable development of the manufacturing sector, being it an industrial paradigm aiming at regenerating resources. CE is transferred to manufacturing companies through the adoption of different Circular Manufacturing (CM) strategies (e.g., recycling, remanufacturing, etc...

Sustainability and digital transformation represent two of the main trends of the last decade. More in detail, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Circular Economy (CE) are two key concepts that are characterizing the present and that will shape the future. From the extant literature review emerges that, although academics identify a possible synergy between t...

Circular Economy (CE) empowers firms (micro-level), network of firms (meso-level), cities, regions and nations (macro-level) sustainability. CE potentialities in making regenerate resources are even greater if supported by technologies, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining momentum in this regard. The extant literature presents a limited inv...

The Real-Time Monitoring and Performance Management suite tool, known as UIL (User Interface Layer), was developed in the FASTEN project, a R&D initiative financed by the innovation and research program H2020 within a bilateral Europe-Brazil call. UIL was conceived and deployed in the IIoT architecture of the project. The goal was to provide a user...

The present work considers information and data as a cornerstone for an effective Circular Manufacturing (CM). Focusing on complex industrial assets it also postulates the relevance to develop CM strategies having both the perspective of the Original Equipment Manufacturer, or asset provider, and the asset user. In this scope, a particular emphasis...

Traditionally, smart-connected products are predominantly utilized during the usage phase of the product lifecycle. However, we argue that there are distinct benefits of system-integrated sensor systems during the beginning of life, more specifically in manufacturing and assembly. In this paper, we analyze the ability of a smart-connected product w...

Nowadays, due to the limited availability of resources, the adoption of sustainable practices is gaining importance, especially while dealing with the manufacturing sector that is considered one of the most resource greedy sectors. To cope with this issue, a new sustainable and industrial economy, called “circular economy” arisen. The diffusion of...

Circular economy (CE) is considered one of the drivers pushing towards sustainable development. Indeed, this economy is defined as an “industrial economy that is regenerative and restorative by intention and design” and thus, it boosts responsible consumption and production which is one the sustainable goals promoted by policymakers. In particular,...

Circular economy (CE) has been recently considered one of the most promising sustainable strategies for industrial companies, aiming at reducing resources consumption, extending resources life cycle and making recirculate resources within the life cycle stages. The transition from a linear economy towards a circular one requires the internal reorga...

This paper aims to investigate how the sustainable development is pursued by manufacturing companies according to the extant literature, especially by focusing on circular economy (CE) paradigm that is considered one of the major drivers for sustainability. Indeed, this research aims to study how CE principles have been adopted in the manufacturing...

Manufacturers are called to cope with always more complex challenges. Among all, the reduced amount of resources available in our planet forecasts a dramatic future scenario. Circular Economy (CE) is one of the most promising strategies. In view of the increasing interest in both Lean Thinking and CE, a first systematic literature review (SLR) has...

Over the last years, several technologies and control systems have been developed towards the decentralization of automation control architectures for cyber-physical production systems. Nevertheless, only few of these technologies are already in use. To support their adoption in brownfield production sites migration strategies and business case eva...

Industry 4.0 is nowadays the reference paradigm for production system implementation. The reasons lay in several motivations, among which the product/process data availability. This is paramount in supporting product tracking and tracing, feeding optimization applications, enabling sophisticated maintenance approaches and in monitoring resources an...

Humans are all makers of a sort. The tools we operate constantly leverage our human capabilities and evolve over history to take advantage of any innovation or a new source of power that emerges. Human-Technology Symbiosis has always been the basis for leaps in human prosperity. As we are presently in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4...

Industry 4.0 implies the digitization of the shopfloor combining technologies such as sensors, augmented reality, and wearable robots that transform the manufacturing environment into a workplace where human-machine interactive symbiosis. As manufacturing companies develop strategies to innovate and engage with the digital transformation, the reali...

The rapid change that is affecting the society together with the rising of new technologies are impacting the manufacturing sector as well. Moreover, this change has also an impact on the skills that operators and managers should master. Companies, on their own, must be always updated in order to keep high their competitive advantage. For these rea...

Today, industries are facing new market demand and customer requirements for higher product personalization, without jeopardizing the low level of production costs achieved through mass production. The joint pursuit of these objectives of personalization and competitiveness on costs is quite difficult for manufacturers that have traditional product...

Human integration in cyber-physical systems (CPS) is playing a crucial role in the era of the digital transformation, notably because humans are seen as the most flexible driver in an automated system. Two main reference models for human activities in production systems are usually considered, namely Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) and Human-in-the-Mesh (...

Despite its potential, empirical evidence of the educational effectiveness of Digital Game-based Learning (DGBL) for manufacturing education is still limited. To this respect, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Game was developed in order to explain in an interactive way to university students life cycle assessment, a tool which is becoming increasing...

The Production Scheduling is an important phase in a manufacturing system, where the aim is to improve the productivity of one or more factories. Finding an optimal solution to scheduling problems means to approach complex combinatorial optimization problems, and not all of them are solvable in a mathematical way, in fact a lot of them are part of...

The use of Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) in manufacturing education has been on the rise. However, empirical evidence of the educational effectiveness of DGBL is still scant, especially in manufacturing education. This paper reports on the development of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) game used in the teaching of sustainable manufacturing at te...

To fast react to changing market demands and customer requirements, Industry 4.0 envisions the digitalization of the manufacturing sector. By means of smart devices and intelligent technologies for a distributed automation control, one of the main goals of the Industry 4.0 is to enhance flexibility and reconfigurability of the production systems. I...

In a near future where manufacturing companies are faced with the rapid technological developments of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Industry 4.0, a need arises to consider how this will affect human operators remaining as a vital and important resource in modern production systems. What will the implications of these orchestrated and ubiquitous...

The Industry 4.0 vision, grounded on the integration of key technologies and Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPSs), is expected to profoundly modify the manufacturing sector. There is large consensus on the fact that work will change and different skills will be needed. However, whether the organization of work will evolve towards higher responsibility and...

The development of innovative technologies of energy conversion devices such as domestic refrigerators, has the goal to improve the energy and resources efficiencies without increasing the pollution. During the design phase of the product is then important to have a clear vision of the impact that design choices have on pursuing this goal. For this...

With the rapid development of manufacturing towards the vision of Industry 4.0, considerable efforts should be done in order to improve the manufacturing skills of young generations and to prepare them to the challenges of the new industrial world. For this reason, the paper first analyzes the learning requirements for the education and training ab...

The literature on energy management in manufacturing is rapidly growing. Since the literature is also quite fragmented, we believe that the time has come to delve into current knowledge in the research field to provide directions for policy makers and guidance for future research. To achieve this, we present a detailed analysis of the research lite...

This paper addresses the problem of under-representation of young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in general, and manufacturing education in particular, as European and global phenomenon. The main objective is to analyse characteristics and different limitations of so called conventional initiatives to attract y...

The recent advancements of manufacturing towards the Industry 4.0 paradigm should be supported by the effective training of industrial workers in order to align their skills to the new requirements of companies. Therefore, the evaluation of the training is becoming in this context increasingly important, given also the possibility of exploiting a h...

Industry 4.0 is at the center of the current debate among manufacturing leaders, industrial practitioners, policy makers and researchers. Despite the increasing attention paid to changes in jobs and skills generated by Industry 4.0, research in this domain is still scarce. Our study focuses on the evolution of technical skills in the context of Ind...

Energy and resource efficient manufacturing has become one of the most relevant research topics, for the increasing attention to sustainable development at planetary level. This work focuses on deployment of a Cyber Physical Production System in a laboratory setting in Technical University of Braunschweig, Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Fertigu...

The change of the societal appeal of manufacturing among younger generations is a key element in order to address the talent shortage that is currently affecting the sector. In order to pursue this objective, the use of interactive learning environments such as digital games (DGs) can play an important role. Therefore, this paper presents the resul...

In defining the Roadmap of the Research Priorities for adoption of CPS in manufacturing industry, it is crucial to identify the key elements preventing a fast and smooth transition from the current status to the desired one. In such complex environments characterized by many industrial sectors and processes, external factors and social/economical i...

New production systems are highly reconfigurable and interact with dynamic industrial environments. Their modelling, simulation and analysis of the operations and evaluation of performances are now much more complex than in the past when system had a static and predefined behaviour. This paper proposes a method to describe and analyse complex produ...

In recent years, sustainable development has acquired a relevant position in our society. In this context, the design of modern products must consider these issues when creating eco-friendly and socially acceptable solutions, seeing sustainability as a matter of optimization in the use of available resources along the entire product lifecycle. This...

EcoFactory is a serious game addressing late-primary and early secondary school students. Its purpose is to raise both awareness and interest of the young students regarding sustainable manufacturing. The serious game provides children with a didactical experience, which is fun, on how manufacturing and sustainability can live together, along three...

Industrial competitiveness today means shorter product lifecycles, increased product variety and shorter time-to-market. To face this challenge, the manufacturing industry is forced by different initiatives, namely Internet of Things, Industrie 4.0 and Cyber-Physical System to move from traditional control approaches towards intelligent manufacturi...

The manufacturing industry plays a pivotal role in the European economy and global competitiveness. Although production technologies and processes are continuously being improved towards the vision of factories of the future, there is a dire shortage of human capital due to skills shortage and mismatch. This paper presents the results of studies ca...

As changes are automatic while progress is not, technology improvements in manufacture need to find their room within market requirements. Among the challenges manufacturers have to face with, there is the need to approach a multifaceted context. Additive Manufacturing is considered one of the most effective technology with the potential to give pr...

In Industry 4.0 the optimal allocation of a pool of available workers is a very important issue. Solving this problem can improve the performance of the company and the life of workers with positive returns on productivity. Moreover, from a computational perspective, this problem is extremely interesting because it could have a combinatorial explos...

The food sector is challenged to provide safe and qualitative food to consumers at affordable price and to feed appropriately increasing population using natural resources, like soil and water, in a sustainable way. Consumers awareness about food origin, nutritional and wellness properties, attention to processed meals ingredients, due to health is...

The food sector is one of the major economic sectors in Europe and beyond and produces nutrition for the world population. Food industry has a unique role in all countries economy as it is essential to people lives. In Europe it is the largest manufacturing sector in terms of value added, turnover and employment. On the other hand, several worldwid...

Additive Manufacturing (AM), often misleadingly referred to as 3D Printing (3DP), comprises of a group of technologies whose initial inception occurred over thirty years ago within the product design and development applications for the rapid prototyping of concepts, primarily using polymeric materials. Over the past few years AM development has in...

This paper provides an overview of the EU project SO SMART (Socially Sustainable Manufacturing for the Factories of the Future), a coordinated support action (CSA) project. SO SMART examined the conditions in Europe for creating socially sustainable workplaces in the manufacturing sector, where factories flourish along with their social environment...

An information transition gap still exists between cleaner production and sustainable consumption. A previous study shows that adequate product-level sustainability information should be available to consumers. A set of product-level sustainability attributes that captures influencing factors to facilitate sustainable consumption behavior have been...

This paper provides an overview of the EU project SO SMART (Socially Sustainable Manufacturing for the Factories of the Future), a coordinated support action (CSA) project. SO SMART examined the conditions in Europe for creating socially sustainable workplaces in the manufacturing sector, where factories flourish along with their social environment...

In the highly competitive modern-day industrial landscape, characterized by globalization and resource scarcity, manufacturers are striving to improve economic and environmental performance. Innovation that enables self-adjustment, control and optimization of the energy consumption of individual machines continues. However, more research is needed...