About
260
Publications
135,925
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
6,790
Citations
Introduction
Additional affiliations
February 2005 - November 2014
February 2005 - present
Publications
Publications (260)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are nowadays a de facto standard for the majority of manufacturing companies using them to assess their production and business targets to drive their development. Recent digitalisation trends in the manufacturing sector enabled several business opportunities, in particular when it comes to data sharing among the s...
Research background: Digital ecosystems in Europe are heterogenous organizations involving different economies, industries, and contexts. Among them, Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) are considered a policy-driven organization fostered by the European Commission to push companies’ digital transition through a wide portfolio of supporting services. Pu...
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...
The impact COVID-19 generated on people routine linked with the rapid digitalization has led the educational approach to the need of a fundamental shift. In response to these evolving circumstances, SMILE (Smart Manufacturing Innovation, Learning-Labs, and Entrepreneurship) has undertaken a comprehensive initiative in order to move from the traditi...
“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...
Circular economy has gained much interest over the last decade as an industrial approach aimed at overcoming the traditional “take-make-dispose” economic model. Several studies argue that the implementation of circular economy principles by companies may require them to design a circular business model. Designing a circular business model implies t...
The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm, accelerated within the context of Industry 4.0, has been increasingly applied both inside and outside the manufacturing domain. The set of new capabilities and skills developed through I4.0 need to be augmented and enhanced to conform to the Triple Bottom Line perspective, initially affecting supply chains manage...
Today, more than ever, the world needs to be considered as a finite and limited system, characterized by scarce resources and as a place where restocking is not possible in an infinite way [...]
This paper presents the development of a Learning Ecosystem (LE) to cope with the challenges brought by the characteristic complexity and uncertainty of research and innovation projects. These projects are made up of consortium partners who constitute a complex socio-technical system (STT), which works towards the development of cutting-edge techno...
Currently, companies in the manufacturing field are experiencing the need to go digital, compelled by rising competitivity and efficiency requirements. Digitalization implies the development and implementation of complex systems in manufacturing plants as well as in the delivery of product-service systems and solutions, asking both for the adoption...
This chapter presents an overview of the manufacturing transformation through the lens of the IT and Industrial revolution waves. Further, we look into each cornerstone of the global trends of manufacturing and attempt to answer how Industry 4.0 evolved and where it will take us next. In addition, this chapter also comprehensively reviews the impac...
Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) are ecosystems bolstering European companies to overtake innovation hindrances and drive Europe to become the world leading innovator in the industry digital revolution. Each of such organizations can provide a certain list of services, that can be classified and grouped in five macro-classes according to the Data-dri...
Continuous industrial processes will play a key role for the sustainable transition worldwide. Different flows of matter and energy must be recovered through these systems and integrated in a Circular Economy fashion. To foster in such a virtuous trend the involvement of companies, mostly SMEs (often lacking critical assets, funds, technologies or...
Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) play a key role in bolstering European companies to overwhelm innovation barriers and drive Europe as the world’s primary leader in the Industry 4.0 digital revolution; they are one-stop-shop ecosystems able to provide four main functionalities (test before investing, support to find investments, innovation ecosystems...
Sustainability is a current challenge and all sectors, including the buildings one, are being called upon to provide a solution to mitigate climate change. The state of the art of energy management using ICT technology in building systems industry is characterized by a traditional monitoring approach which could assess the energy consumption of the...
Nowadays, the diffusion of digital and industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies is affecting the manufacturing sector with a twofold effect. While on one side it represents the boost fastening the competitive advantage of companies, on the other hand it is often accompanied by several challenges that companies need to face. Among all, companies are require...
Nowadays, to remain competitive, manufacturing companies must address the Industry 4.0 paradigm, particularly the cyber-physical system (CPS) revolution, following sustainable challenges. Digital innovation hubs (DIHs), as ecosystems that provide technical knowhow, experimental skills, and specialist knowledge, are progressively gaining a strategic...
The literature already discussed about how the synergic implementation of Circular Economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigms in industrial contexts could enable improvements in Supply Chain (SC) efficiency and competitiveness. However, the experts concentrated on a single topic of circular supply chain (CSC), CE, and I4.0, lacking a systemic a...
DIHs could offer a marketplace and play the role of a broker facilitating cooperation and networking among important stakeholders, harmonizing companies with customers and providing European connections as well. In this framework, DIHs express an increasing need for having platforms bolstering users-producers transactions, fostering to detect what...
In recent years, the increasing importance of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in supporting manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been widely studied and several works listing lessons learnt and success stories have been published. To further foster the impact of these entities on the SMEs' environment, The European Commission has re...
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has become a crucial element to handle request for quotation management, throughout the product development process, bill of material management, product data management etc. The use of traditional PLM software has increased, having been applied to traditional manufacturing, and product development efforts. Howeve...
Several manufacturing companies are coping with the need to change their business model, being compelled to provide smart, connected and servitized solutions to their customers to survive in the market. A strategic trigger and catalyst of such a transition is represented by digital technologies. Embedded on physical products, digital technologies e...
Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) are ecosystems sustaining European enterprises to overcome innovation hurdles and push Europe as a world leading innovator in the Fourth Industrial Revolution context. They operate as a one-stop-shop, characterized by four main functionalities, i.e., test before invest, support to find investments, innovation ecosyste...
Digital transformation and servitization have been merging in a coalescing paradigm called Digital Servitization, changing not only companies’ business model but also their portfolio and thus their business. This hybrid paradigm is increasingly overwhelming manufacturing companies, compelling them to change their business model and provide more com...
Several strategies have been detected in the extant literature to understand how Circular Economy (CE) can be pursued. Considering all the End-of-Life (EoL) management practices detected, disassembly processes have been identified as strategic. However, only scattered attempts have explored how digital technologies (specifically, simulation) can su...
The maritime industry has been working to apply unique solutions capable of improving design and development performances. Over the past several decades, the industry has faced changes related to the increasing complexity of the dynamic global market. LINCOLN project successfully developed three new value-added vessels by following a highly customi...
The main aim of the FENIX project is the development of new business models and industrial strategies for three novel supply chains in order 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 r...
The main aim of the FENIX project is the development of new business models and industrial strategies for three novel supply chains in order 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 r...
The main objective of FENIX is demonstrating the benefits coming from the adoption of CE practices through a set of circular business models adequately configured within the project. These CBMs have been selected basing on the three use cases requirements pertaining to different industrial streams (metal powders, 3D-printed jewels and advanced fila...
Abstract As complex systems, maritime vessels generate and require the utilization of large amounts of data for maximum efficiency. Designing, developing, and deploying these systems in a digital world requires rethinking how people interact and utilize technology throughout all areas of the industry. With growing interests in Industry 4.0, there a...
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...
Most methodologies developed to support the Product-Service System (PSS) design consider the integration of service features into the product design from a high-level of abstraction and are usually focused on the conceptual phase, neglecting the detailed level of design. Besides, the Knowledge Management perspective is not considered in those metho...
This open access book summarizes research being pursued within the FENIX project, funded by the EU community under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to design a new product service paradigm able to promote innovative business models, to open added value to the vessels and to create new market segments. It experiments and validates its appro...
Manufacturing companies need to go digital. Although this sector leads in automation adoption, some companies struggle to explore emerging innovations such as Cyber-Physical Systems, Digital Twins and “servitisation in manufacturing”. The equipment required to deliver production systems typically combines physical and software components, yet digit...
Design plays a strategic role for companies in addressing servitization and Circular Economy (CE) paradigms, to deliver either products, or services or Product-Service Systems (PSSs). Design for X (DfX) practices, belonging to concurrent engineering approach, have revealed great effectiveness in enriching products with functionalities as service su...
In today’s manufacturing domain, companies need to be able to join the Industry 4.0 paradigm and, more in particular, the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) revolution. However, along this transition, often for companies it could be not enough to deploy new digital technologies in their plant, demonstrating a digital technology readiness. They need to be...
For manufacturers investing in Industry 4.0 technologies could not be enough to be competitive. They also need to assess their actual digital status quo and to evaluate how these technologies support their product development process. Different methods and maturity models exist in literature helping practitioners to evaluate the maturity of either...
Circular economy has recently emerged as an alternative industrial paradigm to the traditional “take, make, dispose” economic model, with the aim to promote more sustainable resource consumption patterns and production processes. However, more empirical research is needed to address the topic of how circular economy is adopted in practice by compan...
Manufacturers need to address Industry 4.0 to enhance their competitiveness on the market supported by the gradual adoption of digital technologies. However, devoting investments to these technologies should first be coupled by the need to gauge both their own digital status quo and the mechanisms grounding their support to perform product developm...
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...
The maritime industry has been working to apply unique solutions capable of improving design and development performance to ensure competitiveness [ 1, 2, 3, 4]. Over the past several decades, the industry has faced changes related to the increasing complexity of the dynamic global market. Activities to meet these challenges have been carried out i...
Guided by a technological revolution, widely discussed paradigms as servitization and Circular Economy (CE) are progressively pushing manufacturers towards delivering increasingly complex solutions. Design plays a strategic role in this sense, either considering products, services or Product-Service Systems (PSSs). Concurrent engineering and, speci...
The increasing awareness of customers toward climate change effects, the high demand instability affecting several industrial sectors, and the fast automation and digitalization of production systems are forcing companies to re-think their business strategies and models in view of both the Circular Economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigms. So...
Nowadays, manufacturing industries are compelled to go down the river of Industry 4.0 to either become or remain competitive on the market: in this context digital technologies represent the most important means for manufacturers to drive their transformation. However, investing in this kind of technologies could be not enough to go through this tr...
Maritime vessels are complex systems that generate and require the utilization of large amounts of data for maximum efficiency. The successful utilization of sensors and IoT in the industry requires a forward-thinking approach to leverage the benefits of Industry 4.0 in a more comprehensive manner. While processes and manufacturing processes can be...
This book gathers selected peer-reviewed papers presented at the 6th European Lean Educator Conference (ELEC), held in Milan, Italy, on November 11-13, 2019. The conference topics include the following: lean trainings in university and industry collaborations; lean product and process development; lean and people empowerment; emerging contexts for...
For manufacturers investing in Industry 4.0 technologies could not be enough to be competitive. They also need to assess their actual digital status quo and to evaluate how these technologies support their product development process. Different methods and maturity models exist in literature helping practitioners to evaluate the maturity of either...
In this paper, we introduce the themes addressed and the approaches used in the Special Issue entitled “Sustainable Product Lifecycle: The Role of ICT”. Specifically, by offering multiple perspectives of analysis, this work increases our comprehension and understanding of the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in enhancing s...
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Circular Economy (CE) are undoubtedly two of the most debated topics of the last decades. Progressively, they gained the interest of policymakers, practitioners and scholars all over the world. Even if they have been usually described as two independent research fields, there are some examples presenting overlaps between the...
Through the digitalization of manufacturing, Product-Service Systems (PSS) and smart connected products are, from the companies side, driving a market transition from a sale of products towards a sale of use of solutions, and, from the customers side, reshaping the concept of value. The systematic integration of intangibles services with physical p...
Since many years, companies are trying to cope with impressive technological growth rates, severe environmental issues and even more restrictive national and international directives. However, innovative Business Models (BMs) and industrial strategies adequate to this new context are still either under development or implementation. To this aim, th...
Marine vessels are highly customizable solutions, designed to perform multiple missions in shifting environments for many years. The successful utilization of sensors and relevant data in vessel design requires forward thinking and consideration of stakeholders and current design processes. While heterogeneous sources of data are available from ves...
In modern society, use of natural resources poses a great challenge. However, the circular economy paradigm has defined a new concept of waste, proposing it as a business opportunity. Of particular interest in this paradigm is 'waste electrical and electronic equipment' (WEEE), given its high growth rate, and 'wasted printed circuit boards' (WPCBs)...
Huge depletion of raw materials, inefficient waste management practices, increasing population and consumerist lifestyles, are even more coping companies with the adoption of Circular Economy (CE) principles in their Business Models (BMs). However, benefits coming from the implementation of CE within companies are not always clear to managers. To t...
The depletion of resources and the downgrading of the environment, driven by globalization and consumerism phenomena, is worldwide pushing the interest on the Circular Economy (CE) concept. Supposed to substitute the end-of-life notion with restoration and closed-loop product lifecycles, CE wants to eliminate wastes, retain the value embedded into...
The European vessel industry is traditionally leader in the sector. In the last decades, to stay competitive worldwide, it has repositioned on the high-end market, characterized by specialized design and production with high complexity and technological content. This implies new challenges in complex product creation with reduced costs, fast design...
Product-Service Systems (PSS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are two related concepts. This chapter describes an approach to manage PSS along its life cycle. It includes a design methodology for PSS and a systems modelling method. The former supports designers in defining PSSs that incorporate monitoring, control, optimization or autonomy. It inc...
The luxury market segment includes different industries in its aura of high quality and price. The Italian excellence is ascribable to the three F (food, fashion and furniture), that have in common the attention they are paying to the Product Development process. The objective of the present study is to explore product development and the need for...
Environmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize and improve their processes to minimize costs and increase the efficiency of industrial sustainability dimension. This effect is more evident in the food industries due to the high impact that this sector has on environmental and economical sustainabil...
Firms are increasingly investing in design and involving firms operating in this field in their innovation process. This research is based on an ongoing research project consisting in a complete range of free training courses - held in the main European cities - which main objective is to discover how design-driven innovation can become the key to...
Purpose
Nowadays manufacturers companies are increasingly compelled to navigate towards servitization. Different methods and approaches were proposed in literature to support them to switch from traditional product-based business model to product service systems (PSSs). However, new knowledge, capabilities and skills were needed to consistently dev...
This current research, as a natural consequence of previous findings, focuses on the first phase of the New Food Development (NFD) process. Being this phase the most creative and innovative, it comes naturally to think it is also the most chaotic, very difficult to standardize and to control. At the same time, this phase is considered one of the mo...
Lean focuses on the reduction of wastes, optimization of processes and consideration of the production of highly customized systems. Over the past decade the maritime industry has been working to apply unique solutions capable of improving their design and development performances by focusing heavily on production time and quality, however work and...
Product Service System (PSS) development involves both manufacturing and service workers, carrying them great potential to pursue industrial competitiveness, customer satisfaction and sustainable improvement. The belief is that the development level of PSS design is slowly evolving through a path strongly driven by the evolution of the technology a...