An Approach to Assessing Sustainability in the Development of a Manufacturing Company

Decision-Tree Based Methodology Aid in Assessing the Sustainable Development of a Manufacturing Company

Nowadays, achieving the objectives of sustainable development (SD) within a manufacturing company, through introducing and integrating sustainability into a development strategy, is a key parameter in gaining a competitive advantage in the market. The objective of this study was to develop a decision-tree based methodology to facilitate SD assessment in a manufacturing company, which consists of five main components: (1) Determination of SD indicators based on literature analysis, (2) Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method which determines the priority of the SD criteria, (3) Collecting data to determine the values of the key objectives SD, (4) Using a decision tree to build scenarios of possible actions to increase the level of SD, (5) Indicating recommended actions for continuous monitoring of progress towards reaching SD objectives. In the proposed approach, the use of the AHP method allowed for indicating the most important SD indicators, which made it possible to limit the number of queries to manufacturers on data from real companies regarding the values of SD indicators. Finally, the methodology was applied and verified within a real manufacturing company in order to assist the Management Board in making projections about future actions regarding an increase in SD level.

Redesigning the Production Process Using Simulation for Sustainable Development of the Enterprise

In this case study, the medium-sized enterprise is looking for ways to achieve sustainable development. Following the Industry 4.0 trend could get the enterprise closer. The rate of information technology usage is very low in the enterprise. The enterprise’s problem is the long production of orders. The orders had to be rejected many times because the customer’s time limit could not be met. The major cause seems to be two environmentally insufficient and obsolete machines in the blast cleaning operation. These machines are replaced in the production by one new wheel blast machine. However, the production process must be redesigned and the layout changed to use this machine effectively. This redesign is difficult to verify and evaluate in the pilot plant experiment. Simulation is the most suitable tool to do it quickly and relatively easily. The ExtendSim simulation program creates a real production process model and then applies the redesign of this process in the model. The model must be thoroughly verified concerning the real production process to not distort the results. The result of the redesign of the production process is the reduction of the production duration by almost 50% and elimination of two environmentally insufficient and obsolete machines. Improved machine blast cleaning has also significantly reduced the utilization of blast cleaning. Spared capacities can be used for pre-production or otherwise for the profit-making of the enterprise. However, a new bottleneck appeared elsewhere in the production process by removing the previous one. The innovation passed through barriers, and Slovak small and medium enterprises started building sustainable development. The enterprise still must focus on further innovation, and more investment will be needed to achieve the final sustainable development goal.

An Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach for Prioritisation of Strategic Objectives of Sustainable Development

Sustainability is one of the world’s fundamental objectives, and a wide variety of information types, parameters, and uncertainties need to be appraised and managed to assess it. In the present paper, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is used to prioritise the criteria of sustainable development based on regularly published indicators. In line with most approaches in the literature, the main criteria are Economy, Society and Environment. Complex criteria are decomposed into subcriteria until the performance with respect to them can be measured directly. Weights of importance are calculated by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in decision support system PriEsT. The model is flexible to both the modification of criteria and re-weighting, and the PriEsT file is supplemented to the paper. Moreover, the results can also be applied in decisions on resource allocation. The proposed methodology has the potential of resulting in a new composite index to measure, compare or rank countries and regions regarding sustainable development or one of its subcriteria, as well as to track, year by year, the improvements or the impact of the policies introduced.

Innovative Processes in Managing an Enterprise from the Energy and Food Sector in the Era of Industry 4.0

The paper analyzes issues related to production processes in learning organizations using innovative solutions based on the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This study was realized by surveys and observation of companies operating in the energy and food sectors. These are sectors that in recent years have started to intensively implement innovative solutions and are undergoing a transformation towards an intelligent (digital) enterprise, which uses virtual reality, supported by effectively controlling the non-player characters (NPCs). The presented examples can be inspiration for chief executive officer (CEOs), chief operating officers (COOs), and chief information officers (CIOs), the people managing companies for investment in innovative solutions. The implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions, as well as new machines design according state-of-the-art achievements of mechanical engineering rules, will allow companies to implement new products, achieve better results (e.g., more products with lower production cost), increase operational efficiency (e.g., lower energy and water consumption), and meet environmental requirements (e.g., reduce CO2 emission, introduce zero-emission energy production).