Digitization of the work environment for sustainable production

Global pandemics, devastating wars and natural disasters with increasing frequency and impact are disrupting previously carefully balanced manufacturing networks. All industrial companies are required to examine their operations and adjust
accordingly. The increasing cost of resources require enterprises to re-design their
value creation processes to be more sustainable, to optimize the supplier network
to become more resilient and to accelerate digitizing of operations to enhance operational effectiveness.
This year's WGAB research seminar is themed around Digitization of the work
environment for sustainable production and seeks to contribute solutions to the
current challenges. The scientific discourse aims to advance the sustainable and
data-based organization of value creation processes.
Exemplary efforts for the sustainable production of 3D printed footwear and the
circular supply chain of energy production will be discussed. With advances in
sensory data collection in cyber-physical production systems (CPPS), there are new
opportunities for sensing the status of manufacturing systems, which enable advanced data analytics to contribute to a sustainable production. Intelligent processes enable sustainable value creation and bi-directional knowledge exchange between humans and machines. With people at the centre of the CPPS, production
systems shall be both adaptive and personalized for every worker. People need to
be involved in the technological and organizational changes. Simulating the migration from a linear economy to a circular economy supports the trend of regionalized production networks. Digital assistance systems are tested to back up resilient
manufacturing.
We would like to thank all authors for their efforts in preparing the contributions,
which are valuable inputs to the discourse to solve the current challenges.