Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal - Call for Papers for Special Issue on Digitalization and Sustainability Challenges for Building Resilient Manufacturing and Service Operations

The Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal is seeking submissions to a forthcoming Special Issue on Digitalization and Sustainability Challenges for Building Resilient Manufacturing and Service Operations.

• Digitalization and Sustainability Challenges for Building Resilient Manufacturing and Service Operations (this opens in a new tab)
  Closes May 15, 2024

Traditional manufacturing and service operations aim to achieve excellence in mass production and service delivery, meeting dynamic customer requirements without any wastage under known conditions. However, in the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world [1], manufacturing and service operations must proactively sense changes, whether short-term, such as earthquakes, or long-term disruptions like pandemics, and adapt quickly to offer the same level of productivity and quality of services. While there are several theories, tools, and techniques to achieve excellence under certain conditions, these conditions may not apply in the VUCA environments. In this connection, there is a need for research on combining people, processes, systems, and technologies to effectively deal with short and long-term disruptions and develop contingency plans to enhance the robustness of manufacturing and service operations.

In addition to productivity, firms and their supply networks have been striving to achieve multiple sustainable goals. Researchers have the potential to explore pathways for ensuring resilience by applying digital technologies such as blockchain, 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, digital twins, big data analytics, augmented reality, and cyber-physical systems to enhance people and processes [2]. It is important to note that AI can either enable or hinder the achievement of all 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets [3] outlined in the 2030 Agenda [4] for Sustainable Development.

As per VUCA context and recent developments in digital and sustainability perspectives this special issue invites exciting original research studies that address a few sample open research questions listed below but authors are most welcome to submit other studies which matches the scope of the call for papers:

• How can organizations use digital technologies to build more resilient supply chains?
• How can organizations use digital technologies to improve the resilience of their service operations and respond more effectively to changes in demand or disruptions in the market?
• What changes need to be included in processes to increase the flexibility of manufacturing/ service operations and reduce their vulnerability to disruptions?
• How can organizations ensure the readiness and adaptability of their workforce in the face of disruptive events and changes in the market?
• What role can artificial intelligence and machine learning play in improving the resilience of manufacturing operations?
• How can organizations use data analytics to proactively identify potential supply chain disruptions and minimize their impact?
• How can organizations develop and implement effective business continuity plans for their manufacturing operations when they encountered uncertainties?
• How can sustainability be integrated into the design and operation of resilient manufacturing systems to minimize their impact on the environment and ensure their long-term viability?
• How can organizations build resilient service operations that are capable of providing high-quality service to customers, even in the face of disruptions or changes in the market?

The aim of this special issue is to address the research debates surrounding the aforementioned nascent research questions. It also covers new contributions from the industrial and systems engineering research themes listed below. Submissions related to the following themes are strongly encouraged: manufacturing, supply chain digitalization, resilience, and sustainability. 

RESILIENT MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE OPERATIONS

• Supply chain disruptions on manufacturing and service operations
• Manufacturing System Design for Resilience
• Workforce development and skills training in building resilient manufacturing and service operations.
• Frameworks and tools for assessing the resilience of manufacturing and service operations.
• Performance measurement in manufacturing and service resilience 

DIGITALISATION AND RESILIENT MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS

• Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems advancement to achieve resilient manufacturing
• Automation and Control to achieve resilient manufacturing
• Big Data and Analytics role and resilient manufacturing
• Cyber-physical manufacturing control systems
• Industry 5.0 and resilient manufacturing 

DIGITALISATION AND RESILIENT SERVICE OPERATIONS

• Digitalization of services to achieve resilient operations
• Digital Technologies in product-service systems and resilient operations
• Service Innovation & Management in resilient operations
• Service Systems and Service Management
• Healthcare and resilient service operations 

SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE SYSTEMS

• Sustainability and Green Systems
• Sustainable Manufacturing
• Impact of sustainability on the design and operation of resilient manufacturing and service systems
• Sustainable Production and Quality Management
• Digitalization for sustainability

The call for papers of this Special Issue is initiated in conjunction with the International Conference on Recent Advances in Industrial and Systems Engineering 2023 (RAISE2023), scheduled to be held from December 20th to 22nd, 2023, at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. This is an open call for papers; however, selected papers presented at the conference will be invited to submit extended versions to this Special Issue for further consideration. All papers submitted to the Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer review process in accordance with the journal's expected requirements.

References

1. Bennett, Nathan, and James Lemoine. "What VUCA really means for you." Harvard business review 92, no. 1/2 (2014).
2. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Digital technologies for a new future (LC/TS.2021/43), Santiago, 2021. (https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/publication/files/46817/S2000960_en.pdf (this opens in a new tab))
3. Assembly, General. "Sustainable development goals." SDGs Transform Our World 2030 (2015): 6-28.
4. UN General Assembly (UNGA). A/RES/70/1Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolut 25, 1–35 (2015). 8. Fuso Nerini, F. et al. Mapping synergies and trade-offs between energy and the Sustainable Development Goals. Nat. Energy 3, 10–15 https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41560-017-0036-5 (2017).

Guest Editors

S. G. Ponnambalam
School of Mechanical Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology, India
Email: ponnambalam.g@vit.ac.in (this opens in a new tab)

Nachiappan Subramanian
University of Sussex Business School
University of Sussex, UK
Email: n.subramanian@sussex.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)

Felix T. S. Chan
Department of Decision Sciences
Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao
Email: tschan@must.edu.mo (this opens in a new tab)