Sustainability is and will be a crucial issue for the present and future generations. The current assumption that natural resources are infinite and that the regenerative capacity of the environment is able to compensate for all human action is no longer acceptable. Hence, sustainability issues will influence all organisational aspects of the human life, from the economical, political, social and environmental points of view. The reason is simple: until now, all human activities have been based on the paradigm of unlimited resources and unlimited world’s capacity for regeneration; from now on, the awareness of the termination of this assumption means that all related behavioural models must be changed. This is a very impressive objective embracing all fields of culture, economy, technology and much more. A continuing effort, together with a reasonable time span, will be required to pursue this goal. Fortunately, nature and the environment are capable of self-regulation and will give man a chance to recover from the damage he is causing to the earth mother, provided that the will to do so is firmly established. Manufacturing, as the main pillar of the civilised lifestyle, will be strongly affected by the sustainability issues and it will play an important role in establishing a sustainable way ahead. Today, nearly all manufacturing models are based on the old paradigm. Technology, on which the manufacturing is largely based, is asked, together with culture and economy, to give the tools and options for building new solutions towards a sustainable manufacturing concept. Generally speaking, new technology, new business models and new lifestyle models will be the cornerstones of the new sustainable world and this will be particularly true for what concerns the manufacturing sector. Impressive constraints and requirements will affect the industrial sector on the way ahead towards sustainability. Research and development will play a crucial role to this concern, having the responsibility to offer appropriate options to the society for answering the above-mentioned needs. The main evidences on researches challenges expected for sustainable manufacturing are outlined by the authors that have been involved in the IMS international project ‘IMS2020: Supporting Global Research for IMS2020 Vision’, promoted by the European Commission to prepare a roadmap for future (2020) manufacturing research

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Measuring energy efficiency performance of equipments, processes and factories is the first step to effective energy management in production. Thus, enabled energy-related information allows the assessment of the progress of manufacturing companies toward their energy efficiency goals. In that respect, the study addresses this challenge where current industrial approaches lack the means and appropriate performance indicators to compare energy-use profiles of machines and processes, and for the comparison of their energy efficiency performance to that of competitors’. Focusing on this challenge, the main objective of the paper is to present a method which supports manufacturing companies in the development of energy-based performance indicators. For this purpose, we provide a 7-step method to develop production-tailored and energy-related key performance indicators (e-KPIs). These indicators allow the interpretation of cause-effect relationships and therefore support companies in their operative decision-making process. Consequently, the proposed method supports the identification of weaknesses and areas for energy efficiency improvements related to the management of production and operations. The study therefore aims to strengthen the theoretical base necessary to support energy-based decision making in manufacturing industries

Placing the operator at the centre of Industry 4.0 design: Modelling and assessing human activities within cyber-physical systems P a ol a F a nt i ni ⇑, M a r t a P i nz on e , M a r c o Ta i s c h