The workshop started with greetings and introduction given by Rosanna Fornasiero (CNR-ITIA) who emphasized the importance of the workshop as a way to create synergies between different areas of interest around the topic of Supply Chain. Moreover, she explained that the workshop has been organized in two main parts:
- in the first, five experts from different European initiatives and projects presented their point of view on the future linking their findings with the topics of the supply chain
- in the second part, an interactive session was held to make a brainstorming to facilitate the creation of development paths for the most critical trends influencing the supply chain of the future.
During the workshop, a brainstorming session and 6 different presentations were held, all focused on subjects that are dealing with trends and development paths.
Trends and Megatrends influencing the supply chain of the future
Presentation of the most important megatrends and trends that can influence the supply chain. The research was based on the literature review, the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis, and information extracted from industry experts in a workshop.
Data sovereignty in networked production
Data is a key resource and an economic asset for Business Model Innovation in digitising European Industry. Demand for transparency and interoperability in value networks is increasing. This lead to the question of how standards can push interoperability and make data understandable.
Future scenarios for distribution and logistics
Logistics will have a disruptive potential in the future. In the last 5 years, this sector has changed a lot: from a border sector with low investments to an important sector with an increasing value chain. In fact, it has been observed an acceleration of technological change, which is reflected in the increasing investment in start-ups in logistics focussed on digital technologies.
Sustainable manufacturing networks in a circular economy
The featuring project aims to define a strategy for Europe’s Circular Economy in the context of digitizing manufacturing in a 3P (Planet, People, Profit) basis. Six actions areas and recommendations for a circular economy have been defined: Regenerate, Share, Optimise, Loop, Virtualise, and Exchange.
New Business Model for Process Industry
PNO’s Ron Weerdmeester presented the INSPIRE project and the four archetypes that were selected: Decentralised or Modular Production, Mass Customisation, Servitisation, and Reuse & Sustainability.
How to create development paths: brainstorming session
The second part the workshop was dedicated to the definition of development paths for the identified trends and on the uncertainty factors for a path. Some important factors to be taken into account: time horizon, i.e. 2030; possible developments of a descriptor (positive, neutral and/or negative), naming the alternatives, and quality criteria for the future projections, i.e. plausibility, dissimilarity, completeness, relevance and information content. This information was useful for the three groups which discussed three different trends: digital economy, future payments and environmental resource management. The participants were divided into 3 groups and each group worked on one group of trends. In particular, the selected trends were:
- Digital economy
- Future of payment
- Environmental resources management
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