7.03 Transformative supply chains for circular and resilient transition of furniture sector

REFERENCE SPOKE
OTHER SPOKES
PROJECT LEADER
Ilaria Giannoccaro
PROPOSER
Politecnico di Bari
PARTNERS

Politecnico di Torino, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Natuzzi S.p.A.  

7.03 Transformative supply chains for circular and resilient transition of furniture sector

These last years have been challenging for the furniture Italian companies, since they have faced many critical issues and complexities, which have threatened their competitiveness. Intensifying global competition coming from emerging countries, increasing demand for low-cost items, unexpected economic and political uncertainties have determined an increase of raw material, labor, and energy costs, as well as a reduction of international market shares. Furthermore, great difficulties in the procurement of raw materials (e.g., woods, leather, fabrics, glass, polymers, and the highest-quality metals), also due to the congestions of logistics channels and international ports, have put pressure on their supply chains and their ability to maintain effective and efficient operations.

Recent studies have also shown that the Italian furniture industry is still late in the adoption of circular economy (CE) strategies (Barbaritano et al. 2019), even though this is considered as one of major competitive success features. Furniture wastes represent a huge economic and environmental problem. In 2017, 10.78 million tons of wastes were discarded in EU Member States, the majority of which (80-90%) is destined for either landfill or incineration, with a recycling rate lower than 10%, according to the Report 2017 on the Circular Economy Opportunities in the Furniture Sector, published by the European Environment Bureau (EEB, 2017). However, which barriers and obstacles companies are encountering for the circular transition of their supply chains is still not clear.

To address all these challenges, companies in the furniture sector should be able to develop and improve the transformative capabilities of their supply chains, evolve towards more open and dynamic states, to govern multiple sources of complexity, and to adopt structures, business models, management approaches, and AI digital tools, properly designed to increase circular and resilient performance. This project focuses on these issues.
In particular, the project will consists of the following 5 work-packages that will be collaboratively carried out by project partners:

  • WP1. Transformative supply chain capabilities for circularity and resilience, aimed at developing an innovative conceptual framework, based on the dynamic capability theory, which identifies the micro-foundations of transformative capabilities to improve supply chain resilient and circular economy performance.
  • WP2. Innovative circular business models for the furniture sector, aimed at designing innovative and effective circular business models for supporting the circular transition of the furniture sector. Innovation and changes of business models will be also studied in the light of dynamic capabilities.
  • WP3. Management of complexity of circular supply chains in the furniture sector, aimed at identifying the main sources of complexity of circular supply chains, their effect on economic, environmental, circular, and resilient performances as well as the competitive, collaborative, and coopetitive mechanisms suitable to govern them.
  • WP4. Decision support systems for outcome-oriented supply chains based on conversational Artificial Intelligence, aimed at investigating the role of digital technologies in enabling outcome-oriented supply chain management practices and processes using the conversational AI technology to integrate the back-end of the system with the front-end.
  • WP5. Predictive, multi-method simulation models for supply chain Digital Twins, aimed at developing a simulation-based Digital Twin, comprising different approaches (System Dynamics, Discrete-event and agent-based), of a typical furniture supply chain for improving its resilient and sustainable performance.
RISULTATI ATTESI

WP1. Transformative supply chain capabilities for circularity and resilience (M3-M24)
Key exploitative results:

  • Advancing the understanding of the nature of transformative supply chains classifying the micro-aspects referring to: 1) Transformative Orientation (TO) of individuals, 2) TO of processes, and 3) TO of organizations.
  • Providing managerial insights to improve resilient and circular economy performances of furniture supply chains based on the transformative capabilities identified

Deliverables:

  • Report on literature analysis (M7)
  • Questionnaire for multiple-case studies (M12)
  • Report on the transformative capabilities of the supply chains (M24)

WP2. Innovative circular business models for the furniture sector (M3-M36)
Key exploitative results:

  • Developing a framework guiding the design and the implementation of circular business models, taking into account the different circular economy strategies, the fit with the value chain of the companies, their size, the maturity of ecosystem, and the enabling role of digital technologies
  • Developing a risk assessment framework associated with circular business model implementation (with particular emphasis to the circular inputs business model)
  • Advancing the knowledge about the digital transition and innovation of circular business models

Deliverables:

  • Report on literature analyses (M7);
  • Questionnaire for surveys (M12);
  • Report on conceptual frameworks (M24)
  • Report on case studies (M36)

WP3. Management of the circular supply chain complexity in the furniture sector (M3-M36)
Key exploitative results:

  • Advancing the knowledge on the complexity of circular supply chains
  • Advancing the knowledge on circular supply chain archetypes and their impact on economic, environmental, circular, and resilient performances
  • Developing managerial guidelines for the design of complex circular supply chains
  • Developing managerial guidelines for the management of complex circular supply chains using competitive, collaborative, and coopetive mechanisms

Deliverables:

  • Reports on literature reviews (M9)
  • Questionnaire to investigate the impact of circular supply chain complexity on performance (M12)
  • Reports on the findings of the surveys (M18)
  • Agent-based simulation model of competitive, collaborative, and coopetive mechanisms (M24)
  • Report on guidelines for circular supply chain design and management approach (M36)
  • Report on multiple case studies (M36)

WP4. Decision support systems for outcome-oriented supply chains based on conversational AI (M3-M24)
Key exploitative results:

  • Developing design guidelines and requirement for supply chain decision support systems, embedding relevant digital technologies (from AI to ML, from optimization to simulation), allowing the managers to move from desired goals and expected outcomes to robust course of action on the basis of data-driven analysis.

Deliverables:

  • Report on the literature reviews (M9)
  • Users’ requirements, gap analysis, and use case generation (M15)
  • Proposal of a systems architecture guidelines and requirements (M24)