Resilience Of Production Systems Research Articles

6 Identifying research gaps and opportunities to enhance sustainable beef production

Abstract Sustainability has evolved and extended its influence across diverse sectors of the economy, including those in the beef supply chain. Public-facing companies predominantly emphasize environmental sustainability, especially climate-associated features, while beef producers continue to prioritize economic sustainability, hoping to to ensure their operation thrives into the next generation. Diversifying revenue and improving productivity are pivotal for safeguarding economic sustainability and fostering resilient production systems. Diversification is not new to beef producers; many have integrated ecosystem services into their operations to generate non-production revenue. The most valuable asset of a beef producer is the productivity of the land. Decision support tools need to be enhanced to allow producers to either capitalize on above average forage production to generate additional income, or to plan for alternative strategies when forage supply is forecast to be reduced. Because downstream beef supply chain participants prioritize environmental sustainability or reduction of scope 3 emissions, an emerging diversification opportunity for beef producers is to address this opportunity. While soil carbon initiatives have received attention, companies with substantial scope 3 emissions from beef production may value greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cattle more highly. Incentives for practices that reduce GHG emission from cattle can simultaneously reduce environmental impact associated with beef production and generate an additional revenue stream adjacent to beef production. Current opportunities to participate in these incentive programs are limited. Research can address the creation of functional protocols, and their intrinsic value. Clear targets, for gross emissions or emissions intensity, must be set but are not equivalent. In particular, research on effective/acceptable monitoring, reporting, and verification of emissions claims is imperative to functional markets. Innovation in emissions management and productivity gains can be integrated, so that goals of economic and environmental sustainability among value chain participants can be achieved. Maintaining a comprehensive perspective on sustainability solutions is essential to meeting the needs of humanity.

How much of the Mexican agricultural supply is produced by small farms, and how?

The contribution of small farms to the global food supply is in debate due to lack of empirical evidence. In Mexico, small farms have been relatively important for national food supply due to an agrarian reform in the first half of the 20th century, but their role has been decreasing in the last decades. The aim of this study is to quantify how much small farms produce of the Mexican agricultural supply, and with which farming practices, using the 2019 National Agricultural Survey. The results show that small farms produce 19% of the national agricultural production with similar farming practices to those of medium and large farms. When considering imports and exports, small farms produce 15% of the national agricultural supply. The production of small farms consists mainly of cash crops (e.g. sugar cane, fruits & vegetables, animal products, fodder crops) and, to a lesser extent, staple crops such as maize and beans. The fact that small farms produce one fifth of the national production after decades of governmental support towards large farms suggests that they have resilient production systems. The results of this study support that stronger efforts should be made to enhance the role of small farms in achieving Mexican food sovereignty. This will not only have benefits in terms of food supply but may also have a wide range of social and environmental benefits.

Simulation-Based Digital Twins Enabling Smart Services for Machine Operations: An Industry 5.0 Approach

The Industry 5.0 initiative seeks the sustainability and resilience of production systems through digital technologies. Derived from such an initiative, the Operator 5.0 concept surged to place the operator as the main value-creation contributor of sustainable and resilient human-machine systems. Smart service systems are data-driven services that provide intelligent capabilities to support decision-making in business processes. Despite previous research on smart services driven by multiple technologies in different contexts, further studies approaching Digital Twins as enablers of smart services in machine use phases are yet to be explored. Digital Twin, an Industry 5.0 enabler, is a technology that virtually represents physical assets that collect and analyze data from actual operations to make predictions for decision-making. Simulation-based Digital Twins generate simulation models that are continuously upgraded with asset data in real time, improving the accuracy of predictions. This paper aims to investigate how the Simulation-based Digital Twins (SDT) can enable the development of smart services in the Operator 5.0 context. We build on a multiple case study of 13 interviews from nine heavy mobile machinery manufacturers. We capture our results in categorizing SDT-enabled smart services for the use phases of the machine lifecycle. The categorization identifies the capabilities of each smart service for decision-making support and value co-creation.

The contribution of circular economy practices on the resilience of production systems: Eco-innovation and cleaner production's mediation role for sustainable development

This study's main goal was to clarify the correlation between Circular Economy Practices (CEP), Eco-Innovation (ECI), Cleaner Production (CLP), and the Resilience of Production Systems (RePS). This experiment research utilized primary data collected from a questionnaire-based survey. There was a total of 499 valid responses. The partial least-square structural equation model was used for the empirical analysis. The results state that CEP, directly and indirectly, affects RePS through ECI and CLP. In this link, ECI and CLP mediate the link between CEP and ReSP. This study suggests that comprehensively adopting CEP enables ECI and CLP, in turn facilitating the resilience of the production system. This study expands circular economy literature by maintaining an integrated framework that empirically proves the integration of elements of circular economy practices, ecological innovation, and cleaner production in driving resilience of production systems for growing enterprises in rising economies. This study could prove to be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Hybrid learning-based digital twin for manufacturing process: Modeling framework and implementation

Digital twin (DT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are powerful enablers for Industry 4.0 toward sustainable resilient manufacturing. Digital twins of machine tools and machining processes combine advanced digital techniques and production domain knowledge, facilitate the enhancement of agility, traceability, and resilience of production systems, and help machine tool builders achieve a paradigm shift from one-time products provision to on-going service delivery. However, the adaptability and accuracy of digital twins at the shopfloor level are restricted by heterogeneous data sources, modeling precision as well as uncertainties from dynamical industrial environments. This article proposes a novel modeling framework to address these inadequacies by in-depth integrating AI techniques and machine tool expertise using aggregated data along the product development process. A data processing procedure is constructed to contextualize metadata sources from the design, planning, manufacturing, and quality stages and link them into a digital thread. On this consistent data basis, a modeling pipeline is presented to incorporate production and machine tool prior knowledge into AI development pipeline, while considering the multi-fidelity nature of data sources in dynamic industrial circumstances. In terms of implementation, we first introduce our existing work for building digital twins of machine tool and manufacturing process. Within this infrastructure, we developed a hybrid learning-based digital twin for manufacturing process following proposed modeling framework and tested it in an external industrial project exemplarily for real-time workpiece quality monitoring. The result indicates that the proposed hybrid learning-based digital twin enables learning uncertainties of the interaction of machine tools and machining processes in real industrial environments, thus allows estimating and enhancing the modeling reliability, depending on the data quality and accessibility. Prospectively, it also contributes to the reparametrization of model parameters and to the adaptive process control.

Climatic controls on the survival and loss of ancient types of barley on North Atlantic Islands

For ancient types of barley at sites in the Scottish Isles, Faroes, and Iceland, we calculated minimum temperature requirements for grain production (grain production threshold, GPT) as accumulated degree days over the cropping season. Site suitability for barley from AD 1200 to 2000 was investigated by comparing these thresholds with reconstructions of annual cropping season degree days (CSDD) using temperature and tree-ring data. In Iceland, between AD 1200 and 1500, reconstructed CSDD were more favorable in the southwest (Reykjavik), with fewer years below the GPT, than in the North, East and West, but there were two periods (1340–1389 and 1426–1475) with low average CSDD and several years below the GPT which possibly influenced the abandonment of barley cultivation around this time. Reconstructed CSDD for the Faroes (Tórshavn) had only one year below the GPT, but 15 periods of four or more consecutive years with low CSDD which would have challenged barley cultivation, especially in the thirteenth century. Reconstructed CSDD were highest for the Scottish Isles, allowing a more prominent role of barley in the farming system and economy. Nevertheless, years with poor harvests or famines were common and about half were associated with low CSDD, resulting in a significant temperature link but also demonstrating the important contribution of other factors. Despite frequent unfavorable years in both the Faroes and Scottish Isles, resilient production systems, well-adapted barley strains and socio-economic factors allowed barley cultivation to continue, and some ancient types to survive to the present day.

Is Industry 5.0 a Human-Centred Approach? A Systematic Review

Industry 5.0 presents itself as a strategy that puts the human factor at the centre of production, where the well-being of the worker is prioritized, as well as more sustainable and resilient production systems. For human centricity, it is necessary to empower human beings and, respectively, industrial operators, to improve their individual skills and competences in collaboration or cooperation with digital technologies. This research’s main purpose and distinguishing point are to determine whether Industry 5.0 is truly human-oriented and how human centricity can be created with Industry 5.0 technologies. For that, this systematic literature review article analyses and clarifies the concepts and ideologies of Industry 5.0 and its respective technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Human-robot collaboration, Digitalization), as well as the strategies of human centricity, with the aim of achieving sustainable and resilient systems, especially for the worker.

Resilience of Lean Production Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Manufacturing companies worldwide are facing increasing volatility on international markets. The ongoing digital transformation, characterized by the widespread use of information and communication technologies, is leading to a sharp increase in complexity along value chains and in production systems. Unpredictable events with a global impact, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine, cause massive disruptions and even complete production stoppages in these complex systems. Established approaches to design production systems, such as the lean production approach, focus so far mainly on meeting customer requirements and the three targets quality, costs and time. In view of the political and economic developments, however, it is essential to also take into account resilience as a main target when designing future production systems. This paper evaluates the resilience of lean production systems. Based on a systematic literature review, it is investigated whether there is a correlation between the design of a production system according to lean principles and the resilience of this production system. A descriptive and a content analysis of the results of the systematic literature review is performed out and the results are graphically displayed. The current state of research in the field of resilient and lean design of production systems is highlighted and research gaps are identified. From this future research directions are derived and presented.

Soil Nutrient Contents in East African Climate-Smart Villages: Effects of Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions

Short-term and plot-level trials mostly produce data on the advantages of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices on food security in a changing climate. Previous studies evaluated only one or a combination of a few CSA practices that improved soil nutrients, particularly in the landscapes of East Africa; hence, it is difficult to draw general conclusions. In this study, we evaluated the effect of CSA practices portfolio on soil macronutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) and micronutrient (manganese and zinc) levels in climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania over a six-year period across different land uses such as agroforestry, cropland, grassland, forest, and control (without CSA practices). A total of 432 soil samples were collected at depths of 0–15, 15–45, and 45–100 cm, and analyzed for macro- and micronutrients. CSA practices increased total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) regardless of land use type or soil depth. TN, P, and K were mainly stored in surface soil (0–15 cm), accounting for 50.8–52.5%, 47.0–79.5%, and 34.2–65.5% respectively. Concentrations of Mn and Zn were 1.5–3.6 and 5.1–15.6 times greater under CSA than those under the control, respectively, at all soil depths. Results suggest that CSA practices implemented using the landscape approach contributed to improved soil fertility, which is critical in developing more sustainable and resilient production systems among smallholder farmers.

Responsible agriculture must adapt to the wetland character of mid-latitude peatlands.

Drained, lowland agricultural peatlands are greenhouse gas (GHG) emission hotspots and a large but vulnerable store of irrecoverable carbon. They exhibit soil loss rates of ~2.0 cm yr−1 and are estimated to account for 32% of global cropland emissions while producing only 1.1% of crop kilocalories. Carbon dioxide emissions account for >80% of their terrestrial GHG emissions and are largely controlled by water table depth. Reducing drainage depths is, therefore, essential for responsible peatland management. Peatland restoration can substantially reduce emissions. However, this may conflict with societal needs to maintain productive use, to protect food security and livelihoods. Wetland agriculture strategies will, therefore, be required to adapt agriculture to the wetland character of peatlands, and balance GHG mitigation against productivity, where halting emissions is not immediately possible. Paludiculture may substantially reduce GHG emissions but will not always be viable in the current economic landscape. Reduced drainage intensity systems may deliver partial reductions in the rate of emissions, with smaller modifications to existing systems. These compromise systems may face fewer hurdles to adoption and minimize environmental harm until societal conditions favour strategies that can halt emissions. Wetland agriculture will face agronomic, socio‐economic and water management challenges, and careful implementation will be required. Diversity of values and priorities among stakeholders creates the potential for conflict. Successful implementation will require participatory research approaches and co‐creation of workable solutions. Policymakers, private sector funders and researchers have key roles to play but adoption risks would fall predominantly on land managers. Development of a robust wetland agriculture paradigm is essential to deliver resilient production systems and wider environmental benefits. The challenge of responsible use presents an opportunity to rethink peatland management and create thriving, innovative and green wetland landscapes for everyone's future benefit, while making a vital contribution to global climate change mitigation.

Perennial flower strips in apple orchards promote natural enemies in their proximity

Apple production across Europe is experiencing major yield losses due to pest damage, and the need for alternative production methods are growing. Ecological infrastructures are important to create resilient production systems and increase functional biodiversity. This study investigated perennial flower strips as a means of promoting natural enemies, thereby reducing infestation by the rosy apple aphid, Dysaphis plantaginea, and fruit damage caused by it. In 2016 and 2017, effects of perennial flower strips were assessed in eight organic apple orchards with and without flower strips. In orchards with flower strips, assessments were done in tree rows at two distances: 1st and 3rd row from the flower strip. Assessments included field samples of arthropods, visual observations of D. plantaginea symptoms and observations of predators, observations of predators directly associated with aphid colonies, and fruit damage. In 2016, significantly more symptoms of D. plantaginea were observed in the 3rd row from the flower strip compared to the 1st row from the flower strip. Both years, more predators were observed in the 1st row from the flower strip than in the 3rd row from the flower strip. In 2017, more predators were observed in orchards with a flower strip than in orchards with no flower strip, and more predators were observed inside the aphid colonies in trees in the 1st row from the flower strip than in the 3rd row from the flower strip. Predator diversity in apple trees was also positively affected by proximity to a flower strip. In conclusion, perennial flower strips consistently promote the occurrence of natural enemies in their proximity, while the effect decreases with distance. The correlation between aphid abundance and predators was not always consistent, likely because the majority of the observed predators were generalists and therefore contributing to the natural regulation of the entire herbivore complex in the apple orchards.

How Policy and Development Agencies Led to the Degradation of Indigenous Resources, Institutions, and Social-Ecological Systems in Nepal: Some Insights and Opinions

Rapid growth of environmental problems, economic volatilities, and social changes have increased the scopes of adopting environmentally friendly and resilient production systems. Regenerative farming and forestry practices are such systems appropriate for mountain communities in Nepal. They had performed better with indigenous resources, institutions, and social-ecological systems. Unfortunately, the assets have been degraded to extinction, mainly commencing works of national and international development agencies. Consequently, regenerative practices are disappearing. Despite appeals and commitments, the degradations of the assets are not halted and reversed. This study used secondary sources of data and work experiences and explained the working faults of the external agencies involved in the agriculture, forestry, and wildlife sectors. It elucidated that most regenerative practices had sustained well in forest and farm resource-integrated production systems and a modest degree of natural and human inputs and production environments. The production environments degraded when the government agencies provided foreign agencies opportunities to be involved actively in policy formulation and implementation of agriculture and forestry-related sectors. The foreign agencies meddled in the national policies and community practices and modified the production environments for their interests and benefits. They intervened in policies and local communities to practice a farming system based on extremely human-made and imported inputs and institutions and to manage forest-related resources in extremely intact natural systems. In the policy discourses and decisions, the farming inputs, practices, and institutions popularly practiced in developed countries are considered superior whereas the indigenous ones are considered inferior. Agricultural plans and policies have overvalued flash yield or other direct returned and undervalued environmental friendliness, indirect economic benefits, and social advantages to prioritize support of the government and other agencies. The introduced farming inputs and institutions displaced or hampered the indigenous ones. The foreign agencies also meddled in forest policies and practices of the country to address environmental and economic problems of developed countries which resulted in adverse impacts on the indigenous assets. They intervened in the resource management policies with financial and technical inputs to destroy some of the assets and make the forest-related resource management that results in better benefits (offsetting GHG emission, enhancing tranquility and serenity of recreational sites, and potentially expanding agricultural markets) to the people of developed countries. This study has explained how the officials and experts of both government and foreign agencies abused and misused some strategic tactics and overused, poorly used and disused, others in their work process to address their self-centered interests and problems. In essence, intentional destructive interventions of the policy and development agencies have resulted in degradation to the extinction of the indigenous assets in the communities.

An Industry 4.0 Conceptual Model Proposal for Cable Harness Testing Equipment Industry

Nowadays, consumers search for organizations that can provide customized services at affordable prices. Therefore, it becomes essential for companies to meet those requirements by creating flexible and resilient production systems. Technological pathways such as industry 4.0 can represent a positive impact in the creation of those systems, through the integration of smart processes and technologies that can contribute to the automation of several activities within the shopfloor. Electrically controlled functions in passenger, commercial and special vehicles are becoming increasingly complex. If the signal and power cables were to be damaged, the vehicle’s operation would be affected, resulting in quality issues that can have a direct impact on safety, which can negatively affect the manufacturer’s reputation. Automotive manufacturers are thriving to achieve ever-growing mass customization, by offering a wide range of products, allowing for all clients to fulfill their needs. This scenario puts heavy pressure upon the cable harness industry, which must be as flexible as possible to supply all types of cables required by the automotive industry. This pressure is also extended to the enterprises that build test equipment for cable harnesses. In this context, the research group was able to plan an Industry 4.0 Network of Solutions that meets the requirements of the machining process of a cable harness testing equipment company, while compensating its flaws and optimizing it. The network is expected to promote the reduction of production cycle times in multiple activities, resulting in a production process that is expected to be more efficient and less prone to flaws.

Impact on Knowledge of Blackgram Growers in Periyar Vaigai Command Area of Madurai District

The World Bank Supported TN IAM (Irrigated Agriculture Modernization) Project is a follow up of IAMWARM presently it was called as (Irrigated Agriculture Modernization and Water-Bodies Restoration and Management) Project which has made significant development and impacts in the Tamil Nadu state by modernizing irrigation infrastructure, improving water use efficiency, enhancing yield and productivity of agriculture in a climate resilient production systems, diversification towards high-value crops, strengthening the institutional reforms through Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) and Water Users Association (WUA). Madurai District of Tamil Nadu was purposively selected for this study because Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project was conducted under Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The foremost objective of the study is to assess the knowledge level of respondents in the study area. According to crop production technology aspects revealed that (79.00%) of the beneficiaries possessed knowledge in using VBN 6 variety for cultivation. The study concluded that majority (80.00%) of the beneficiaries were possessed knowledge on (cultural control) fixation of light traps, crop rotation (77.50%) and sowing carry out in proper season.

Breeding custom-designed crops for improved drought adaptation.

The current pace of crop improvement is inadequate to feed the burgeoning human population by 2050. Higher, more stable, and sustainable crop production is required against a backdrop of drought stress, which causes significant losses in crop yields. Tailoring crops for drought adaptation may hold the key to address these challenges and provide resilient production systems for future harvests. Understanding the genetic and molecular landscape of the functionality of alleles associated with adaptive traits will make designer crop breeding the prospective approach for crop improvement. Here, we highlight the potential of genomics technologies combined with crop physiology for high-throughput identification of the genetic architecture of key drought-adaptive traits and explore innovative genomic breeding strategies for designing future crops.

Breeding custom‐designed crops for improved drought adaptation

The current pace of crop improvement is inadequate to feed the burgeoning human population by 2050. Higher, more stable and sustainable crop production is required against a backdrop of drought stress, which causes significant losses in crop yields. Tailoring crops for drought adaptation may hold the key to address these challenges and provide resilient production systems for future harvests. Understanding the genetic and molecular landscape of the functionality of alleles associated with adaptive traits will make designer crop breeding the prospective approach for crop improvement. Here, we highlight the potential of genomics technologies combined with crop physiology for high-throughput identification of the genetic architecture of key drought-adaptive traits and explore innovative genomic breeding strategies for designing future crops.

The Use of Intellectual Property Systems in Plant Breeding for Ensuring Deployment of Good Agricultural Practices

Breeding innovations are relevant for sustainable agricultural development and food security, as new, resilient production systems require crop varieties optimally suited for these systems. In the societal debate around genetic engineering and other plant breeding innovations, ownership of patents on the technology used in the hands of large companies is often seen as a reason that small breeding companies are denied opportunities for further improving varieties or that farmers are restricted in using such varieties. However, intellectual property (IP) systems may also be used as tools to ensure the use of good agricultural practices when cultivating the resulting varieties. This paper explores documented cases in which IP systems (plant variety rights, patents and brand names) are used to promote that innovative varieties are grown according to good agricultural practices (GAP). These include effective disease resistance management regimes in innovative crop varieties of potato in order to prevent or delay pathogens from overcoming disease resistance genes, management regimes for transgenic insect-resistant Bt or herbicide-tolerant crops to prevent the development of resistant pests or weeds, respectively. The results are discussed with respect to the influence of breeders on GAP measures through various forms of IP and the contribution and role of other stakeholders, authorities and society at large in stimulating and ensuring the use of GAP.

Learning Resilience in Local Livestock Breeds from COVID-19 Pandemic

In situ conservation of local breeds requires populations in economically sustainable and resilient production systems. In those countries where the market recognizes the quality of the products of local breeds, the traditional relationship between local breeds and products can be used to improve breed profitability. We analyze sales data from year 2020 of five dairy products associated with endangered local breeds farmed in northern Italy, in order to understand the potential resilience of these production systems, in terms of ability to persist and to adapt to disturbances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. All breed-cheese systems showed good capacity to persist during the COVID-19 pandemic, with four systems even increasing sales with respect to the period 2017–2019. Three breed-cheese systems showed rapid adaptation to the new conditions by modifying sales channels, including the introduction of e-commerce.

COVID-19 and public-sector capacity

The paper argues that to govern a pandemic, governments require dynamic capabilities and capacity—too often missing. These include capacity to adapt and learn; capacity to align public services and citizen needs; capacity to govern resilient production systems; and capacity to govern data and digital platforms.

Microbial community size is a potential predictor of nematode functional group in limed grasslands

Agronomic management practices can impose structural change within soil biotic communities that may negatively impact soil processes including function and biodiversity. Thus, optimizing sustainable crop production that confers minimal impacts on the structure and function of soil biota is an imperative to deliver healthy, functional and resilient production systems. Liming is a management intervention to mitigate soil acidification with a generally positive effect on crop biomass. The application of lime changes soil pH, a known driver of microbial community composition, but it is unknown whether pH derived shifts in bacterial communities result in altered nematode communities. In this study we used qPCR, next generation sequencing and nematode directed T-RFLP to characterise microbial and nematode communities in a liming field trial with a control and three liming applications to incrementally increase pH by 0.5, 0.75 and 1 pH unit. We demonstrate over a 14-month experimental period an interaction between microbial and nematode communities in managed grasslands. Liming had a limited effect on nematode and microbial community structures. However bacterial and archaeal abundance as measured by 16S rRNA gene copy number was found to be a potential predictor of nematode functional group, based on recognized trophic strategies, with increased abundance of omnivorous and predatory nematodes, that are known to prey upon bacterivorous nematodes, with a concomitant increase of 16S rRNA gene copy number. Thus, indirectly suggesting suppression of the bacterial and archaeal community in the presence of bacterivorous nematodes. Where populations of bacterivorous nematodes were highest the relative abundance of both predatory and omnivorous nematodes was lowest. Thus, this study demonstrates clear connectivity between soil microbial and nematode communities in grassland soil.