Abstract
Sustainable development is a widely spread concept nowadays, especially due to external pressure related to environmental and social issues, affecting all players of the supply chain. Sustainable policies must be adopted, such as improving process performance and reducing waste. With sustainability as a driver of operational excellence, this study is focused on the improvement of the production process of a company by reducing variability. A variability analysis was done to understand its root causes and act upon them, as well as a quantification of waste in the process. Finally, an improvement plan was delineated to mitigate the problems identified. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Abstract
The modern digital era is characterized by a plethora of emerging technologies, methodologies and techniques that are employed in the manufacturing industries with intent to improve productivity, to optimize processes and to reduce operational costs. Yet, algorithms and methodological approaches for improvement of energy consumption and environmental impact are not integrated with the current operational and planning tools used by manufacturing companies. One possible reason for this is the difficulty in bridging the gap between the most advanced energy related ICT tools, developed within the scope of the industry 4.0 era, and the legacy systems that support most manufacturing operational and planning processes. Consequently, this paper proposes a conceptual architecture model for a digital energy management platform, which is comprised of an IIoT-based platform, strongly supported by energy digital twin for interoperability and integrated with AI-based energy data-driven services. This conceptual architecture model enables companies to analyse their energy consumption behaviour, which allows for the understanding of the synergies among the variables that affect the energy demand, and to integrate this energy intelligence with their legacy systems in order to achieve a more sustainable energy demand. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the FAIM 2021.

Abstract
The COVID-19 crisis exposed the vulnerability and poor resilience of the global supply chains. The objective of this research is to reflect on the possible impacts of the Coronavirus crisis in the global supply chains and provide some recommendations to overcome the present situation, offering suggestions for future research: (1) What are the contingency factors affecting Supply Chains in the complex COVID-19 operating environment? (2) How do these factors affect post-COVID-19 operating performance? After a contextualization of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its impacts, theoretical background on Supply Chains and Supply Chain Management are presented, and a summary of the main scenarios for the post-COVID-19 crisis are discussed. The propositions regarding the contingency factors and their impact on the Supply Chain operating performance in post-COVID-19 suggest that successful companies will focus on creating a new kind of operational performance and minimize risks. To that end, companies will aim to improve their operations' resilience (ability to resist, hold on, and recover from shocks) and accelerate the end-to-end digital transformation. Consumers will have to adapt to the contact-free economy, less low-cost supply chains, and put additional emphasis on service levels. Governments will reinforce the focus in the health sector supply chain and increase spending in the health and social care sectors. Furthermore, the longer, the more concentrated, the less transparent, and the more price sensitivity is the supply chain, the more challenging the adaptation to the new pos pandemic realities. Suggestions for future research are also provided.

Abstract
This paper focuses on the drivers, curriculum and Project-Based Learning (PBL) learning strategies applied to the Business Process Modelling course, part of the Master in Services Engineering and Management (MESG), while presenting critical reflections on said course. The curriculum unit aims to develop skills that we consider essential in the analysis, design, management and improvement of processes that support the services provided by an organisation to its customers. Since the creation of the course, the main objective has been to motivate students to look into exploratory approaches to address specific challenges. In this sense, the PBL approaches explored have proved to be quite successful. Students are organised into larger teams and asked to come up with an innovative business idea. Then, they ought to carry out a project focused on the analysis and design of the business processes of the organisation/company, as well as specifying the respective supporting technological elements. The project, carried out as a team, is of medium/high complexity and long duration (throughout the semester). Each team is encouraged to use appropriate digital tools to support the collaborative work, namely, to facilitate information sharing, activity coordination, documentation management and communication. In this paper, we focus on the implementation and evaluation of the PBL practice, as well as on the analysis and consideration of the lecturers and students’ experience. We’ve adopted a cooperative and student-centred teaching and learning strategy since the beginning, in order to provide the right conditions to put into effect the skills of "doing" and "learning", without neglecting “knowledge”. Accordingly, we point out the main challenges, the lessons learned and the future views regarding the PBL practice.

Abstract

Abstract
The purpose of this article is to describe the process of forming intersectoral partnerships in social innovation initiatives in Portugal. The methodological approach used was the qualitative study of multiple cases through a triangulated analysis of the data. This resulted in a set of interrelated categories explaining the formation process of the partnerships: formation of the partners, means of identification, motivation of the partners to form the partnership, criteria for forming the partnership, determining factors, facilitators, and training process. We discuss the implications of this process and foment some strategies to support the development of intersectoral partnerships for social innovation initiatives.