The Twin Transition Journey of Manufacturing SMEs

This book provides a novel, structured approach that brings digitalisation and sustainability together within a single decision-support framework. It explores how manufacturing SMEs can navigate the twin transition by identifying the critical success factors that drive transformation and by introducing a comprehensive Twin Transition Maturity Model that allows organisations to assess both their current and desired levels of development.

Industry is entering a new era in which digital transformation and sustainability are no longer separate ambitions but must progress together. For manufacturing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), this dual challenge, known as the twin transition, has become essential for competitiveness, resilience and long-term viability. Yet most existing research and practical frameworks treat digitalisation and sustainability as independent transformation processes, offering limited guidance on how SMEs can manage them simultaneously.

Going beyond traditional maturity assessments, this book presents an ontology-enabled prescriptive approach that transforms evaluation results into tailored, step-by-step improvement pathways. Conceptual frameworks, visual models and structured tables help clarify complex relationships, while a web-based decision-support tool demonstrates how the proposed approach can be implemented in practice.

By bridging theory and application, this book offers a practical roadmap for managing digital and sustainable transformation together. It provides valuable insights for SME managers, policymakers, consultants and researchers interested in sustainable manufacturing, digital transformation and innovation in industrial systems.

Integrates digitalization and sustainability into one practical twin transition roadmap for SMEs Turns maturity assessments into tailored, step by step improvement actions using an ontology driven method Offers a unified decision support framework with clear visuals and a web tool for SME transformation planning

Autorentext

Doctor Orhan Sahin is a lecturer at Mus Alparslan University, Türkiye. He received his Ph.D. in Manufacturing from Cranfield University's Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre in 2025, supported by the Turkish Ministry of National Education's competitive YLSY Scholarship Program. His Ph.D. research developed structured decision-support model to help manufacturing SMEs integrate digitalisation and sustainability in the twin transition. His research interests include digital and sustainable manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and 5.0, digital transformation, maturity modelling, ontology engineering, decision-support systems and learning factories. Through international publications, conference presentations and academic reviewing, he aims to bridge research and industrial practice and support resilient, intelligent and sustainable manufacturing transformation.

Doctor Jelena Milisavljevic-Syed is a senior lecturer in Manufacturing Systems at Cranfield University and leads the Systems Realization Group. She is recognised for advancing the design and governance of evolving cyber-physical-social systems and for developing Multi-intelligence Agents that integrate human, artificial and organisational intelligence in complex decision-making. Her research has established methods for adaptive manufacturing, dynamic management of change, digital servitisation and trustworthy humanAI collaboration, with applications in manufacturing, healthcare and safety-critical systems. She has co-authored a research monograph, published extensively in international journals and conferences and serves as a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. She is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr. Mohamed Afy-Shararah is an industrial development and global operational excellence specialist. A core focus of his work involves capacity-building for corporates and MSMEs, and technical cooperation programme design and delivery across developing countries. His experience spans lean methodologies, digital transformation, circular economy and sustainable finance. Mohamed serves on the circular economy steering committee for the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP), supporting policy advisory initiatives and academic collaborations. An established lecturer and public speaker, he designs and delivers executive education programs focused on the sustainable and digital twin transition, utilizing blended learning and 'learning factory' environments. Mohamed has over 50 research publications and is the co-author of Systems for Manufacturing Excellence.

Konstantinos Salonitis is a full professor of Advanced Manufacturing and director of the Research Ireland Centre on Advanced Manufacturing (I-Form) at University College Dublin since April 2026. He previously served as the head of the Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre and professor of Manufacturing Systems at Cranfield University (20192026), joining Cranfield in 2012 after over a decade at the University of Patras, Greece. His research focuses on sustainable and resource-efficient manufacturing, process modelling and simulation, lean and green manufacturing and environmental impact assessment. He has secured over £15 million in research funding, authored 350+ publications and written two books. He is a chartered engineer and fellow of multiple professional institutions (IMechE, IET, HEA).

Inhalt

The twin transition: Foundations and evolution.- Manufacturing SMEs and the need for an integrated decision-support framework.- Critical success factors and transformation drivers of the twin transition.- Developing the twin transition maturity model.- Developing a prescriptive twin transition maturity model.- An ontology-enabled decision-support platform for the twin transition.- Integrating the twin transition framework.- Real-world application and evaluation of the integrated framework.- Conclusions and future directions.