The objective is to provide SMEs with a tailored and sustainable production environment, connected to its digital twin which guides a continuous improvement. This extended production environment must also be integrated into a local, sustainable, and circular supply chain.

The expected outcomes of the research project include:

• Verifying the sustainability of construction systems;
• Applying elements of process mapping automation and process traceability;
• Integrating sophisticated sensors and intelligent control systems to make production processes more flexible, efficient, and safe, significantly improving the effectiveness of human-machine collaboration;
• Developing a decision support system, leveraging the digital twin, and piloting artificial intelligence algorithms for operations and maintenance management;
• Advancing materials and production techniques for additive manufacturing of polymers and composites, supporting a strategy for creating circular and sustainable supply chains that also address safety aspects related to emissions in typical SME work environments;
• Creating robust models for LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis applied to additive manufacturing production systems, using primary data and scalable for medium/high volume production;
• Conducting a disaggregated analysis of the current and potential roles of various SC actors in circular processes (remanufacturing and symbiotic exchange);
• Identifying strengths and bottlenecks in terms of resources, skills, processes, and networks that have characterized the experiences of SMEs pursuing "Made in Italy" pathways with regional supply chains and adopting circular practices