Performance Measurement and Optimization for Sustainable Production Process Improvement—Volume II

Measuring performance and optimization for improving the sustainable production process is important to achieving a development plan, sustainable scheduling, cost reduction and green operations management. There are many areas to be studied in the domain of sustainable production processes. It may be necessary to benchmark other companies or countries in order to produce sustainable products, and there is a need to optimize the production process itself, with a focus on sustainability. In addition, in order to be truly sustainable, the efficiency or productivity of the product manufacturing system must be secured above a certain level. From the perspective of a CEO or a policy maker, each will be able to consider a production process strategy that accounts for sustainability, and entrepreneurs will derive ideas from this system.

This Special Issue, entitled “Performance Measurement and Optimization for Sustainable Production Process Improvement (II)” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/special_issues/Sustainable_Production_Process, accessed on 3 July 2023), was intended to promote and discuss the sustainable production process. Papers on six subjects, namely, cleaner food production, ICT Firms, SMEs, franchisors and franchisees, the truck manufacturing industry and the public healthcare industry, were published in this Special Issue. A summary of each paper follows.

Okpala [1] conducted research on cleaner food production. In the paper, the author explains that cleaner production includes not only products and services, but also integrated environmental strategies that increase overall efficiency and lower risks to the environment and people. Nevertheless, the author claims that it is difficult to regard the discussion related to cleaner food production as being clearly defined or established. Accordingly, the author conducted research on the cleaner food production process via a questionnaire, and through this, a clear definition of the term and significant statistical results were presented.

Kim et al. [2] conducted research related to the innovation of information and communication technology (ICT) companies. Improving the process of increasing the firm value (FV) of ICT companies is ultimately related to the issue of sustainability. In this study, efficiency, a concept of output versus input, was analyzed so as to evaluate the FV of ICT companies. The authors analyzed this using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is the most widely used of the efficiency analysis methodologies, and discussed the effects of various environmental variables on ICT companies through Tobit regression and Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA.

Ahn et al. [3] explain that servitization is an essential strategy. In this paper, the discussion begins with an outline of the importance of servitization. The study points out that most of the best cases of servitization are concentrated in large companies, and it notes the importance of applying servitization to small- and medium-sized enterprises in case development. In fact, since most SMEs are subcontractors of large companies, this study falls within the topic of improving the sustainable production process.

Kim and Choi [4] emphasize that the franchise business is closely related to cooperation for sustainable growth. Nevertheless, the authors note that it is not clear whether their relationship is one of a principal agent or a business partner. To establish this relationship, the authors tried to measure efficiency through the meta-frontier and bootstrap DEA methods. As a result of their analysis, the authors suggest improvements and means of improving sustainable operational processes for franchisors and franchisees.

Poswa et al. [5] conducted research focusing on the increase in fluctuations, bottlenecks, and inventories that occur in the production process. The authors proposed simulated value stream mapping (SVSM), which was intended to improve productivity and minimize errors. In this paper, the authors’ analysis of the South African truck manufacturing industry was conducted using this SVSM method.

Jung et al. [6] tried to analyze a system that measures the efficiency of the public health system. To this end, the authors aggregated the input and output factors that make up the processing system of the public health system. In this paper, papers measuring the efficiency of the public health system from 2017 to 2022 were analyzed, and through this review, various methodologies for measuring the processing system of the public health system—i.e., the input and output factors—were assessed.

In this Special Issue, papers are presented on various fields such as food production, the ICT industry, service, the franchise industry, the truck manufacturing industry, and the public health system. These studies analyzed various industries using various research methods, such as DEA, meta-frontier, and SVSM, to uncover the optimal production process. Optimization and performance measurements to improve sustainable manufacturing processes should be approached with a long-term view, not a short-term view. Subsequent studies related to this will continue to be published, as improvements in the sustainable manufacturing process must take place.