Management Engineering

The sector is concerned with scientific and educational activities in the field of Management Engineering. It brings together expertise for the integration of design, economic, organizational, and managerial aspects in engineering. Within it, two main thematic strands can be identified.

The first strand focuses on the integration of economic and management knowledge oriented toward design, highlighting the economic implications of projects, the relationships between design choices and business performance, the connections between design and the implementation of innovations, project financing methods, and the linkage with the context in which the company operates.

The second strand explores the various professional profiles characterizing Management Engineering, integrating for each of them the economic, organizational, and technological competencies with an approach in which the following components of engineering culture coexist: project-oriented finalization, a perspective based on systems and control theory, an emphasis on modeling and quantitative methods, and the integration of theoretical models with empirical validation.

Below are the activities carried out within DESTEC.

ICT and Information Management

Research activities in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Information Management (IM) within DESTEC concern the adoption of ICT/IM solutions in public and private organizations, focusing on issues related to the introduction and management of information systems necessary for the development of a company’s competitive capacity and the implementation of innovative solutions based on the Industry 4.0 paradigm.

In particular, the main research areas include: implementation and management of operational systems (ERP, e-procurement, CRM) and managerial systems (data warehousing with interactive OLAP analysis and data mining), with particular reference to project management methods and organizational implications; introduction of inter-organizational technologies supporting Supply Chain Management solutions; assessment of the economic and financial return of ICT projects; Risk and Knowledge Management methodologies; analysis of applicability domains and definition of information requirements; compliance checks on flows and system controls.

New research directions related to the introduction of ICT/IM 4.0 solutions include: studying managerial practices and assessing their impact on performance through the use of smart technologies (e.g., wearable sensors); analysis, monitoring, and management of processes through data-driven approaches (Process Mining); application of machine learning techniques for demand forecasting in services and dynamic resource management; next-generation business analytics for diagnostics and redesign of procedural flows.

Logistics and Operations Management

Research activities in the field of Logistics and Operations Management within DESTEC concern the design, implementation, management, and control of supply chains for private companies and public institutions, both in goods production (process-oriented and project-oriented manufacturing contexts) and in service delivery.

Key research topics in this area include: production and inventory management models; organization and management of services; business planning and control; performance evaluation and resource allocation systems; sourcing strategies and distribution models; supplier selection, management, and evaluation models; warehouse process optimization; customer-supplier integration and collaboration systems; process analysis, monitoring, and improvement (BPM); simulation models for the evaluation of automated warehousing systems; and the improvement of intermodal coordination in distribution networks.

With reference to Supply Chain Management, recent research has focused on sustainability in all its dimensions (environmental, economic, and social), aiming at improving the performance of individual nodes and the entire supply chain in a sustainable perspective. Special attention is also given to the identification of management interventions in SCM aimed at developing Circular Economy practices enabled by Industry 4.0 technologies, particularly Big Data and Business Analytics.

Health Technology Assessment

Research activities in the field of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) concern the design of evaluation systems for healthcare technologies, and in particular HTA tools supporting local healthcare facilities in the selection of medical devices (mini-HTA), capable of overcoming the limitations of current systems.

Innovation Management and Strategic Foresight

Research activities in the field of Innovation Management and Strategic Foresight within DESTEC aim to provide tailor-made application solutions to support both managers and policy makers in private companies and public institutions.

Research topics in this area are numerous and diverse: tools and methodologies for idea generation and the development of new products/services; models of product innovation diffusion; strategic management of organizational change; collaborative and open innovation models; patent intelligence and scientific production analysis using innovative methodologies; strategic foresight; systems for measuring and evaluating innovation process performance; economic analyses of innovation investments; and more.

These activities are based on the use of quantitative and data-driven techniques, focusing on the application of Management Engineering methodologies to the entire process of data analysis for innovation management: data collection, database management, statistical methods, machine learning-based data modeling, and visualization and reporting methods.

These frontier activities, between Engineering Management and Data Science, are essential to generate tools and skills capable of supporting companies in the transition toward new data-driven technologies, providing both management tools for data analysis processes and data-driven tools for management processes.

Industrial Economics

Research activities in the field of Industrial Economics within DESTEC consist of empirical studies on firms, industrial sectors, and markets. Key research areas include: the effects of innovation on firm performance across industries; methods for measuring technological progress; patent analysis and technology protection policies; technology forecasting; analysis of spillovers and the spatial concentration of economic activities; microdata analysis on the scientific system and higher education at the European level; and ontologies of science and technology indicators.

Research in this field focuses on the development of innovative methodologies based on artificial intelligence for measuring industrial and technological phenomena. In particular, text analysis algorithms are developed, combining sector-specific engineering knowledge with Natural Language Processing tools to extract latent knowledge from large text corpora such as patent databases, scientific articles, but also social media and open or domain ontologies (e.g., Wikipedia, regulations).

Enterprise Design and Integrated Management Systems

Research activities in the field of Enterprise Design and Integrated Management Systems within DESTEC concern theoretical and experimental studies typically linked to tools for designing management systems for quality, safety, and environmental sustainability in private companies, public institutions, and other organizations. Special attention is given to techniques for context analysis, risk and opportunity assessment, and the associated business models.