Furniture manufacturing in Italy is based on interconnected small and medium-sized enterprises based on craftsmanship know-how. Focus: These companies have undertaken profound transformations within the production chain in a logic of advanced craftsmanship, integrating enabling technologies into high-quality craftsmanship processes. This transformation is aiming at shaping intelligent enterprises and it requires new design professionals able to work with systemic view, connecting design competencies to an overview on the supply chain issues. Report: In this context, academia-industry joint programs could train design managers able to understand, acquire and integrate the tangible and intangible values of manufacturing culture and technologi...