Metrics for Sustainable Manufacturing

Proceedings of the 2008 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference MSEC2008 October 7-10, 2008, Evanston, Illinois, USA Proceedings of The 2008 International Manufacturing Science And Engineering Conference MSEC2008 October 7-10, 2008, Evanston, Illinois, USA MSEC_ICM&P2008-72223 MSEC2008-72223 METRICS FOR SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING Corinne Reich-Weiser ∗ Athulan Vijayaraghavan David A Dornfeld Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability Department of Mechanical Engineering University of California Berkeley, California 94720-1740 {corinne@me.berkeley.edu, athulan@berkeley.edu, dornfeld@berkeley.edu} ABSTRACT A sustainable manufacturing strategy requires metrics for decision making at all levels of the enterprise. In this paper, a methodology is developed for designing sustainable manufac- turing metrics given the specific concerns to be addressed. A top-down approach is suggested that follows the framework of goal and scope definition: (1) goal - what are the concerns ad- dressed and what is the appropriate metric type to achieve the goal (2) scope - what is the appropriate geographic and manu- facturing extent. In this methodology a distinction is made be- tween environmental cost metrics and sustainability metrics. Uti- lizing this methodology, metrics focused on energy use, global climate change, non-renewable resource consumption, and water consumption are developed. ments (LCA), (3) adjustment/optimization of the system to min- imize environmental impacts and cost based on the chosen met- rics and the LCA [1]. This paper focuses on the first of these goals, and discusses the development of appropriate metrics for industrial processes and manufacturing systems. Metric selec- tion and development is a critical component in a sustainable manufacturing strategy as it enables decision making on all as- pects of manufacturing from tool choice to system configuration. For the purposes of this paper “sustainability” is understood as the ability of an entity to “sustain” itself into the future without impacting the capacity of other entities in the system to sustain themselves. This definition involves consideration of three main drivers: economics, society, and the environment. The first of these, economics, has traditionally been the focus of the manu- facturing research community. Societal concerns have been ad- dressed by researchers as they relate to increased profit, however additional social metrics to be considered include poverty, gen- der equality, nutrition, child mortality, sanitation, health, educa- tion, housing, crime, and employment [2]. Aggregated indices that provide a broad value for “wellbeing” or “environmental sustainability” have also been developed [3]. While these social and aggregate metrics are valuable to make broad decisions, they may not allow for granular insight and decision making within the manufacturing enterprise. Introduction Innovative strategies are needed to achieve sustainable pro- cesses technologies and industrial systems. “Green” technolo- gies are often understood as those capable of meeting product de- sign requirements while minimizing environmental impact. Min- imizing impacts, however, is a necessary but not sufficient con- dition for a sustainability strategy. Three important components of a sustainable manufacturing strategy are: (1) selection and application of appropriate met- rics for measuring manufacturing sustainability, (2) completion of comprehensive, transparent, and repeatable life-cycle assess- ∗ Address all correspondence to this author. This paper specifically discusses metrics related to the en- vironment and environmental sustainability, although the proce- dure for metrics development is applicable across other areas as well. Environmental metrics are a useful starting point for dis- Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 07/09/2014 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms Copyright c 2008 by ASME