A FRAMEWORK AND METRICS FOR SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AT THE PRODUCTION LINE, PLANT AND ENTERPRISE LEVELS

Sustainable manufacturing is becoming increasingly important due to scarcity of natural resources, stricter regulations and increasing customer demand for sustainable products. Sustainable manufacturing involves the use of sustainable processes and systems to produce more sustainable products. In order to meet these demands for sustainable products, manufacturing companies have to adopt numerous strategies to achieve sustainable manufacturing. The approach for evaluating sustainable products and processes have been investigated in previous work where product/process sustainability indices were proposed. However, no comprehensive methods are available for sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation at the system level. This work aims to develop two alternate methods for evaluating sustainable manufacturing performance at enterprise, plant and production line levels. First, requirements for a sustainability metrics framework are identified through studying and reviewing existing literature where the three pillars of sustainability, total life-cycle stages, and 6R concepts are concurrently addressed. Then index-and value-based methods are proposed to evaluate sustainable manufacturing performance by conducting assessment on economic, environmental and societal aspects. Finally, the application of these two methods is illustrated for a representative enterprise producing consumer electronics at the enterprise level; a case study for a satellite television dish production is used to demonstrate the application of these methods at the production line level. Results obtained from these two methods are compared and analyzed at the enterprise level. The proposed methods can provide information to a company to identify improvement strategies and for decision making for sustainable development

Sustainable Manufacturing Performance Evaluation: Integrating Product and Process Metrics for Systems Level Assessment

This paper builds on the previously developed product sustainability index (ProdSI) and process sustainability index (ProcSI), and presents a framework for sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation at the systems level. The framework is then used to propose a comprehensive set of metrics for the enterprise level following a five-stage metrics hierarchy (individual metrics, sub-clusters, clusters, sub-index and index). The 6R concept (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign and remanufacture), total life-cycle emphasis, and triple bottom line (TBL) are considered for selecting relevant metrics. Finally, the metrics are integrated to develop an index for enterprise level sustainability assessment and demonstrated using a numerical example

Progress in Pathogenesis of Proteinuria

Aims. Proteinuria not only is a sign of kidney damage, but also is involved in the progression of renal diseases as an independent pathologic factor. Clinically, glomerular proteinuria is most commonly observed, which relates to structural and functional anomalies in the glomerular filtration barrier. The aim of this paper was to describe the pathogenesis of glomerular proteinuria. Data Sources. Articles on glomerular proteinuria retrieved from Pubmed and MEDLINE in the recent 5 years were reviewed. Results. The new understanding of the roles of glomerular endothelial cells and the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) in the pathogenesis of glomerular proteinuria was gained. The close relationships of slit diaphragm (SD) molecules such as nephrin, podocin, CD2-associated protein (CD2AP), a-actinin-4, transient receptor potential cation channel 6 (TRPC6), Densin and membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted 1 (MAGI-1), α3β1 integrin, WT1, phospholipase C epsilon-1 (PLCE1), Lmx1b, and MYH9, and mitochondrial disorders and circulating factors in the pathogenesis of glomerular proteinuria were also gradually discovered. Conclusion. Renal proteinuria is a manifestation of glomerular filtration barrier dysfunction. Not only glomerular endothelial cells and GBM, but also the glomerular podocytes and their SDs play an important role in the pathogenesis of glomerular proteinuria

Influences of Doping on Photocatalytic Properties of TiO2 Photocatalyst

As a kind of highly effective, low‐cost, and stable photocatalysts, TiO2 has received substantial public and scientific attention. However, it can only be activated under ultraviolet light irradiation due to its wide bandgap, high recombination, and weak separation efficiency of carriers. Doping is an effective method to extend the light absorption to the visible light region. In this chapter, we will address the importance of doping, different doping modes, preparation method, and photocatalytic mechanism in TiO2 photocatalysts. Thereafter, we will concentrate on Ti3+ self‐doping, nonmetal doping, metal doping, and codoping. Examples of progress can be given for each one of these four doping modes. The influencing factors of preparation method and doping modes on photocatalytic performance (spectrum response, carrier transport, interfacial electron transfer reaction, surface active sites, etc.) are summed up. The main objective is to study the photocatalytic processes, to elucidate the mechanistic models for a better understanding the photocatalytic reactions, and to find a method of enhancing photocatalytic activities

Towards Developing Sustainable Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems

This paper aims to examine the sustainable manufacturing performance of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) using existing sustainable manufacturing metrics. RMS has six key characteristics including modularity, integrability, customization, scalability, convertibility, and diagnosability. In this paper, ‘convertibility’ is quantified by considering configuration convertibility, machine convertibility, and material handling device convertibility from the RMS perspective. In addition, the performance of RMSs with different convertibility levels is also evaluated by using sustainable manufacturing metrics. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the computational approach. Results of the analysis are used to show how sustainable manufacturing performance of RMS changes as system convertibility varies. The findings show that RMS sustainable manufacturing performance can be improved by selecting a suitable level of convertibility

In vitro culture method of powdery mildew (Oidium heveae Steinmann) of Hevea brasiliensis

A method for culturing powdery mildew (Oidium heveae) from isolated leaves of Hevea brasiliensis was evaluated, which included three steps: Leaves and fungi selection, nutrient solution and culture dish  preparation, fungi inoculation and culture. The culture time and produced conidia number were considered as decision index. We tested the influence of micro components of nutrient solution including 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA), salicylic acid (SA) and vitamin C (VC) and evaluated the culture difference of various leaf phenological phases and rubber tree clones. The results show that the longest culture time of isolated leaves emerged on modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) macro elements with 4 mg/L 6-BA, 20 mg/L SA, 1 mg/L VC. The colour phase leaf was the preferable choice for culturing average 15 to 16 days and producing 3.2222 × 106 mL-1 conidia. The culture effects of using various rubber clones were different and higher resistance clones cultured less conidia. The method leading to mass production of powdery mildew was simple using a climate incubator to resolve problems linked to season and space limitation and preservation of powdery mildew. This method could improve rubber resistance breeding process.Key words: Hevea brasiliensis, Oidium heveae, in vitro culture, nutrient solution, phenological phase