Assessing Production Line Risk Using Bayesian Belief Networks and System Dynamics

Increased complexity in product design, strict regulations and a changing market make risk assessment critical for successful operations. Failure in responding quickly to raw material shortages, downtimes, deteriorating equipment conditions or other operational issues can prove to be an expensive affair. A company-wide risk assessment includes both external and internal operations. However, external/supplier risk assessment has been of major interest. Even though the scope of risk assessment at the production line level is not as broad as it is at the supply chain level, assessing risk would help recognize vulnerable areas of the production line, which would in turn help reduce damage caused when risk events occur. In this research, a method for production line risk assessment is proposed by considering operational risks affecting the line. Operational risks and their causal relationships are represented using Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). The impact of these risks is observed using a simulation model of the production line using System Dynamics (SD) approach. The combination of BBN and SD assists in developing a versatile methodology, which can capture the dynamic causal mechanisms in a complex system, the uncertainties amongst risk events and the long-term impact of operational risks on the production line

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

Strategies for Value Creation Through Sustainable Manufacturing

Making the business case and establishing strategic directions for sustainable manufacturing requires a collaborative effort. Strategic capabilities that can help create sustainable value for all stakeholders must be identified. Technologies and methodologies to provide these capabilities for implementation must then be developed, through public-private partnerships. This paper presents major business imperatives and strategic capabilities necessary to enable value creation through sustainable manufacturing identified based on extensive engagement with business leaders and industry professionals as well as academic experts and government agency representatives. The paper also presents a future vision for sustainable products, processes and systems that can be derived from such capabilities

Sustainable value creation through innovative product design

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 60-65.In the field of product development, many organizations struggle to create a value proposition that can overcome the headwinds of technology change, regulatory requirements, and intense competition, in an effort to satisfy the long-term goals of sustainability. Today, organizations are realizing that they have lost portfolio value due to poor reliability, early product retirement, and abandoned design platforms. Beyond Lean and Green Manufacturing, shareholder value can be enhanced and optimized by taking on a broader perspective, and integrating sustainability innovation elements into product designs. This paper presents a framework for achieving the goal of mutual value creation, and identifies the drivers of product design that are used to ultimately create what is termed - The Sustainable Products Value Proposition. Focus is placed on a balanced approach towards the integration of total cost of ownership, social and environmental improvements, and an expanded definition of product life drivers

A Framework for Material Selection in Multi-Generational Components: Sustainable Value Creation for a Circular Economy

AbstractEarly stages of a product's design are critical for decisions impacting the entire life-cycle cost. Product designers have mastered the first generation, but they have no ability to know the impact of their decisions on multi-generational products. There is a need for tools that aim at closing the gap between total life-cycle information and the traditional design process. This paper presents a framework for a decision support tool that uses a combination of a life-cycle costing methodology and an evolutionary algorithm to assess design decisions specifically related to material selection. A case study is included to validate the new methodology

Supply Chain Disruption Management: Review of Issues and Research Directions

Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) is an increasingly popular subject of research which emphasizes the goals of achieving improved supply chain robustness through development of design and operational strategies. Disruption management is one aspect of SCRM which examines the ability of the supply chain to maintain a high level of performance under the effects of major disruptions. Specifically, disruptions refer to events characterized by a low likelihood of occurrence and a large impact. Because of their limited rate of occurrence, disruptions are associated with a high uncertainty with respect to their expected impact. Improved modeling of the disruption impact is one key issue in this field. Other issues include the design of methods for supply chain performance measurement, disruption monitoring and detection, evaluation of recovery strategies, and methods of optimal supply chain design. Design features to be considered include flexibility, redundancy, and operating efficiency. The relevant literature is presented in the context of these major issues and future directions suggested by researchers in the field are discussed

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

Sustainable Living Factories for Next Generation Manufacturing

To be profitable and to generate sustainable value for all stakeholders, next generation manufacturers must develop capabilities to rapidly and economically respond to changing market needs while at the same time minimizing adverse impacts on the environment and benefiting society. 6R-based (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacturing) sustainable manufacturing practices enable closed-loop and multi-life cycle material flow; they facilitate producing more sustainable products using manufacturing processes and systems that are more sustainable. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) and its characteristics of scalability, convertibility, diagnosability, customization, modularity and integrability have emerged as a basis for living factories for next generation manufacturing that can significantly enhance the system sustainability by quickly adjusting system configuration and production processes to meet the market needs, and maintain the system values for generations of products. This paper examines the significance of developing such next generation manufacturing systems as the basis for futuristic sustainable living factories by adapting, integrating and implementing the RMS characteristics with the principles of sustainable manufacturing to achieve value creation for all stakeholders

Sustainable Production Through Balancing Trade-Offs Among Three Metrics in Flow Shop Scheduling

In sustainable manufacturing, inconsistencies exist among objectives defined in triple-bottom-lines (TBL) of economy, society, and environment. Analogously, inconsistencies exist in flow shop scheduling among three objectives of minimizing total completion time (TCT), maximum completion time (MCT), and completion time variance (CTV), respectively. For continuous functions, the probability is zero to achieve the objectives at their optimal values, so is it at their worst values. Therefore, with inconsistencies among individual objectives of discrete functions, it is more meaningful and feasible to seek a solution with high probabilities that system performance varies within the control limits. We propose a trade-off balancing scheme for sustainable production in flow shop scheduling as the guidance of decision making. We model trade-offs (TO) as a function of TCT, MCT, and CTV, based on which we achieve stable performance on min(TO). Minimizing trade-offs provides a meaningful compromise among inconsistent objectives, by driving the system performance towards a point with minimum deviations from the ideal but infeasible optima. Statistical process control (SPC) analyses show that trade-off balancing provides a better control over individual objectives in terms of average, standard deviation, Cp and Cpk compared to those of single objective optimizations. Moreover, results of case studies show that trade-off balancing not only provides a stable control over individual objectives, but also leads to the highest probability for outputs within the specification limits. We also propose a flow shop scheduling sustainability index (F S S I). The results show that trade-off balancing provides the most sustainable solutions compared to those of the single objective optimizations