An Assessment Framework for Managing Corporate Sustainable Manufacturing

This research aims to support the manufacturing industry in the endeavour of achieving the seventeen sustainable development goals by 2030, with “sustainable production” (the 12th goal) being the key one it should achieve. The output of this research is synthesised into a framework comprising assessment methods and tools which translate both economic and environmental sustainability factors into information for a specific set of company management decisions. These decisions are supported by the three guiding functions of the framework: 1) alignment between sustainability strategy and operations through the definition of core organisational capabilities, 2) assessment of the environmental impacts of R&D technology for production systems, and 3) improvement of the sustainability performance of existing production systems’ operations. Thus, the framework encompasses sustainability assessment methods and tools from a low level of analysis (machine tool) to a higher one (organisational). For the first function, an organisational “sustainability readiness” tool was developed with six companies. For the second function, an indicator for environmental break-even analysis of R&D technologies aims to pre-emptively minimise any undesired backfire effects. For the third function, an energy-based version of the known overall equipment effectiveness indicator diagnoses energy inefficiencies in production. By highlighting a red thread between the three functions and by providing assessment solutions in each of them, the proposed assessment framework aims to support management in their task to measure sustainable manufacturing. The use of the framework would also mitigate the strategy-operations misalignment that sometimes affects corporate sustainability management. The overall qualitative nature of the framework makes it suitable to be considered by industrialists and academia as a conveyer of a mindset which leverages management’s capacity to improve sustainability performance. Unfortunately, the validity of this statement could not be tested. What has been validated to various extents though are the methods and tools within the framework itself. The author suggests that future research would enable manufacturing companies to quantify the long-term sustainability impacts of product life cycles and production systems. If this could be encouraged, it would help to focus on eco-effectiveness performance, perhaps by taking an approach similar to Science Based Targets. Interventions such as these can contribute to a safer future that remains environmentally accountable at all levels of business operations

Organisational sustainability readiness: a model and assessment tool for manufacturing companies

Manufacturing plays a major role in the economic and social development of society, yet this often comes at a high environmental cost. Despite great advances in our understanding of sustainability issues and solutions developed to tackle this challenge, current production and consumption models are still largely unsustainable. Strong industrial actions are required to move towards safer and cleaner practices respectful of the planetary boundaries. This paper puts forward a novel approach for top and middle management in manufacturing companies to build capabilities for sustainable manufacturing by assessing their organisational sustainability readiness. The proposed model and tool for organisational sustainability readiness were developed based on themes emerging from empirical data collected via interviews and focus groups in six companies. The resulting themes were consolidated and validated with relevant literature to create four levels of readiness, displaying a crescendo of operations management practices on the shop floor that positively affect sustainability performance. Finally, an industrial application was used to further validate the tool and demonstrate how it can help companies develop a roadmap for a more sustainable manufacturing industry

The Proposal of an Environmental Break-Even Point as Assessment Method of Product-Service Systems for Circular Economy

In this paper we propose a method to assess technology-based product-service systems and help manufacturing companies in decision making with a new indicator: the environmental break-even point (e-BEP), equivalent to the economic indicator applied to environmental performance. A case study is presented to provide a concrete application of the indicator: when designing an optical sorter for electronic waste, the e-BEP revealed how many mobile phones must be either repurposed or recycled for the sorter to offset the system’s environmental impact. The e-BEP shows potential to make CEOs and production managers adopt a product life-cycle thinking in their technology investments

A Methodology to Align Core Manufacturing Capabilities with Sustainable Manufacturing Strategies

How do core business and manufacturing capabilities enable strategies for sustainable manufacturing, and what are those capabilities? This paper proposes a Capability Methodology for Sustainable Manufacturing (CMSM) for allowing top management of manufacturing companies to address these questions. A diagnostic tool was developed from three case studies based on a set of interview questions aimed at identifying core capabilities and sustainability issues in manufacturing companies. Interview data was coded and mapped through a relational matrix formulation that describes four archetypes for the development of sustainability strategies. The matrix maps the degree of complexity of the sustainability concept as understood by the company, and the scope of the product life cycle being considered. It is argued that the methodology helps bring awareness to managers of any gaps or mismatches between their actual core capabilities and the desired outcomes for sustainable manufacturing

A framework for operative and social sustainability functionalities in Human- Centric Cyber-Physical Production Systems

In a near future where manufacturing companies are faced with the rapid technological developments of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Industry 4.0, a need arises to consider how this will affect human operators remaining as a vital and important resource in modern production systems. What will the implications of these orchestrated and ubiquitous technologies in production – a concept we call Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) – be on the health, learning and operative performance of human workers? This paper makes three main contributions to address the question. First, it synthesizes the diverse literature regarding CPS and social sustainability in production systems. Second, it conceptualizes a holistic framework, the CyFL Matrix, and outlines a guideline to analyze how the functionalities of a CPPS relate to operational and social sustainability-related performance impacts at different levels of analysis. Finally, it presents an industrial use case, which the CyFL Matrix and the related guidelines are applied to. In doing so, the study offers first support to researchers and managers of manufacturing companies willing to define suitable operational and social sustainability-related performances for Human-centric Cyber-Physical Production Systems of the future

Sustainable Manufacturing Strategy and Capability Maturity: Interview questions

A set of interview questions have been used within a research study that aimed to develop a methodology to align manufacturing companies to the desired strategy for sustainable manufacturing, based on how these companies articulate their core organizational and manufacturing capabilities. The study was made in collaboration with UNSW Sydney

Towards a framework for enabling sustainable production systems: a life-cycle perspective

This thesis contributes to scientific knowledge by offering the foundation of a framework that helps stakeholders such as managers and engineers to enable sustainability over the entire lifecycle of the production system, from planning to re-use. In this thesis sustainability can be assessed through performance indicators and is understood through its triple bottom line of: economic, environmental and social sustainability. Within the framework, the requirements for designing a sustainable production system drove the choice of methods and key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess sustainability performances of the production system in object. The methods employed to assess sustainability were: novel energy KPIs, a set of social sustainability KPIs, life cycle assessment, and discrete event simulation. The framework has been applied to the case of an automatic piece of sorting equipment for electronic waste, with the aim of foreseeing the sustainability impacts of its implementation in a facility run by manual labor. For the case study of production systems using machine tools, the use of newly developed energy efficiency KPIs proved to enable more effective energy management and saving. Possible lack of commitment to sustainability from companies and lack of necessary data can hinder the applicability of the framework. All in all, the framework and the methods can offer decisional support for the stakeholders who want to foster sustainable production

Towards a framework for enabling sustainable production systems: a life-cycle perspective

This thesis contributes to scientific knowledge by offering the foundation of a framework that helps stakeholders such as managers and engineers to enable sustainability over the entire lifecycle of the production system, from planning to re-use. In this thesis sustainability can be assessed through performance indicators and is understood through its triple bottom line of: economic, environmental and social sustainability. Within the framework, the requirements for designing a sustainable production system drove the choice of methods and key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess sustainability performances of the production system in object. The methods employed to assess sustainability were: novel energy KPIs, a set of social sustainability KPIs, life cycle assessment, and discrete event simulation. The framework has been applied to the case of an automatic piece of sorting equipment for electronic waste, with the aim of foreseeing the sustainability impacts of its implementation in a facility run by manual labor. For the case study of production systems using machine tools, the use of newly developed energy efficiency KPIs proved to enable more effective energy management and saving. Possible lack of commitment to sustainability from companies and lack of necessary data can hinder the applicability of the framework. All in all, the framework and the methods can offer decisional support for the stakeholders who want to foster sustainable production