Abstract
A sustainable society cannot be realised without more efficient approaches and technologies, which must in part be provided by manufacturing. Available literature covers the principles for making manufacturing more sustainable, but there is little, if any, practical guidance to show how to apply these principles. Lower level guidelines are required to provide guidance on systematically analysing manufacturing facilities and to assist with the identification and selection of improvement opportunities. This paper reports on work to develop guidelines for Material, Energy and Waste (MEW) process flow modelling to support the pursuit of sustainable manufacturing. Using qualitative MEW process flow maps of a case facility, data was collected to build a spreadsheet model aligned to each of the MEW process flows. The quantitative analysis provided detailed insight into the MEW process flows within the system and assisted with the identification and selection of environmental efficiency improvements. The key learning points from conducting the analysis generated a set of guidelines to aid the analysis of manufacturing systems, using MEW process flow modelling. This paper documents the approach developed and the environmental performance improvement opportunities identified in the case facility.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 227-238 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | International Journal of Production Economics |
| Volume | 140 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 3 Feb 2012 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2012 |
Bibliographical note
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for detailsKeywords
- Material energy and waste modelling
- Process mapping
- Sustainable manufacture
- Zero carbon