A Manufacturing Informatics Framework for Manufacturing Sustainability Assessment

Manufacturing firms that wish to improve their environmental performance of their product, process, and systems are faced with a complex task because manufacturing systems are very complex and they come in many forms and life expectancies. To achieve desired product functionalities, different design and material can be selected; thus the corresponding manufacturing processes are also changed accordingly. There is direct need of assessment tools to monitor and estimate environmental impact generated by different types of manufacturing processes. This research proposes a manufacturing informatics framework for the assessment of manufacturing sustainability. An EXPRESS information model is developed to represent sustainability information such as sustainability indicators and their associated weighting and uncertainty factors, material declaration information, and hazardous condition information, etc. This information model is tested with industrial products to validate its completeness and correctness. This information model serves as the first step of establishing close association of sustainability information with product design specification. In the next phase of research, investigation will be conducted to integrate sustainability information model and existing standardized product design model ISO 10303 AP 242.