A Metrics-Based Evaluation of Sustainable Manufacturing at Product and Process Levels

Abstract

In recent years, sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a promising new direction to boost economic growth, while enhancing greater environmental and societal benefits. Promoting sustainable manufacturing requires an emphasis on all product life-cycle stages (premanufacturing, manufacturing, use, and postuse) for closed-loop material flow using 6R methodologies (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign, and remanufacture) through innovation at the product, process, and system levels. This article presents a summary of the recently developed metrics-based sustainability evaluation methodology for manufactured products and manufacturing processes through Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) and Process Sustainability Index (ProcSI) tools. Case studies are used to demonstrate the application of the tools.