Citation:
Leigh Smith, Peter Ball, Steps towards sustainable manufacturing through modelling material, energy and
waste flows, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 140, Issue 1, November 2012, Pages 227–238.
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 opportu- nities. 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
improve- ments. 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.