Sustainable Production: Eco-efficiency of Manufacturing Process

Abstract

The term “Sustainable manufacturing” has gained increased attention in recent years. In establishing sustainability in the manufacturing industries, ecodesign of products is important. It is also important to focus on developing and implementing actual manufacturing technologies. Requirements for practical manufacturing technologies include satisfying high quality, low cost, and low environmental impact simultaneously. Environmental issues are very important; however, quality is the key feature in deciding whether the developed manufacturing technologies will be used in the industries. It is not easy to satisfy the three aspects, since there are trade-offs among the three aspects. However, breakthroughs in material technologies and fabrication technologies can be the key factors in making manufacturing technologies industrially feasible. In the first part of this chapter, several new material technologies and fabrication technologies are discussed in order to satisfy high quality, low cost, and low environmental impact simultaneously.A method called “total performance analysis (TPA)” enabled product developer to quantify the value, life cycle cost, and life cycle environmental impact of a product, or its eco-efficiency. Since the TPA method can take three aspects of a product into account, it is envisaged suitable method for the evaluation of the eco-efficiency of the manufacturing technologies. Thus, to some extent, the TPA method can be applied to evaluate manufacturing technologies in the minimal manufacturing area. Although developing actual manufacturing technologies is the most important part of the minimal manufacturing, recognizing that individual technologies are really “minimal” and industrially feasible is also important. The TPA method was also applied to find an improvement target in the manufacturing processes.In the second half of this chapter, the TPA method was applied to an innovative manufacturing process making ceramic products. In the example, an improved method of making ceramic heat radiation plate made by silicon nitride is analyzed and discussed. In the new process, by applying improved manufacturing technology called “reactive sintering,” the energy consumption and the cost of the total process were greatly reduced. The reduction of the energy consumption is the main contribution in enhancing the eco-efficiency in this case. Another example deals with the improvement in eco-efficiency which mainly depends on enhancement of product functionality. Throughout the case studies, the “total performance analysis” is proven effective in identifying the bottlenecks of manufacturing processes and visualizing the effect of process improvements.