PRODUCT DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FOR SUSTAINABILITY
1.1 General Background on Sustainable Products and Processes
Processes 177
1.2 Projected Visionary
Manufacturing Challenges 180 1.3 Significance of Sustainable
Product Design and
Manufacture 180
2 NEED FOR SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE AND ITS
APPLICATIONS IN PRODUCT DESIGN AND
MANUFACTURE 182
3 PRODUCT DESIGN FOR
SUSTAINABILITY 184
3.1 Measurement of Product
Sustainability 185
3.2 Impact of Multi–Life Cycles and Perpetual-Life Products 185 3.3 Product Sustainability
Assessment 187
3.4 Product Sustainability Index 187 4 PROCESSES FOR
SUSTAINABILITY 188
4.1 Selection of Sustainability Measures for Manufacturing
Operations 189
5 CASE STUDY 193
5.1 Assessment of Process Sustainability for Product Manufacture in Machining
Operations 193
5.2 Performance Measures Contributing to Product
Sustainability in Machining 196 5.3 Optimized Operating
Parameters for Sustainable
Machining Processes 198
5.4 Assessment of Machining
Process Sustainability 200
6 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 201
REFERENCES 201
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 General Background on Sustainable Products and Processes
Sustainability studies in general have so far been focused on environmental, social, and eco- nomical aspects, including public health, welfare, and environment over their full commercial cycle, defined as the period from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition.1 Sus- tainability requirements are based on the utilization of available, and the generation of new, resources for the needs of future generations. Sustainable material flow on our planet has been known to exist for over 3.85 billion years and, using the nature’s simple framework in terms ofcyclic, solar,andsafe means, has been shown to offer the most efficient products
177
for sustainability.2,3 It is also generally known that sustainable products are fully compati- ble with nature throughout their entire life cycle. Designing and manufacturing sustainable products are major, high-profile challenges to the industry as they involve highly complex, inter- disciplinary approaches and solutions. Most research and applications so far, however, have heavily focused on environmental sustainability. Sustainable products are shown to increase corporate profits while enhancing society as a whole, because they are cheaper to make, have fewer regulatory constraints and less liability, can be introduced to the market quicker, and are preferred by the public.4By designing a product with environmental parameters in mind, com- panies can increase profits by reducing material input costs, by extending product life cycles by giving them second and third life spans, or by appealing to a specific consumer base.5 Recent effort on designing for environment includes the development of a customized soft- ware tool for determining the economic and environmental effects of “end-of-life” product disassembly process.6
In recent years, several sustainability product standards have emerged. Figure1shows a partial list of such standards.7–18While most standards are based on environmental benefits, some standards such as the Forest Stewardship Council Certified Wood Standards, the Sustain- able Textile Standards, or the Global Sullivan Principles deal with social and economic criteria as well. The Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) has also recently produced a manual for standard practice for sustainable products economic benefits.19This profusion of competing standards may well become an obstacle to the management of product sustainability in the marketplace, leading to confusion among consumers and manufacturers alike. What is called for is the development of a sustainability management system that creates clear accountability methods across industries and market segments, and that determines not onlysubstantiveelements (e.g., “how much CO2was emitted in making the product?”), but also process elements (including the manufacturing systems and operations involved).
The idea of recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing has in recent times emerged with sound, innovative, and viable engineered materials, manufacturing processes, and systems to provide multiple life-cycle products. This is now becoming a reality in selected application areas of product manufacture. The old concept of “from cradle to grave” is now transforming into “from cradle to cradle,”20and this is a very powerful and growing concept in the manufacturing world, which takes its natural course to mature. Added to this is the awareness and the need for ecoeffi- ciency and the environmental concerns often associated with minimum toxic emissions into the air, soil, and water; production of minimum amounts of useless waste; and minimum energy consumption at all levels. Finally, a future sustainability management system needs to iden- tify how the public can be educated about sustainability, so that market incentives are created to persuade producers to follow more rigorous, evolving sustainability standards. Only at that point can a sustainability program be counted as successful.
Since the 1990s, environmental and energy factors have become an increasingly impor- tant consideration in design and manufacturing processes due to more stringent regulations promulgated by local, state, and federal governments as well as professional organizations in the United States and other industrial countries. The pressure on industry from the government as well as consumer sector has demanded new initiatives in environmentally benign design and manufacturing.21In the government sector, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) have been the two leaders in these initiatives. The EPA has initiated several promotional programs, such as Design for the Environment Program, Product Stewardship Program, and Sustainable Industries Partnership Program, working with individual industry sectors to compare and improve the performance, human health, environ- mental risks, and costs of existing and alternative products, processes, and practices.22The EPA has also worked with selected industry sectors such as metal casting, metal finishing, shipbuilding and ship repair, and specialty-batch chemical industries to develop voluntary, mul- timedia performance improvement partnerships. Similarly, the DoE has launched a Sustainable
Logo Program Website 1 2 3 Forest Stewardship Council
Certified Wood
http://www.fscoax.org
http://www.certifiedwood.org X X X
Clean Vehicles
http://www.cleancarcampaign.org/sta ndard.html
http://www.environmentaldefense.org /greencar
X
Certified Organic Products
Labeling http://www.ota.com X
Certified Green e Power http://www.green-e.org X
U. S. Green Building Council LEED Rating System
http://www.usgbc.org
X
Salmon Friendly Products http://www.sustainableproducts.com/
susproddef2.html#Salmonm X
PRODUCT SPECIFIC STANDARDS
Cleaner and Greenersm
Certification http://www.cleanerandgreener.org X
Natural Step System Conditions http://www.NaturalStep.org X
Nordic Swan Ecolabel
www.ecolabel.no/ecolabel/english/about.
html X X X
Green Seal Product Standards http://www.greenseal.org X Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (2000) Social Equity Performance Indicators
http://www.sustainableproducts.com/
susproddef2.html#Performance_Indic ators
X
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) http://www.sustainableproducts.com/
susproddef.html X
OVERALL STANDARDS
Sustainable Textile Standard X X X
Figure 1 Partial list of currently available sustainable products standards.
Design Program, which focuses on the systematic consideration, during the design process, of an activity, project, product, or facility’s life-cycle impacts on the sustainable use of envi- ronmental and energy resources.23,24 Recently, the DoE has also sponsored a series of new vision workshops and conferences, producing the Remanufacturing Vision Statement—2020 and Roadmaps, encouraging industry groups to work together in strategic relationships to pro- duce more efficient production methods utilizing life-cycle considerations.25,26
The big three automotive companies, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors, have been fierce competitors in the marketplace, but they have worked together on shared technologi- cal and environmental concerns under the umbrella of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), formed in 1992 by the three companies. USCAR has sought specific technologies in recycling, reuse, and recovery of auto parts, batteries, lightweight materials,
engines, and other power sources as well as safety and emission reduction, sharing the results of joint projects with member companies.27