Research Study: Inter-Relationship of Operational Decisions and Environmental Impacts

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The goal of this research study is to begin to identify environmental impacts of operational decisions of the production enterprise and relate those impacts across time and physical scales to decisions made at the sub-cellular level and decisions made at the supply chain level. This will address the often-missed operational characteristics of the system under study in Environmentally Benign Design and Manufacturing. The gap has been cause in some cases due to over simplification of assumptions stemming from too broad or too narrow definitions of what is termed the EBDM "system". The long term goal of the research is to determine the mechanism for integrating the environmental impacts of operational decisions made across and between the levels of the manufacturing enterprise. This investigation takes the first step in order to lead to a better understanding, and identification of, the operational level factors that have potential for positive and adverse environmental impact. The broader impacts include enabling the first green manufacturing effort in Kansas through EBDM activities at the local and regional level. The focus on the manufacturing supply chain can be broadly applied beyond this regional scope, once the preliminary understanding of the environmental performance and operational characteristics are better understood.