Performance evaluation of sustainable manufacturing systems

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Global competition, aging population, global warming, scarcity and quality of natural resources, such as water and fossil energy, are among the most important challenges that our world is facing in order to meet basic human needs in a sustainable way. These issues and many others increasingly affect the way manufacturers do business. Traditionally speaking, a manufacturer is concerned about well-known performance measures such as yield maximization, productivity and quality improvement. Nowadays and in addition to the above-indicated measures of performance, the same manufacturer has to deal with tighter government environmental regulations, continuously increasing levies on used products, and toxic-free substances used in the manufacturing of products. Due to these restrictions and requirements, the proposed research program addresses these issues with the aim of designing environmentally conscious, sustainable manufacturing systems and reverse logistics systems, as well as supplementing the traditional performance measures by deploying additional profitable efforts. Sustainability is the ability to "meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Reverse logistics activities are concerned with the backward flow of used products that will be reintegrated in the supply chain at the product level (reuse, repair), the component level (remanufacturing, cannibalization), or the material level (recycling). The additional efforts required under these circumstances focus on cutting waste and reducing resource use. These measures can be accomplished through: (1) the design of products made of toxic-free substances which helps in cutting the regulatory burdens, and also avoids a value-destroying incident in terms of a company's reputation, and (2) the design of a process that uses less energy, which reduces toxic emissions and tempers the impact of high cost energy. Accordingly, the proposed research program will focus on developing simulation and analytical models for the design and implementation of sustainable manufacturing systems as well as for reverse logistics systems.