Performance evaluation of sustainable manufacturing systems

为了以可持续的方式满足人类的基本需求，全球竞争、人口老龄化、全球变暖、水和化石能源等自然资源的稀缺和质量，都是我们的世界面临的最重要的挑战。这些问题以及其他许多问题日益影响着制造商的经营方式。传统上，制造商关心的是众所周知的绩效指标，如产量最大化、生产率和质量改进。如今，除了上述绩效指标外，同一家制造商还必须应对政府更严格的环境法规，不断提高对二手产品的征税，以及在制造产品时使用的无毒物质。由于这些限制和要求，拟议的研究计划旨在解决这些问题，旨在设计具有环保意识的可持续制造系统和逆向物流系统，并通过部署额外的盈利努力来补充传统的绩效指标。可持续性是指“满足当代人的需要而不损害后代人满足其需要的能力”的能力。逆向物流活动关注的是使用过的产品的逆向流动，这些产品将在产品级（重用、维修）、组件级（再制造、同类产品）或材料级（回收）上重新集成到供应链中。在这种情况下需要作出的额外努力集中于减少浪费和减少资源的使用。这些措施可以通过以下方式实现：(1)设计无毒物质制成的产品，这有助于减少监管负担，并避免公司声誉方面的价值破坏事件；(2)设计使用更少能源的工艺，从而减少有毒排放并缓和高成本能源的影响。因此，拟议的研究计划将侧重于为可持续制造系统以及逆向物流系统的设计和实施开发仿真和分析模型。

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.