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性和质量是我们世界面临的最重要的挑战。这些问题和其他许多问题越来越多地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，除了上述性能指标外，同一制造商还必须应对更严格的政府环境法规，不断增加对旧产品的征税，以及产品制造中使用的无毒物质。由于这些限制和要求，拟议的研究计划旨在设计具有环保意识的、可持续的制造系统和逆向物流系统，并通过部署额外的有利可图的努力来补充传统的业绩衡量标准。可持续性是指“在不损害子孙后代满足自身需求的情况下满足当代人需求的能力”。逆向物流活动涉及废旧产品的反向流动，这些产品将在产品层面(再利用、修复)、零部件层面(再制造、拆分)或材料层面(回收)重新整合到供应链中。在这种情况下所需的额外努力侧重于减少浪费和减少资源使用。这些措施可以通过：(1)由无毒物质制成的产品的设计，这有助于减轻监管负担，还可以避免公司声誉方面的价值破坏事件，以及(2)设计一种使用更少能源的工艺，以减少有毒物质的排放，并缓和高成本能源的影响。因此，拟议的研究方案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模拟和分析模型。

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.