The Possibilities of Evaluating the Sustainability of a Production Process
2013-09
Sustainability in production processes is mandatory in the manufacturing environment due to restrictions such as legislation.
Conventional Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) don’t really support environmental sustainable goals but are actually the most suitable background for an extension towards sustainability monitoring, control and assessment. This paper introduces a new MES generation which is enhanced with interoperable data acquisition, analysis and optimization in line with sustainability goals. A harmonization work on metrics and indicators, aligned with the Triple Bottom Line, is presented based on an analysis of industrial users’ requirements within machining process context. Also, a framework for sustainability evaluation through a specific architecture is introduced. Based on an industrial use case, the given approach is set in the context of the FoFdation project which also addresses the integration among manufacturing IT systems towards overall lifecycle management.