Performance evaluation of lean sustainable systems using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system: a case study

The modern manufacturing organisations have been adopting both lean and sustainable manufacturing paradigms to survive in the competitive environment. Lean and sustainable strategies aim at achieving productivity improvement by streamlined processes and waste elimination. The performance of such integrated lean sustainable system has to be assessed to ensure whether the strategic objectives are in line with customer value and to identify improvement opportunities that enable and enhance the competitive advantage of an integrated lean sustainable system. This paper presents the formulation of conceptual performance evaluation model to assess lean sustainable systems. Appropriate performance indicators have been identified and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system approach is used to evaluate lean sustainability. A case of automotive component manufacturing firm in Indian scenario is exemplified. Based on the evaluation, lean sustainability index was computed and the firm was found to be ‘Averagely Lean Sustainable’. Further improvement actions to enhance the lean sustainable performance were planned and implemented. The developed performance evaluation model is capable of effectively evaluating the lean sustainable performance of manufacturing firms and has more practical relevance.     

State-of-the-art sustainability analysis methodologies for efficient decision support in green production operations

Over the last three decades, new concepts, strategies, frameworks and systems have been developed to tackle the sustainable development issue. This paper reviews the challenges, perspectives and recent advances in support of sustainable production operations decision-making. The aim of this review is to provide a holistic understanding of advanced scientific analysis methodologies for the evaluation of sustainability, to provide efficient decision support. Over 100 publications have been analysed, and a characterisation of state-of-the-art sustainability analysis methodologies has been produced, which includes life cycle assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), along with their applications to three key areas of production operations: sustainable design, sustainable manufacture and sustainable supply chain management. Distribution of existing work is discussed and future research directions are elicited from the literature. The paper finds three trends in supporting sustainable production operations decisions: (a) sustainability analysis has moved to whole life cycle assessment from single-stage assessment, (b) sustainability analysis has shifted away from single criterion to MCDA and (c) sustainability analysis has evolved from stand-alone approaches to integrated systematic methodologies. The paper concludes that integrated sustainability analysis can provide more efficient and effective support to complex decision-making in sustainable production operations.     

The role of the engineering community in sustainable development

Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability assessment is an important part of the decision process in organisations. Sustainability is difficult to define or measure because it is a complex concept. To assess the sustainability level of an organisation, a unique attempt has been made using fuzzy-based Kano model based on the stakeholders' satisfaction. The Kano model is a customer satisfaction assessment tool that must be precise, and it is incorporated with fuzzy logic because it has the capability to replicate the human perceptions. In this context, the approach is used to assess the sustainability by using the stakeholders' satisfaction for different criteria and it provides information regarding improvement in sustainability.     

A Graph Theory approach to measure the performance of sustainability enablers in a manufacturing organization

In a manufacturing organization, the term sustainability deals with the impact of production process and products on the environment and society, laying emphasis on preservation of scarce resources. In this article, the study concentrates on developing a Graph Theory model to measure the performance and inter-relationship between the sustainability enablers in an organization, thereby to quantitatively measure the extent to which ‘sustainable manufacturing’ practices are being followed in the organization. The objective of this study was to identify a set of sustainability enablers and attributes that impact a manufacturing organization. Digraphs were developed for the whole system and sub-systems depicting the inter-relationships and dependencies between various enablers and attributes to interpret the performance of the sustainability enablers in the case organization. Using the best case and worst case values, the level of sustainable manufacturing practices of the organization was found by Comprehensive Assessment Index. Based on the best case values, the relative significance of individual sustainability enablers are found and compared with worst case situations. The impacts of individual enablers on the overall sustainability level of the organization were also studied.     

CDM Projects under the Kyoto Protocol: A Methodology for Sustainability Assessment – Experiences from South Africa and Uruguay

Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries may finance greenhouse gases mitigation projects in developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol explicitly requires that the CDM shall assist developing countries to achieve sustainable development. However, a clear definition of sustainability for CDM projects is still debatable. MATA-CDM (Multi-Attributive Assessment of CDM Projects) is an approach that facilitates a quantitative assessment of potential projects regarding their contribution to sustainable development. This paper presents applications of MATA-CDM in two different countries. In South Africa, the application was done mainly for academic and demonstrative purposes, whereas in Uruguay it was implemented together with the responsible Designated National Authority (DNA). The work in both countries included the selection of sustainability criteria and measurable indicators. Experts weighted the criteria using personal interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop. This method was applied to three potential CDM projects in South Africa and one in Uruguay. Results show that under the conditions of this study, the MATA-CDM approach yet fails to yield a perfect quantitative overall sustainability assessment of CDM projects but that several findings could be useful to further develop the approach with the aim to translate the vague term sustainable development to a mainstream project level. Valuable experience was in particular collected with different stakeholder processes to perform criteria weighting.     

Sustainability risk identification in product development

Sustainability-related issues present significant financial, strategic, compliance and operational risks to manufacturers. Many of these risks directly or indirectly result from the way a product is designed and managed across its life cycle. Assessing sustainability risk (S _R) at the product design stage is crucial for the development of products that both minimise sustainability risk exposure and are environmentally sustainable. Managing the costs associated with these risks requires risk management intervention at the design stage before these costs are committed throughout the life cycle (production, use, end-of-life). The goal of the sustainability risk assessment (SRA) methodology is to provide an approach to comparing the financial cost of a ‘sustainable product’ vs. an ‘unsustainable product’, by factoring in the effects of S _R on life-cycle cost. The SRA methodology demonstrates that, in some cases, sustainable products cost less than unsustainable products when sustainability risk is considered in the costing analysis. This paper outlines the first step of the SRA methodology, which is a process for identifying S _R inherent in the product life cycle. Once key risks are identified, the subsequent steps of the SRA assess and prioritise these risks for treatment through changes to product design and materials composition.     

Exploring the need for more radical sustainable innovation: what does it look like and why?

It has been argued in recent years that Western economies need to increase their resource productivity by 90% over the next 50 years. This is a radical aim. This paper draws on design for sustainability (DfS) thinking to scope interventions that encourage greater levels of resource productivity through reconfiguring concepts of growth and well‐being within organisational strategies, structures, systems, processes and outputs. Based on research from a UK EPSRC funded project Design Dialogues (2005–2008), this paper links together sustainable design and innovation literatures and dialogue‐based primary research that together inform the development of an approach to innovation for sustainability. The emphasis on sustainable innovation is to understand what is designed (the outputs of business) and why (the inputs: the values, beliefs, visions and objectives) within a context of ecological limits. The foundations of this approach are introduced here in order to demonstrate the potential to provoke a new way of thinking about longer‐term organisational innovation through making explicit the intrinsic connections between natural and human capitals. This paper explores the need to think differently in order to create sustainability and presents the outcome of this research: a methodology for innovation for sustainability.     

Proposal of Indicators to Assess Urban Sustainability in Brazil

The research related here focuses on municipal situations where problems of sustainability may be defined and tackled on the basis of bottom-up management procedures with the participation of organized society. The aim is to build management models that may be implemented with reasonable administrative effort and cost. Implementation pursues the target of approaching a sustainable situation in the municipality. Environmental parameters for an ideal municipality with undefined geographical location are presented. For each parameter, a set of indicators is developed that can measure the prospect of sustainability. The indicators are defined in terms of numbers or literal concepts according to the possibility of measurement. Examples of management models are presented, which are able to approach the situation defined as sustainable by the indicators. The basic management tool is the learning curve of targeted communities, which is experimentally developed and applied. The indicators are grouped according to their range of applicability.     

一般持续发展论（下）

本文比较全面地论述了持续发展的由来、概念、目标和战略要素。作者指出,持续发展的提出反映了人类对自身与环境关系的认识进入新阶段;是既满足当代人和局部需要又不危害后代人和全球满足需要能力的发展,包括一般持续发展论、全球持续性、区域持续性和部门持续性。作者认为,社会福利既包括人造产品也包括自然资本,持续发展的目标在于促进社会福利的增长与公平分配,以及生态系统的持续性;而达到持续发展目标的战略要素则包括经济结构的生态现代化、实行以预防为主的环境政策、经济机制的生态现代化、实行有控制的人口转变以及反贫困。在目标和战略要素的论述中,作者提出了发达和发展中国家(地区)应分别实行强持续性和弱持续性。     

Screening of process alternatives based on sustainability metrics: comparison of two decision-making approaches

Importance of sustainability concerns demands consideration of sustainability design criteria in early stages of process design. Most often there are several alternatives for a particular process which must be compared in terms of sustainability metrics to select the most sustainable design. There are several tools available for evaluation of process alternatives in terms of sustainability concerns. However, there is a need for a screening method which enables engineers to compare and select several alternatives in terms of a multitude of metrics and also incorporate their preferences if required. This study utilizes a recently developed sustainability evaluator for process evaluation and compares overall impact factor method for process screening with a novel fuzzy-based approach. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated though application of the methodology on ibuprofen case study to select the most sustainable design.     

A comparison of four sustainable manufacturing strategies

Effective use of materials is one possible component of a sustainable manufacturing strategy. There are many such strategies proposed in the literature and used in practice, with confusion over what they are, what the differences among them may be and how they can be used by practitioners in design and manufacture to improve the sustainability of their product and processes. This paper reviews the literature on sustainable manufacturing strategies that deliver improved material performance. Four primary strategies were found: waste minimisation; material efficiency; resource efficiency; and eco‐efficiency. The literature was analysed to determine the key characteristics of these sustainable manufacturing strategies and 17 characteristics were found. The four strategies were then compared and contrasted against all the characteristics. While current literature often uses these strategy titles in a confusing, occasionally inter‐changeable manner, this study attempts to create clear separation between them. Definition, scope and practicality of measurement are shown to be key characteristics that impact upon the ability of manufacturing companies to make effective use of the proposed strategy. It is observed that the most actionable strategies may not include all of the dimensions of interest to a manufacturer wishing to become more sustainable, creating a dilemma between ease of implementation and breadth of impact.     

Decision support for sustainable manufacturing using decision guidance query language

Sustainability has become a very significant research topic as it impacts many different manufacturing industries. Therefore, the technologies for monitoring, analysing, evaluating and optimising the sustainability performance of manufacturing processes and systems are very critical for decision makers on the shop floor. This paper introduces a decision guidance management system that provides actionable recommendations through quantitative analysis of the sustainability measures of manufacturing processes and systems based on life cycle assessment. The system determines decision preferences through dynamically collected data and decision makers' responses, taking into account the prevailing constraints. Optimal decisions can be derived using mathematical and constraint programming. By using decision guidance query language, this methodology allows users to make optimal decisions without an extensive mathematical or operations research background. Knowledge of relational databases is sufficient for a user to formulate the optimisation problem and obtain optimal solutions. The methodology is demonstrated with a machining operation case study, in which a list of sustainability metrics are identified and sustainability modelling methods are proposed. Important sustainable machining performance measures are optimised, resulting in actionable recommendations.     

中国西部地区可持续能力透视

本文基于目前可持续发展领域的研究成果,对中国区域,尤其是西部地区的可持续能力进行评估,从整体的高度诊断出西部地区可持续发展的制约因素和障碍,并就增强 事的可持续能力提出几点建议,以此为中开发决策奠定了一些理论基础。     

国内外可持续发展评价方法对比分析

国际、国内很多组织都对可持续性评价方法进行过研究分析,但大多是特定的案例研究.目前国内外对可持续发展评价方法没有一个全面系统的分析比较,使得不同地区比较起来很困难.本文对各种评价方法如环境可持续性指数法、生态足迹法、能值分析法和指标综合评价法的来源、理论和应用作了介绍.得出各方法适用范围:可持续性指数法适合于国家间的综合评价;生态足迹和能值分析法适合于各种范围,包括国家、区域、地区和小系统;指标体系综合评价法对于小范围更合适.同时对各种方法的优势和缺陷进行了分析讨论,得出:可持续性指数法信息量大,但是计算复杂;生态足迹法计算过程简单,但是缺失一些可持续性信息;能值分析法考虑问题全面,但是其原理涉及热力学知识,很难被一些学者认同;指标体系评价法变通性较大,可随着评价系统的变化而进行调整,但是主观性较强.通过分析指出不同方法适用范围并指出每种分析方法的优势和不足,为以后选择合适的分析方法评价对象的可持续性提供依据.     

基于生态足迹模型的中国发展可持续性评估

可持续发展的定量测度是可持续发展战略得心实施的重要条件，加拿大学者Mathis Wackemagel提出的生态中迹模型就是一种测量可持续的新方法，该方法通过计算支持特定区域人类社会所有消费活动所需要的土地（生态足迹）与该区域可提供的生物生产性土地（生态承载力0相比较来判断区域发展的可持续性，本文首先简单介绍了生态足迹模型的基本概念、计算方法，然后对中国2001年生态足迹进行了实证研究，研究结果表明，2001年中国人均生态足迹为1.47435hm^2而人均承载力只有1.05306hm^2，生态赤字为0.42129hm^2中国发展具有强不可持续性，现有生产、消费模式的转变是可持续发展的必然要求。     

Environmental Implication of Intensive Farming Practices on North China Plain

1 INTRODUCTION Growing pressure on the land of North China Plain (NCP - a food bowl of the country, has made many of th traditional farming practices increasingly difficult to sustain such as manuring, composting, mulching, legume-based rotations, field levelling and fertilizing with mud from rivers and canals. The pressure on the farmlands has also led to a decrease in farm sizes and shortened fallow periods To cope with this pressure on the land and to maintain its fertility, farmers …     

A hybrid approach using AHP–TOPSIS–entropy methods for sustainable ranking of structural materials

Nowadays, many countries are looking towards sustainability as a goal because our world has limited resources and serious environmental impacts. In the construction industry, the process of sustainable selection of structural material is considered one of the keys to achieve more sustainable construction. In this paper, the theories of decision making are utilised to develop an approach for evaluation and ranking the structural materials over their total life based on sustainability criteria using multi-attribute decision-making methods. One of them is Analytical Hierarchy Process which is utilised to build the problem hierarchical structure and assign weights of the predetermined sustainable factors. The other is Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution which is utilised to rank the structural materials within both each material life cycle phase and the complete material life cycle phases. The third is the concept of entropy by Shannon to evaluate the weight factor for each phase of material life cycle. The proposed approach presents an objective, systematic and comprehensive method for the sustainable ranking of materials that links between the structural element design and the sustainable selection of materials.     

长江中游防洪减灾系统可持续性评价研究

长江中下游平原地区是我国经济发达地区，也是我国洪涝灾害最严重地区之一，根据长江流域可持续发展要求，提出两个问题，一是长江中下游平原区要走可持续发展之路，如何使区内社会经济发展与洪涝灾害相协调，这属于地区可持续发展问题，二是防洪减灾系统能否持久地发挥作用，为社会经济可持续发展提供保障，即防洪减灾系统可持续性评价问题，首先讨论了防洪减灾系统可持续性评价的基本涵义，提出了可持续性评价的5个准则，即功能持久性，风险最低性，经济可行性，环境可承受性及社会可接受性，其次，以长江中游平原分蓄洪工程为例，提出了相应的评价指标体系；最后，选择有效蓄洪量，蓄洪面积，围堤长度，耕地面积，区内人口，区内安全台面积等为指标，建立了分蓄洪工程可持续性评价模型－均衡规划模型，并进行了实例分析探讨。     

Environmental Implication of Intensive Farming Practices on North China Plain

Abstract

The current pressure on production resources of North China Plain, such as land and water to feed the growing population, necessitates the assessment of the sustainability of farming practices. This study focuses on the sustainability of farming practices related to groundwater and soil fertility management. The assessment is based on selected site-specific key indicators and their established threshold limits. The current farming practices in the study area are clearly unsustainable. Only about 6% of the surveyed farm households practice sustainable farming. The study stresses that farming practice, which is economically sustainable, should not be promoted at the cost of environment. Holistic strategies need to be developed and implemented that aim at balanced use of inputs, which satisfy both productivity and environmental concerns.     

区域水资源可持续利用评价的FAHP-PP模型

正确评价区域水资源可持续利用，对区域社会、经济的可持续发展以及生态环境的良性循环都具有重要意义，而区域水资源可持续利用指标体系及评价方法研究是水资源可持续利用研究的基础。借鉴现有评价指标体系的优点，并充分考虑现有评价指标体系所忽略的某些环境因素对水资源可持续利用的影响，针对区域社会-经济-环境复合系统的特点，提出了由区域水资源条件、水资源开发利用程度、区域水资源与社会协调程度、区域水资源与环境协调程度4个子系统及评价指标组成的区域水资源可持续利用评价指标体系。根据水资源系统的随机性、模糊性等特性以及系统评价的公正、客观要求，为规避评价方法的主观性与客观性影响，分别应用主观性较强的模糊层次分析法（FAHP）与客观性较强的投影寻踪模型（PP）对区域水资源可持续利用水平进行评价，并将两种方法的评价结果进行加权求和以实现优势互补，以此建立了区域水资源评价的一种新模型（FAHP PP），然后通过以上海市1998～2007年水资源可持续利用情况为例对该评价指标体系的合理性及方法的有效性进行了说明.