Modelling and analysis of sustainable manufacturing system using a digraph-based approach

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing practices have many benefits like cleaner production, resource efficiency along with economic benefits. Sustainable manufacturing practices focuses on four dimensions environment, economy, business and society. The effective deployment of sustainable concepts mostly depends on interaction of these sustainable dimensions. In this study, an attempt on assessment through modelling has been presented. Mostly two factors determine the sustainable performance of organisation: the performance of the criteria is identified under four dimensions (inheritance) and their interaction (interdependency) among each other. Thus, graph theory-based modelling has been done considering both inheritance and interdependency for computing Overall Organisation Sustainability (OOS) score. Finally, permanent scores for matrices obtained from experts’ team have been computed. OOS score for the organisation has been computed and is compared with the scores of hypothetical scenarios. Through the comparison with hypothetically generated practical best and worst-case scenario, insights have been derived.     

基于理性预期理论的大气污染经济成本评估

我国大气污染形势严峻,科学合理地评估大气污染的经济损失不仅有益于政策效益分析,同时是“绿色国民经济”核算的一项基础性工作。基于我国2013年2月到2018年7月的区县月度房屋交易数据和7种大气污染指标(AQI、SO₂、NO₂、CO、O₃、PM₁₀、PM_2.5)的浓度数据,运用特征价格模型实证量化大气污染物减少的边际支付意愿(MWTP)和总经济损失。首先通过改变理性预期的时间段验证理性预期假设的成立,在此基础上采用理性预期方法解决遗漏变量所导致的内生性问题。研究结果显示:①NO₂、CO、PM_2.5和PM₁₀每上升1μg/m³,房价分别降低约2.04%、0.028%、0.34%和0.39%;而SO₂与O₃对房价的影响并不显著。②近年来大气污染的经济损失有所降低,政府的治理效果显著,但仍不容小觑。2013年AQI、PM₁₀和PM_2.5未达标导致的经济损失分别约为35600亿元、19300亿元和24100亿元,约占当年GDP的6.06%、3.29%和4.11%;2018年分别降低至19200亿元、5300亿元和6700亿元,占当年GDP的2.14%、0.60%和0.74%。尽管PM₁₀和PM_2.5浓度也在逐年下降,但仍未达到《环境空气质量标准》所要求的二级限值。最终评估结果显示,PM₁₀和PM_2.5二者导致的经济损失的加总数值,与AQI得到的数值相差无异。进一步证实了我国当前大气污染导致的社会经济福利损失主要是来自PM₁₀和PM_2.5的超标,因此治理“雾霾”是改善当前空气质量的关键。     

Performance evaluation of sustainable projects: a possibilistic integrated novel analytic hierarchy process-data envelopment analysis approach using Z-Number information

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Selecting a proper set of projects is an important issue to make crucial decisions for many project-oriented organizations enabling them to achieve...     

Analysis of availability and accessibility of hydrogen production: An approach to a sustainable energy system using methane hydrate resources

It is considered that use of hydrogen as an energy source may contribute to environmental improvement and provide an alternative energy system. Moreover, it is anticipated that hydrogen will be in great demand in the near future for use in such vehicles as fuel cell-based cars. Research and development of a number of advanced methods of hydrogen production (OTEC, water photolysis using a semiconductor, a municipal waste gasification—smelting system, etc.) is currently under way.A comparison of different hydrogen-rich fuels in this paper shows that methane is advantageous for hydrogen production from the viewpoint of energy efficiency as measured by thermodynamic analysis. This paper therefore proposes combining existing technology for hydrogen production with an unconventional methane source in order to facilitate the realization of a hydrogen energy system: i.e., this paper proposes combining the process of steam reforming, which is commercialized worldwide, with use of untouched natural gas hydrate (NGH) resources. Gas hydrate deposits, which are distributed worldwide, hold great amounts of methane gas and have hardly been touched. This paper presents the economic parameters of NGH development and discusses the concept of devising useful applications of NGHs, with consideration given to (1) independence from current fossil fuels; (2) energy transport using the hydrate system; (3) CO₂ sequestration — replacement of methane hydrate with CO₂ hydrate in the submarine layer and (4) improvement of current steam reforming of methane by CO₂ reuse and zeolite application. This paper thus proposes a new solution that will make a key contribution to the systematic development of a new sustainable energy structure.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Analysis of availability and accessibility of hydrogen production: An approach to a sustainable energy system using methane hydrate resources

It is considered that use of hydrogen as an energy source may contribute to environmental improvement and provide an alternative energy system. Moreover, it is anticipated that hydrogen will be in great demand in the near future for use in such vehicles as fuel cell-based cars. Research and development of a number of advanced methods of hydrogen production (OTEC, water photolysis using a semiconductor, a municipal waste gasification—smelting system, etc.) is currently under way. A comparison of different hydrogen-rich fuels in this paper shows that methane is advantageous for hydrogen production from the viewpoint of energy efficiency as measured by thermodynamic analysis. This paper therefore proposes combining existing technology for hydrogen production with an unconventional methane source in order to facilitate the realization of a hydrogen energy system: i.e., this paper proposes combining the process of steam reforming, which is commercialized worldwide, with use of untouched natural gas hydrate (NGH) resources. Gas hydrate deposits, which are distributed worldwide, hold great amounts of methane gas and have hardly been touched. This paper presents the economic parameters of NGH development and discusses the concept of devising useful applications of NGHs, with consideration given to (1) independence from current fossil fuels; (2) energy transport using the hydrate system; (3) CO₂ sequestration — replacement of methane hydrate with CO₂ hydrate in the submarine layer and (4) improvement of current steam reforming of methane by CO₂ reuse and zeolite application. This paper thus proposes a new solution that will make a key contribution to the systematic development of a new sustainable energy structure.     

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.     

Ranking Canadian universities: a quantitative approach for sustainability assessment using uD-SiM

This paper introduces a model that enables a comparison between universities based on sustainability indicators related to environmental, economic, social and educational aspects. The proposed model is based on a driving force-pressure-state-exposure-effect-action (DPSEEA) framework and is called uncertainty-based DPSEEA-Sustainability index Model (uD-SiM). The uD-SiM applies the concept of causality and develops sustainability index (SI), which is an outcome of nonlinear relationships of sustainability indicators in different stages of DPSEEA. In this paper, this fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision-making model is used to evaluate the sustainability of five Canadian universities, namely the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, the McGill University and the Memorial University. The final ranking results are compared with the Green report card ranking for 2010 through SI. The application of various actions and strategies that can be applied to different stages of the framework to improve sustainability in higher education institutions is also discussed.     

Evaluation of sustainability using an integrated approach at process and product level: a case study

The present world is facing problems like rapid depletion of natural resources and undesired environmental changes on a global scale. Manufacturing organisations are realising the importance of mitigating the present crisis and are adopting sustainable manufacturing principles. Since it is important to achieve sustainable manufacturing, sustainability assessment models were developed. Sustainability assessment models have their own drawbacks and may not provide clear scope for complete sustainable development. A system approach has been developed to overcome this shortcoming by integrating various sustainability assessment models that are already in practice. This article reports the advantages of collecting the advantages of individual sustainability assessment models and how the implementation of the integrated approach has helped to identify the current sustainability level and the scope for future developments in an automotive industry.