A Novel Method of Sustainability Evaluation in Machining Processes

Abstract

In order to quantitatively evaluate and improve the sustainability of machining systems, this paper presents an emergy (the amount of energy consumed in direct and indirect transformations to make a product or service) based sustainability evaluation and improvement method for machining systems, contributing to the improvement of energy efficiency, resource efficiency and environmental performance, and realizing the sustainability development. First, the driver and challenge are studied, and the scope and hypothesis of the sustainable machining system are illustrated. Then, the emergy-based conversion efficiency model is proposed, which are (1) effective emergy utilization rate (EEUR), (2) emergy efficiency of unit product (EEUP) and (3) emergy conversion efficiency (ECE), to measure and evaluate the sustainable machining system from the perspectives of energy, resource and environment. Finally, the proposed model is applied to a vehicle-bridge machining process, and the results show that this paper provides the theoretical and method support for evaluating and improving the sustainable machining processes to decouple the resources and development of the manufacturing industry.

The Impact of Authorized Remanufacturing on Sustainable Remanufacturing

“…According to the literature [19,20], when the original manufacturer does not adopt authorized remanufacturing, the original manufacturer's profit is negatively correlated with the cost saving made on the remanufactured product, i.e., the greater the cost savings made on the unit remanufactured product, the smaller is the profit of the original manufacturer. However, when the original manufacturer adopts authorized remanufacturing, although the sales volume of the new product is negatively correlated with the cost savings made on the remanufactured product unit, its revenue is positively correlated with the cost savings made on the remanufactured product unit, i.e., the greater the cost savings made on the remanufactured product unit, the greater is the revenue the original manufacturer generates.…”

“…According to Formula (19), when e r e n > δ, e C > e D ; If e r e n < δ, then e C < e D ; If e r e n = δ, then e C = e D .…”

Study on the Sustainability Evaluation Method of Logistics Parks Based on Emergy

“…When logistics parks provide logistics services, they are less dependent on the resources provided by the natural environment and involve relatively less energy. The input energy mainly includes solar, rainwater, and wind energy provided by nature, as well as water, electricity, coal, fuel oil, and other resources used in logistics and other value-added services [35].…”

Special Issue on “Energy, Economy and Environment for Industrial Production Processes”

“…Their results indicate that the probability of deviation of the evaluation function established using polynomial function fitting is 5%, and the accuracy of the evaluation can effectively meet the requirements. To quantitatively evaluate and improve the sustainability of machining systems, Sun et al [16] present an energy-based sustainability evaluation and improvement method for machining systems, contributing to the improvement of energy efficiency, resource efficiency and environmental performance, and realizing sustainability development. Considering that most of the existing integrations of scheduling and process planning mainly focus on optimization techniques for improving the makespan criterion, instead of the more efficient use of energy, Jin et al [17] introduce a multi-objective memetic algorithm with a variable neighborhood search (VNS) technique for this problem.…”