Lean Manufacturing and Value Engineering, Two Concepts for Sustainable Management

Value System for Sustainable Manufacturing

Maturity Model Concepts for Sustainable Manufacturing

Sustainability has been identified as an emerging business megatrend that companies across the spectrum need to respond to. Companies in the manufacturing industry have also increased their efforts in this direction. However, the efforts for improving the efficiency of manufacturing processes vary widely across the industry and may vary even within different locations of a large manufacturing o...

A case study of lean, sustainable manufacturing

A small furniture production company has integrated lean tools and sustainability concepts with discrete event simulation modeling and analysis as well as mathematical optimization to make a positive impact on the environment, society and its own financial success. The principles of lean manufacturing that aid in the elimination of waste have helped the company meet ever increasing customer dem...

Lean manufacturing: costing the value stream

The term “lean manufacturing”, (Womack et al., 1990), refers to the generalization of the Toyota Production system (TPS), also called Just-in-Time (JIT). One feature of such system is the reduction of costs through elimination of waste (Sugimori et al., 1977). Waste or muda (in Japanese) is anything that does not add value to a product. Elimination of muda is done by means of continuous improve...

Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Manufacturing

When Frosch and Gallopolous published their seminal article “Strategies for Manufacturing” in 1989, they signaled a central concern with manufacturing in the field of industrial ecology (IE). They and other early pioneers in the field brought an interest in examining how industry could leverage its technological prowess to improve environmental outcomes. In North America, this interest emerged,...