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Title: | Sustainable development strategies for product provision and manufacturing approaches |
Authors: | De Coster, R Bateman, RJ Plant, AVC |
Keywords: | Manufacturing firms;Manufacturing processes;Performance measures;Sustainability;Product life |
Issue Date: | 2010 |
Publisher: | Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge |
Citation: | 15th Cambridge International Manufacturing Symposium: Innovation in global manufacturing - New models for sustainable value capture, Cambridge, UK, 23-24 September 2010 |
Abstract: | Manufacturing firms are under many pressures both financially and competitive which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life and secondly, manufacturing approaches which reduce resource usage. The provision and manufacture of products in ways that are truly sustainable are inhibited by three issues: firstly, decisions are predominantly made solely from the perspective of the “vendor” (and do not consider the wider perspective); secondly, that generally the scope of business planning is still rooted in production/manufacturing costs (and not consumption costs) and thirdly, the current performance measures (e.g. KPIs) mainly focus on profitability. The rationale for this conference paper is the argument that there is a need to raise the awareness during the earliest stages of business planning that there may be alternative approaches which are more sustainable. The concepts presented here will underpin further research into performance measures which encompass sustainability and resulting business planning implications. |
URI: | http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/cim/symposium2010/proceedings/15_decoster.pdf http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5956 |
Appears in Collections: | Design Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dept of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Papers |
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