Environment Conscious Manufacturing

Book excerpt: Hotter temperatures, less arctic ice, loss of habitat-every other day, it seems, global warming and environmental issues make headline. Consumer-driven environmental awareness combined with stricter recycling regulations have put the pressure on companies to produce and dispose of products in an environmental responsible manner. Redefining industrial ecology, while reconsidering the original definition, Environment Conscious Manufacturing (ECM) explores topics such as industrial metabolism, product design for the environment, design of reverse and closed-loco supply chains, and disassembly modeling, using case studies to support the discussion. "Environmentally friendly" has evolved from reluctant compliance with required regulations to a mechanism for gaining the competitive advantage and an important part of strategic management. Expected benefits of this paradigm shift include safer and cleaner facilities, lower future costs for disposal and worker protection, reduced environmental and health risks, and improved product quality at lower cost and higher productivity. Describing the basic elements of ECM, this book gives you the tools and techniques for developing ECM strategies. Features, Discusses the design of products, considering all phases of the life cycle from definition of product requirements to disposal, Highlights the issues arising from the design of facility and storage space for remanufacturing, and fluctuations in inventory capacity and configuration requirements, Describes a multi-kanban system for effectively controlling disassembly inventory and maintaining an acceptable level of customer service, Explores a Markov model for evaluating and optimizing the customer demand, recovery and disposal rates, and for calculating the total expected cost per period, Illustrates the use of integrative structural modeling for investigating, analyzing, and overcoming barriers to ECM Book jacket.