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Higher country taxes on noxious manufacturing emissions lead to substantial increases in firms' R&D spending. The R&D response is entirely driven by those high-pollution firms most affected by emissions taxes. Pollution taxes increase the marginal value of R&D spending in polluting firms, even when this spending does not lead to new innovation. Pollution taxes have the strongest effect on R&D investment in sectors in which new invention is difficult to appropriate and outside knowledge is easier to acquire, suggesting an important reason dirty firms invest in R&D is to expand their capacity to absorb external knowledge and technical know-how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptive technologies can increase the intelligence of goods and revitalize business models in the circular economy. Applying an industrial ecology perspective, this article discusses how intelligent goods can boost the sustainability of industrial ecosystems. North American and European cases highlight how business model innovators can utilize goods-related information to develop more competitive closed-loop systems. The authors identify three archetypes of closed-loop systems—inner circles, decentralized systems, and open systems—and delineate how they leverage information resources for collaboration. This study advances the understanding of closed-loop systems in the circular economy, which is more dependent than ever on digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next-generation manufacturing enterprises need to be sensing, smart and sustainable to be competitive: 'sensing' refers to context awareness at internal and external levels; 'smart' refers to knowledge-based organisations that adapt to changes and 'sustainable' refers to the ability to operate without damaging the environment, community or economy. Although technologies do exist to support the development of such enterprises, there is a need for methodologies that help in the entire enterprise engineering problem. This paper proposes a methodology, based on the principles of enterprise architecture, to design a sensing, smart and sustainable manufacturing enterprise. The methodology aims at adopting the best practices used in enterprise engineering while dealing with the relevant gaps. An analysis of the characteristics of the 'Sensing, Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Enterprise' (S3-ME) is presented to understand the advantages of using the proposed methodology. The methodology comprises the instantiation of five viewpoints presented in the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (ISO/IEC 10746 RM-ODP) and redefined by the Smart and Sensing Enterprise Reference Model (S²E-RM). The viewpoint instantiation is described and then exemplified with a case study. As a result of the instantiation, the enterprise is defined through an enterprise model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the extant literature, manufacturing environmental practices have been attributed to institutional pressures. This study extends this view by observing how different levels of the institutional field (national level vs. regional market level) would have varied effects on manufacturing environmental practices. We empirically investigate, using structural equation modelling, how different types of the manufacturing environmental practices react differently to pressures from a fragmented institutional field. Two distinct types of manufacturing environmental practices occur at the administrative planning operation and technical core operation. Our results confirm such manufacturing environmental practices at different operations lead to different performance benefits - the administrative environmental planning (AEPs) benefit market growth, whereas the technical core environmental practice (TEP) benefit the environment. National-level pressures do not lead to manufacturing environmental practices. Instead, the findings show that institutional pressures at the regional market level influence both types of manufacturing environmental practices. In the contribution, our study has offered an empirical examination of a fragmented institutional field and the impact on two types of manufacturing environmental practices. Further, we also explicitly identified AEPs that lead to market growth and TEPs that create environmental improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing plants will reduce the production costs and environmental impact. In order to analyse and improve the energy efficiency of manufacturing plants, however, we need models to evaluate the energy footprints of the plants. A key challenge of estimating plant-level footprints is that systemic methods of connecting information on the product, machine and plant levels are not available. Thus, we propose methods to parameterise product-level elements and to model machine-level factors based on those elements. From the machine-level models, the proposed approach performs simulation experiments and provides the energy footprints in closed-form equations for the plant level. We also suggest that the resulting model can be combined with probabilistic techniques to benchmark the energy efficiency of plants at the industry level. In a case study, we demonstrate how to apply the proposed methods to estimate the energy footprint of a hypothetical plant. The procedures introduced here enable manufacturers to evaluate the energy consumption of their facilities at early stages of manufacturing, and provide tools to assess the energy efficiency of their plant by comparison with peers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The environmental literature has focused on examining how firms leverage environmental innovation to convert environmental challenges into driving forces of competitive advantage. This paper enhances the knowledge on the implementation of environmental strategies in the Malaysian manufacturing industry by examining the impacts of environmental shared vision and environmental strategic focus on competitive advantage in the greening of the industry. The Smart PLS technique was used to analyse data collected from 124 Malaysian manufacturing firms on their environmental strategies as well as their implications for competitive advantage and environmental innovation. The findings suggest that environmental innovation mediates the positive exchange between firms' environmental strategies and competitive advantage. The study provides valuable information for manufacturers in crafting their corporate competitive strategies, policies, and action plans. The direct and indirect roles of environmental innovation in fostering competitive advantage suggest that manufacturers should prioritise their environmental activities by enhancing innovation outcomes to achieve a successful green business status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the business climate has been affected by high commodity prices, losses suffered due to economic and structural waste, and, most importantly, the adverse impact to the environment has threatened the long-term global wealth creation ability of businesses. This unprecedented and exponential surge of undesirable factors calls for a different approach to the current linear economic system. The conception of a circular economy has sparked great interest, with many industries and nations hailing it as the most significant innovation of the 21st century. The study focuses on identifying key influencing factors that positively impact the adoption of Circular Economy with relevance to emerging economies of the world. A total of 191 usable responses got collected, with a response rate of roughly 88%. The data collected from the questionnaire got analyzed using ADANCO 2.0 to build a process model using a variance-based structural equation. Variance-based SEM first creates proxies as linear combinations of observed variables and, after that, uses these proxies to estimate the model parameters. It is a popular statistical technique because of its ability to model selected independent variables and consider all possible forms of measurement error to test an entire theory. The data analysis suggests that the SOLVE model is an influential model which, when implemented in the manufacturing sector, can help tap various opportunities. The SOLVE model helps companies achieve the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit). Companies should consider investing their time, efforts, and money to bridge the circularity gap and thus adopting the circular innovation strategies. It increases profits for firms and boosts innovation in business models, product design supply chains, and other aspects of the economy. Furthermore, it generates employment and helps people achieve sustainable development goals. Policymakers at all government levels play an essential role in the circular economy. There are two broad and complementary policymaking strategies to accelerate the circular economy: fixing the market and regulatory failures and stimulating market activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development (SD) will be the driving force to Twenty-first Century as automation was to the Twentieth Century and stream was to Nineteenth Century. There are two levels of sustainability: Macro-Level (country, cities) and Micro-Level (manufacturing enterprises and its town and regional areas). In this paper, Micro-Level of sustainability will be discussed. The major challenge of manufacturing enterprises is modelling and assessing the sustainable development performance. Introducing indexes for sustainable development assessment in manufacturing enterprises is important not only to enable them to quantitatively estimate SD, but also to determine the requirements of components for these enterprises to survive. The main objectives addressed in this paper is how to model the required components and how to introduce a new assessment framework for assessing sustainability from lowest levels, dimensions up to sustainable development level according to Micro-Level. The three pillars of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) are modelled, estimated and incorporated into a concept, the so-called ‘general sustainable development index’. Based on these concepts, the sustainable models will be analysed and presented through covering all aspects/issues of sustainability. The ultimate goal of this paper is considering the needs of manufacturing enterprise to be sustainable as well as to be globalised through introducing the concept of economic-social-environmental sustainable development and basic attitudes related to creating sustainable development value in engineering practices (economic), social (political) and environmental community. An industry-based case study is used to represent sustainability through aspects, performance metrics, indicators and pillars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Manufacturing firms consume energy and natural resources in highly unsustainable manner and release large amounts of green house gases leading to many economic, environmental and social problems from climate change to local waste disposal. Consciousness about these issues has led to a new manufacturing paradigm of environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). However, there are various barriers to the implementation of ECM. A proper understanding and analysis of these barriers will allow the management of the company and government to prioritise their focus to mitigate root barriers for effective implementation of ECM. This paper aims at identifying the barriers to ECM, developing a model of these barriers using statistical analysis and testing the model using structural equation modelling technique. The results provide three types of barriers – internal, policy and economic. The results show that internal barriers are the root barriers and cause policy and economic barriers. It reflects that the barriers which are internal to the organisation should be mitigated first for effective implementation of ECM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses mechanisms for the allocation of emission permits (AEP) among a group of manufacturing companies aiming at controlling the total emission level of the group. Data envelopment analysis is adopted and extended to construct the AEP models. Proposed methods allocate the permits on the basis of the current input and output levels of individual firms, rather than historical records. Two variations of AEP mechanisms are considered. One situation is that one of the member firms dominates the responsibility of allocating emission permits on behalf of the group (individual AEP scenario). This dominating firm will maximise its own emission permit before allocating permits among other members in the group. The other situation is that a third-party central governing body is centrally responsible for coordinating the AEP among all group members (Central AEP scenario). Proposed mechanisms are applied to analyse efficiencies of a group of paper mills. The result shows that the mode of central AEP mechanism is a better choice than that of the individual AEP mechanism. Central AEP not only maximises the whole efficiency of the group but also improves efficiencies of individual firms. In contrast, with individual AEP, one firm gains efficiency at the loss of others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses how the U.S. federal government can effectively implement environmental laws and policies to ensure foreign companies produce their products in environmentally-friendly ways. Other topics include the U.S.-China manufacturing relationship, the impact of China's lack of environmental regulations and pollution data to the U.S., and the Porter Hypothesis economic theory.

Green supply chain issues have attracted a lot of attention in recent years with growing awareness of environmental concerns. This has drawn the considerable world-wide attention of academics and practitioners. Therefore, recycling has now become an integral component of the supply chain. Recycling of used products and the related logistics management pose a significant challenge to manufacturing industries. In order to resolve the complexity of the task, this study proposes a multi-agent architecture to handle recycling and reverse logistics issues, which have so far been neglected. It addresses the different aspects of recycling such as waste classification, recycling, logistics and reuse of products. Additionally, it also discusses how the agent communicates and acts autonomously to facilitate the efficient logistics of materials between different units. The proposed agent architecture can assist manufacturing industries in efficiently managing their green supply chain system and complex logistics issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades there has been a consistent need for companies to manufacture ‘green’ products in order to contribute to environmental protection. The utilisation of used products (literally, the extension of their useful life cycle) is an excellent, indirect way for companies to conform to this requirement and, at the same time, increase their profit. In this paper a mixed integer linear programming mathematical model is proposed, which can be used for the optimisation of procurement, remanufacturing, stocking and salvaging decisions. The model is flexible enough to incorporate multiple suppliers, several quality levels of returned products and multiple periods of time. The applicability of the model is demonstrated through the optimisation of alternative scenarios, the optimal solutions of which reveal the potential profitability of used products exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Environmental pressures have caused green supply chain management (GSCM) to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for manufacturing enterprises. For manufacturers to fully realise the performance potentials of GSCM, they need to integrate internal GSCM practices emphasising functional coordination with external GSCM practices such as cooperation with suppliers and customers in the implementation. Using coordination theory, this article examines three models used to evaluate the mediation relationships between the external and internal practices of GSCM with respect to environmental, economic, and operational performance. We posit that the strategic stance of manufacturing enterprises in improving their overall performance and competitive position requires a joint coordination of internal and external GSCM practices. Survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturing enterprises are used to validate our arguments by testing the mediation effects of two categories of GSCM practices. Our empirical results show support for the mediation effects, which indicates the importance for manufacturers to coordinate between the internal and external aspects of implementing GSCM practices to reap the performance benefits. Coordinating internal and external GSCM practices to seek performance improvements is an important aspect of the manufacturing operations strategy. The dynamics of implementing GSCM practices and the performance contingencies are worthwhile topics to pursue in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The view that adopting an environmental perspective on operations can lead to improved operations has become commonplace over the past decade. The implication is that any operational system that has minimised inefficiencies is also more environmentally sustainable. In the first phase of our research, we conducted a field research of the green manufacturing techniques in place in two world-class, ISO 14001-certified paint manufacturing firms in India. This phase of the study was undertaken to ascertain the cost benefits that these firms enjoy due to green manufacturing and recycling. Based on the field work in these two companies, a conceptual framework was proposed to investigate any relationship between the consumer's attitude towards the environment and the perceived image of a company that was environmentally conscious. Subsequently, a survey was administered to understand the impact of green marketing on the decision of consumers to buy paint manufactured by a firm that stringently regulates its hazardous waste. Results indicate that there is a strong correlation between the environmental concern of the survey respondent and the perception that the respondent forms of the firm that has implemented green manufacturing techniques. There is also a strong correlation between the decision to buy a green product and the respondent's concern for the environment as well as the perception formed of the firm. Further research is required to substantiate the cost benefits of green manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research explored problems concerning production and delivery in a green supply chain, and constructed an optimal mathematical model to provide solutions. This model incorporates WEEE and RoHS in EU directives for the selection of green partners when establishing a supply chain. The weight of each component is calculated by fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP). Previous studies suggested that a supply chain is a balanced system, however, in actual practice, there may be processing damages or delivering losses. Thus, such a supply chain with production loss is known as a 'defective supply chain'. This research analysed the defective supply chain system to discuss its supplier selection, production, and distribution. It developed an optimal mathematical model for both balanced and defective models, and adopted particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to obtain solutions for both models. Finally, case studies for both models with quality solutions were discussed to confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel redesign approach that allows integrating environmental requirements into product development, taking into account cost and customer preferences. The proposed methodology allows the identification of environmental improvement options and the study of the effect that the incorporation of these options has over other traditional product requirements. However, for the incorporation of environmental improvements to be feasible from the company perspective, a market for environmentally friendly products must exist where customers are willing to pay for such products. The primary idea is to compare the increase that the incorporation of the environmental improvements produces on the life cycle cost of the product to the additional money that the customer is willing to pay for perceiving environmental benefits. The proposed approach is focused on establishing a relationship between quality function deployment (QFD), life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost (LCC) and contingent valuation (CV) techniques for evaluating customer, environmental and cost requirements and customer willingness-to-pay (WTP), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced product quality planning (APQP) logic is widely used by manufacturers for the design and manufacture of automotive components. Manufacturers are increasingly finding difficulties to incorporate environmental considerations in the broad range of products that they manufacture. Therefore, there is a need for a systematic method for environmental process planning to evaluate product configurations and their associated environmental impact. The framework and models discussed in this paper can deal with a variety of product characteristics and environmental impacts through a selection of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) for a final product configuration. The framework and models have been applied in a real-life application and have proven that changes in product design or process selection can reduce the product's environmental impact and increase process efficiency. Hence, manufacturers can use the framework and models during the APQP process to benchmark each product variation that they manufacture in a standardized manner and realize cost saving opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community concerns about the environmental impacts of packaging have prompted governments to introduce policies and regulations which impose eco-taxes or deposit-return systems, require companies to take-back and recover their packaging, or promote voluntary product stewardship programmes. Until recently these programmes have focused almost exclusively on consumer (retail) packaging, but increasingly companies are starting to address the environmental impacts of industrial packaging. This is being driven as much by regulation as it is by the need to reduce costs and increase efficiency in supply chains. This paper argues that environmental innovation in industrial packaging systems requires a cooperative supply chain approach to ensure that environmental and commercial costs are reduced and efficiencies optimized for the chain as a whole. This is based on a review of the literature and an industrial packaging supply chain research and demonstration programme conducted between 2003 and 2005 in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that disassembly-based product End-of-Life strategies, such as component reuse or simple fraction material recycling, are environmentally beneficial. However, current disassembly costs hinder a widespread application of these strategies. This paper quantifies the disassembly time reductions required to achieve economic feasibility of systematic product disassembly. A modelling framework, based on linear programming, is used to investigate the effect of reducing the expected disassembly time and cost on the selection of the optimal End-of-Life strategy. The problem is optimized from an End-of-Life treatment facility point of view. All findings are based on the Belgian cost and price information captured in spring 2004. The linear programming model shows that for small products from the Waste of Electric and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) category disassembly-based End-of-Life strategies will hardly become optimal, while for medium- and large-sized products, this scenario can be made optimal if a substantial disassembly time reduction is achieved. Possible strategies to realize such reduction are briefly sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chief executives must allocate their scarce time for scanning efforts among relevant domains of their firms' external environment and their firms' internal circumstances. We argue that high-performing CEOs vary their relative scanning emphases on different domains according to the level of dynamism they perceive in their external environments. The concepts of dominant logic and sector importance were used to develop predictions about which external domains and which internal domains should receive relatively more or less scanning emphasis in external environments that, overall, are more dynamic or more stable. A field survey of 105 single-business manufacturing firms evaluated CEOs' scanning emphases and firm performance. Results indicated that, for dynamic external environments, relatively more CEO attention to the task sectors of the external environment and to innovation-related internal functions was associated with high performance. In stable external environments, however, simultaneously increased scanning of the general sectors in the external environment and efficiency-related internal functions produced higher performance. These relationships were strongest between relative scanning emphases among domains and sales growth. We discuss the implications of these results for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of the natural environment is becoming an increasingly important issue to manufacturing firms, yet their managers are also challenged to implement changes that improve competitiveness. To meet this challenge, a new construct grounded in the resource-based view of the firm and manufacturing strategy has been developed: the environmental technology portfolio. The composition of a plant's portfolio--the pattern of its investment in environmental technologies in manufacturing over time--was found to significantly affect both manufacturing and environmental performance for a sample of manufacturing plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High contents of azo dyes and heavy metals enter surface waters with the wastewater from dying and dye-manufacturing industries and pose serious threat to fish. In the present study, changes in the ultra-morphological features of the scale have been evaluated as indicators of the stress of lethal and sublethal concentrations of an azo dye Acid Black-1 (AB-1, CI 20470), zinc (Zn), and their mixture AB-1 + Zn to Labeo rohita. Fish were exposed for 96 h to lethal concentration (LC) causing 0–70% mortality, i.e., LC0, LC20, LC50, and LC70 of AB-1 (4, 6, 8, and 10 mg/L respectively) and Zn (25, 50, 55, and 60 mg/L respectively) and LC0, LC50, and LC70 of AB-1 + Zn (2 + 15, 2 + 20, and 2 + 25 mg/L respectively). Subchronic exposures of 150 days were given to 1/12, 1/6, and 1/3 of 96 h LC50 values of AB-1, Zn, and AB-1 + Zn. After each exposure, the fish were kept for a recovery period of 90 days. Breakage of circuli, erosion and breakage of lepidonts, uprooting of tubercles, and disappearance of intercircular teeth were observed in all the fish, after 96 h exposure to AB-1, Zn, and AB-1 + Zn. However, damage to focus and holes were common on the scales of Zn-exposed fish. The mixture AB-1 + Zn was more toxic than either of the two as loss of circuli, lepidonts, and intercircular teeth, and sloughing of surface were observed in the scales after 96 h exposure to 2 + 25 mg/L. Damage at this concentration was more than the damage at 8/10 mg/L AB-1 and 55/60 mg/L Zn. After 150 days of exposure, damage due to sublethal concentrations was more than the damage due to all the concentrations of 96 h exposure. Irregular and sloughed circuli were common at 2 + 1.79 and 2 + 3.59 mg/L AB-1 + Zn. Cracks all over the surface (2 + 7.18 mg/L), calcium projections (2 + 3.59 and 2 + 7.18 mg/L), and holes (2 + 7.18 mg/L) hint towards synergistic toxicity of the mixture. It seems that the present dye and metal formed complexes with collagen and osteoblastic cells of the scale that caused an increase in damage during the post-exposure period. Scales of 2 + 7.18 mg/L AB-1 + Zn exposed fish were completely devoid of the normal architectural pattern on the 90th day of the recovery period. Changes in the ultra-morphology of scales at LC0 (0% mortality) and sublethal concentrations show that these are early indicators of the stress of minute quantities of dyes and metals in water. This is a first report on the cumulative toxicity of the two most abundant components of textile industry effluents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operators in industrial manufacturing environments are under pressure to cope with the ever increasing flexibility and complexity of work. Transitioning towards data-driven smart manufacturing environments in the context of Industry 4.0 with wearable technologies and sensors brings the opportunity to (1) use the recorded data to deliver timely assistance to the operator and (2) employ it in retrospective for work process optimisation. Despite these clear opportunities challenges are raised concerning the perceived threats of the usage of the data that outweigh the perceived benefits. Thus, it is paramount to strongly consider privacy concerns when designing a system for a smart manufacturing environments from the onset rather than an afterthought. This paper presents a trust and privacy framework to address these challenges by facilitating the understanding of the role of trust and privacy in complex smart manufacturing systems. The framework is instantiated in the context of a smart manufacturing system developed in the EU H2020 HUMAN project and evaluated in three studies towards its perceived usefulness and its impact on the privacy awareness in a concrete smart manufacturing application scenario. The evaluation results show that the framework helps to structure and understand the data-flow in a smart manufacturing scenario from a privacy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new framework for sustainably assessment of manufacturing processes is developed. • The new framework covers the three dimensions of sustainability. • The framework combines subjective and objective weighting techniques. • Multi-criteria decision making methods are used for normalization and aggregation. • Sensitivity analysis is integrated to ensure the reliability of the results. Abstract The manufacturing sector has a major impact on the three sustainability dimensions represented by social, economic, and environmental aspects. Most of the work on sustainability assessment in the field of manufacturing is conducted at the product level or for specific processes; mainly machining with a limited number of indicators that do not capture all three dimensions of sustainability. The aim of this work is to develop a new systematic and comprehensive framework for sustainability assessment of manufacturing processes that covers the three sustainability dimensions. Guidelines to select and quantify the relevant indicators, convert the quantified weighted indicators into dimensionless quantities, and rank the alternatives based on the aggregated scores are presented. The proposed framework combines objective and subjective weighting methods to reduce the uncertainty associated with subjective weighting. It also captures the interaction among different indicators by utilizing multi criteria decision making methods instead of the traditional statistical methods. Sensitivity analysis is proposed to ensure the reliability and robustness of the aggregated results (final scores). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Between 1990 and 2008, air pollution emissions from US manufacturing fell by 60 percent despite a substantial increase in manufacturing output. We show that these emissions reductions are primarily driven by within-product changes in emissions intensity rather than changes in output or in the composition of products produced. We then develop and estimate a quantitative model linking trade with the environment to better understand the economic forces driving these changes. Our estimates suggest that the implicit pollution tax that manufacturers face doubled between 1990 and 2008. These changes in environmental regulation, rather than changes in productivity and trade, account for most of the emissions reductions. (JEL F18, H23, L60, Q52, Q53, Q56, Q58) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the recent sustainability assessment studies in the manufacturing industry from the triple-bottom-line (TBL) perspective. This paper aims to depict the status quo of practical sustainability assessment, summarize the different levels and boundaries of evaluation, and highlight the difficulties and further improvements needed to make the assessment more effective in the manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approach Four keywords, namely, sustainability assessment, sustainable manufacturing, TBL and green production, were used to explore and find the relevant articles. First, this paper systematically reviewed the studies and analyzed the different levels and boundaries of sustainability assessment. Following this, the reviewed studies were critically discussed along with their merits and shortcomings.Findings The review showed that most of the sustainability assessment studies were conducted on product, company and process levels in the manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, there is still a need to focus more on plant and process level assessments to achieve the TBL objectives. Environmental assessment is comparatively matured in manufacturing industries. However, from the economic and social viewpoints, only cost analysis and workers' safety, respectively, were considered in most of the studies. The economic and social indicators need to be more inclusive and should be validated and standardized for manufacturing industries.Originality/value Unlike previous sustainability assessment reviews in manufacturing industries which were mostly based on life cycle assessment, this paper has included environmental, social and economic aspects in one comprehensive review and focused on recent studies published from 2010 to 2017. This paper has explored the recent sustainability assessment trends and provided insights into the development of sustainability assessment in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how ambiguity in corporate objectives affects managers’ choice between opposing sustainability and short-term profit goals. We test this question with an experiment in which we vary whether environmental sustainability is included explicitly (vs implicitly) as a strategic objective that is used for managers’ performance evaluations. Findings show that managers increase (decrease) biodegradable production and correspondingly decrease (increase) short-term profit when environmental sustainability performance is explicitly (implicitly) incorporated within the company’s strategic objectives. Also, managers in the implicit incorporation group are more likely to decrease (increase) their biodegradable production when they learn that their counterparts within the firm have chosen to decrease (increase) biodegradable production in other product lines. Further, managers in the explicit incorporation group have greater trust in senior management, and that trust mediates the negative relationship between incorporation ambiguity and the level of biodegradable production. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long standing debate regarding the link between environmental and financial performance. To date, this debate results controversial findings, triggering for further research in different industries and countries. The specific study examines the relationship between environmental and financial performance in Greek manufacturing. Environmental performance is measured according to accounting data following the Eco Management and Auditing Scheme guidelines and ISO certification. Return on assets and return on sales ratios are used as indicators of financial performance. Empirical findings suggest that there seems to be a link between these dimensions irrespectively of the particular sector of activity. Contrary to similar studies a “virtuous circle” does not exist, as the avoidance of environmental improving investments is related to a better financial performance. On the other hand, firms with superior financial performance seem to achieve a better environmental performance. At the same time, firm specific and market characteristics significantly affect this relationship. These findings provide evidence that governmental and corporate actions are necessary in order to lead to a more sustainable corporate performance in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American companies operating manufacturing affiliates abroad in less-developed countries are facing problems stemming from three major sources of environmental change. This article discusses these sources in detail and considers their implications. INSET: An Example of the Impact of Import Controls..... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which enabling and controlling uses of management control systems (MCS) moderate the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze survey data collected from top managers in 175 manufacturing and services sectors representing multinational and local organizations operating in Sri Lanka. We find that while the enabling use of MCS positively moderates the relationship between environmental innovation strategy and organizational performance, in contrast, the controlling use of MCS negatively moderates the relationship. We compare the results for the manufacturing and services sectors. As predicted, we find a significant positive moderating impact of the enabling use of MCS in both manufacturing and services sectors. However, contrary to our expectations, we find no significant moderating impact for both sectors for the controlling use of MCS. We conclude that environmental innovation strategy per se does not lead to performance improvements; however, the extent to which organizations use enabling and controlling MCS determines the relationship. We provide theoretical insights and practical implications concerning the importance of strategic alignment between managerial controls, environmental innovation strategy, and organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to rigorous environmental legislations and competitive economics worldwide, a growing number of companies are devoted to recovering and remanufacturing used products. Consequently, over the past few decades, the management of manufacturing/remanufacturing systems has been receiving increasing attention from researchers and companies leaders. Most of the existing research papers in the literature considered that remanufactured products have the same quality and price as new ones. However, in practice, the market perceives new items as higher quality products rather than remanufactured items. This paper aims to bridge the gap in research on manufacturing/remanufacturing supply chain, by investigating an optimal storage and manufacturing/remanufacturing planning, while taking into consideration the difference between new and remanufactured items, random machine failures, carbon constraints and distinct random customer demands for both items types. Furthermore, to make our system more realistic, it is assumed that the return rate of used items depends on the sales in the past periods, machine repair time is stochastic and set-up time period is not negligible. In this study, two models are developed, considering carbon emissions or not, to determine the optimal values of the manufacturing/remanufacturing period lengths and serviceable stock capacities of new and remanufactured items. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the impact of set-up cost, percentage of returned used items, machine availability, carbon cap and carbon trading price on the optimal storage and production planning. Moreover, the influences of carbon cap, carbon trading price and percentage of returned used items on carbon emissions have been analyzed. The results reveal that set-up cost, percentage of returned used items and machine availability have significant impact on storage and production planning of new and remanufactured items. In addition, the results indicate that a lower carbon cap and/or a high carbon trading price, induce the producer to collect and remanufacture used items and curb carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency state identification of milling process plays an important role in energy saving efforts for manufacturing systems. However, it is very difficult to track energy efficiency state in machining processes based on traditional signal processing strategies due to the fact that energy state is usually coupled with a lot of factors like machine tool states, tool conditions, and cutting conditions. An identification method of information reasoning and Hidden Markov model for energy efficiency state is proposed in this paper. Utilizing cutting conditions, empirical models of the energy efficiency, experimental data and signal features, an expert system is established for initial probability optimization and the state is further identified by Hidden Markov model. The experiments show that energy efficiency state can be identified with this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution has become a major threat to the survival and health of human beings, and has attracted the worldwide attention. With the implementation of low-carbon policies, how to change marketing strategy is a realistic and serious problem of enterprises. This paper examines the manufacturer's channel selection and emission reduction decisions when considering carbon emission constraints. A two-echelon supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer under the cap-and-trade regulation is explored. Non-perishable products' and perishable products' carbon emissions are distinguished according to their sales channels. The results provide useful insights for supply chain members. Firstly, the results show that products' properties and consumers' channel preference are key factors affecting manufacturer's channel selection. When consumers prefer online shopping, the manufacturer, who produces perishable/non-perishable products, should choose single online channel structure to maximize his profit. But, this choice cannot make as same contributions to the environment if the manufacturer produces perishable product as that under retail channel. Secondly, the results demonstrated that under cap-and-trade regulation, the channel conflict appears to have abated somewhat. The retailer can accommodate the additional online channel under certain conditions. Additionally, numerical results further illustrate the following insights from the respective of the government: It is more effective to set larger carbon quotas and encourage the manufacturer to develop a dual-channel mode when not too many consumers prefer to online channel. With more and more consumers preferring to online shopping, it can formulate more stringent emission control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since sustainable scheduling is arousing increasing attention from many manufacturing enterprises and energy consumption is a core problem regarding sustainability, the purpose of this paper is to develop an energy-efficient scheduling method to fulfill material delivery tasks in mixed-model assembly lines. In this research, the objective of minimizing the energy consumption is jointly integrated with the operational criterions when executing material delivery tasks. Owing to the NP-hard nature of the considered problem, a Taboo enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (TEPSO) algorithm is developed to solve the multi-objective problem. Several improving strategies are applied to enhance the performance of the proposed TEPSO in order to obtain a stronger local search capability and faster search speed. The performance of the proposed TEPSO algorithm is evaluated by comparing with two other high-performing multi-objective optimization methods. Computational experiments are conducted in order to test and verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed TEPSO algorithm. The achievements reported in this paper might be inspiring for further studies on energy-efficient production scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing energy price and emission limitations are new challenges faced by manufacturers; above half of their energy consumption is attributed to the electricity consumption of machine tools (MT), highlighting the need for manufacturers to select highly efficient MT. However, due to the unavailability of cutting tests and limited information in procurement stage, it is difficult to apply existing methods to evaluate the energy efficiency of MT options to support efficient MT selection. To address this problem, an energy efficiency model characterizing the relationship among energy efficiency, MT-related factors and workpiece-related factors is established to bridge the knowledge gap and a novel method without any cutting tests is developed including three steps: (i) modelling MT-related factors of each MT option; (ii) modelling workpiece-related factors of expected tasks; (iii) energy efficiency calculation and comparison. Furthermore, a selection example of gear-hobbing machine illustrates the application of the proposed method, reducing 2.88E+06 kJ energy consumption per selected MT per year. This study enables manufacturers to select MT for energy efficiency maximisation with the consideration of expected tasks in procurement stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is expected to exacerbate heat stress at the workplace in temperate regions, such as Slovenia. It is therefore of paramount importance to study present and future summer heat conditions and analyze the impact of heat on workers. A set of climate indices based on summer mean (Tmean) and maximum (Tmax) air temperatures, such as the number of hot days (HD: Tmax above 30 °C), and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) were used to account for heat conditions in Slovenia at six locations in the period 1981-2010. Observed trends (1961-2011) of Tmean and Tmax in July were positive, being larger in the eastern part of the country. Climate change projections showed an increase up to 4.5 °C for mean temperature and 35 days for HD by the end of the twenty-first century under the high emission scenario. The increase in WBGT was smaller, although sufficiently high to increase the frequency of days with a high risk of heat stress up to an average of a third of the summer days. A case study performed at a Slovenian automobile parts manufacturing plant revealed non-optimal working conditions during summer 2016 (WBGT mainly between 20 and 25 °C). A survey conducted on 400 workers revealed that 96% perceived the temperature conditions as unsuitable, and 56% experienced headaches and fatigue. Given these conditions and climate change projections, the escalating problem of heat is worrisome. The European Commission initiated a program of research within the Horizon 2020 program to develop a heat warning system for European workers and employers, which will incorporate case-specific solutions to mitigate heat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product carbon footprint has a profound impact on the sustainable manufacturing. Due to the uncertainty of product information, it is a crucial issue to estimate product carbon footprint for product life cycle. The paper is devoted to the product carbon footprint estimation model based on the unascertained mathematics theory. After the introduction of unascertained mathematics theory, the integration of the estimation data through unascertained number is discussed in detail. After the model of product carbon footprint for product life cycle is proposed, the estimation method of carbon footprint in the product life cycle based on the unascertained number model is discussed in detail. The product carbon footprint of a modular underactuated exoskeleton robot mechanism is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a conventional approach of analyzing and assessing the environmental impacts caused by industrial products during their full life cycles. It establishes inventory records of metabolic behaviors of materials and energy (ME) depending on the processing unit. However, more accurate estimations on metabolic behaviors of ME not only depend on the cascades of processes but also involve the equipments and the corresponding productions. The conventional LCA actually encounters challenges while both the product and the relevant production system are taken into account for the inventory analysis on metabolic behaviors of ME. For overall considerations, both the processing system relevant to products and the industrial system relevant to equipments shall be regarded as an integrated system in order to develop a more quantitative approach to LCA. Based on this point of view, a generic morphologic model of industrial system based on the concept of systemic boundary is employed to improve the LCA approach for more definite analysis on the inventory data of ME and more accurate estimation on the environmental impacts. Two case studies are provided to demonstrate the positive effects of the improved LCA on the metallurgical industrial system and the mechanical manufacturing system. Both case studies show the improved LCA approach based on the concept of systemic boundary is feasible, quantitative and efficient to conduct the inventory analysis on ME consumptions and the assessment on environmental impacts, not only for the continuous industrial system but also the discrete manufacturing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability information in the manufacturing industry is not easily shared between stages in the product lifecycle. In particular, reliable manufacturing-related information for assessing the sustainability of a product is often unavailable at the design stage. Instead, designers rely on aggregated, often outdated information or make decisions by analogy (e.g., a similar manufacturing process for a similar product yielded X and Y results). However, smart manufacturing and the Internet of Things have potential to bridge the gap between design and manufacturing through data and knowledge sharing. This paper analyzes environmental sustainability assessment methods to enable more accurate decisions earlier in design. The techniques and methods are categorized based on the stage they apply to in the product lifecycle, as described by the Systems Integration of Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) reference architecture. Furthermore, opportunities for aligning standard data representation to promote sustainability assessment during design are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the drivers of eco-innovation within the context of a developing country. It explores the dynamics of the determinants of eco-innovation in the manufacturing sector of Nigeria. Virtually all the major manufacturing firms in Nigeria generate electricity through diesel-powered plants with implications for cost of production and greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, eco-innovative manufacturing firms have the potentials to decouple economic growth from excessive resource use and environmental pressure. The paper investigates the determinants of eco-innovation in the manufacturing sector of Nigeria based on empirical data from the Nigerian innovation survey. The econometric estimations find strong support for innovative organizational strategies, the need to meet regulatory standards and access to formal sources of knowledge as drivers of eco-innovation. While eco-innovative manufacturing firms are usually more technical and highly innovative, determinants of both products and process eco-innovations are heterogeneous. The paper highlights policy recommendations for enhancing firm's green competitive advantage in a latecomer economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, the international organisations launched the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Framework for experts from different disciplinary fields to discuss and develop a holistic and integrated approach that supports effective sustainable development and sustainability decision-making. In response, various authors have used combinations of sustainable manufacturing methodologies and approaches to support this goal. This paper used a structured approach to a literature review to systematically examine sustainable manufacturing approaches between 2006 and 2015, and the move from segmented assessment methods to the holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. The analysis of the identified 54 relevant contributions indicated 68.5% of the articles focused on sustainable product development techniques, whereas 31.5% on sustainability assessment techniques. From the second, 70.4% of these were segmented approaches while only 29.6% incorporated the three sustainability dimensions. Further, the analysis showed that the energy aspect was incorporated into all the approaches, and there is a dearth of holistic approaches to sustainable manufacturing. Additionally, the paper initiates a theoretical framework that will underpin the development of a holistic simulation-based analytical framework that integrates goals that support progressive sustainable product development with methods that focus on the holistic quantitative analysis of the three sustainability dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how corporate environmental responsibility (CER) affects the cost of equity capital for manufacturing firms in 30 countries. Using several approaches to estimate firms’ ex ante equity financing costs, we find in regressions that control for firm-level characteristics as well as industry, year, and country effects that the cost of equity capital is lower when firms have higher CER. This finding is robust to addressing endogeneity through instrumental variables, to using alternative specifications and proxies for the cost of equity capital, and to accounting for noise in analyst forecasts. We conclude that investment in CER reduces firms’ equity financing costs worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of great social pressure, manufacturing plants are trying to improve their environmental performance. Although extant literature has stressed the key role played by companies’ cultural environments on the main drivers of their sustainability practices, it fails to provide significant empirical evidence. The aim of this research was to fill this gap by empirically analysing whether the cultural environment plays a moderator role in the drivers that encourage environmental practices in manufacturing plants, as well as in the relationship between environmental practices and financial performance. The theoretical arguments of Institutional Theory, and Trade-Off and Eco-Efficient Theories, provided the framework in which the hypotheses were tested. The sample was composed of 230 manufacturing plants from ten countries, whose managers answered an environmental questionnaire developed as part of the High Performance Manufacturing Project. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique was used to carry out the research. Results revealed that the factors that most influenced environmental practices adoption in manufacturing plants differed in the considered cultural environments: rule-vs. relation-Based. Cost Savings were the main environmental practices driver in plants in the most advanced rule-based countries, while Top Management support was revealed to be the main motivation in plants in relation-based countries. In addition, it seemed that environmentally-friendly actions had no significant impact on perceived manufacturing company performance, regardless of the cultural environment considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]