The multi-objective optimization model for a sustainable manufacturing system design

In the past decade, there has been a growing concern about the environmental protection in the public society as governments in many countries have been enforcing ever stricter environmental policies and regulations in industry by promoting energy saving and low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in manufacturing activities. Development of sustainable manufacturing systems is considered as one of effective solutions to minimize the environmental impact. Lean manufacturing can also be helpful for achieving a sustainable manufacturing system as it can reduce production wastes and increase manufacturing efficiency. Nevertheless, the lean approach does not include a consideration in energy consumption and CO2 emissions when designing a lean manufacturing system. This paper addresses these issues by evaluating a sustainable manufacturing system design by considering a measurement of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. To this aim, a multi-objective mathematical model is developed incorporating the economic and ecological constraints in terms of minimization of the total cost, energy consumption and CO2 emissions for a manufacturing system design. The study also addresses a decision making in the number of machines, the number of air conditioning units and the number of bulbs involved in each process of the manufacturing system in conjunction with a quantity of material Clow for processing the products. A real case study was used for examining the validation and applicability of the developed sustainable manufacturing system model.