Research Focus Area: Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering

Research Subject: Predictive modeling of process wastes for product design and process planning towards environmentally responsible design and manufacturing.

Description: This research builds upon prior work at Michigan Tech to develop a decision support software tool to predict and quantify unit process energy consumption and waste streams.

The principles of quality engineering and lean manufacturing have aided in the institutionalization of environmental management in industry. However, means and methods are still required to aid in the migration of manufacturing decisions upstream to the design stage where there are less constraints on the decision-making process for effective product design and manufacture. Placing tools in the hands of engineers, such as the one under development, early in the design process to analyze product triple bottom-line performance, will significantly aid in achieving triple bottom line sustainability (economic/industrial, environmental, and societal/social).

Keywords: process modeling, environmentally responsible design and manufacturing, quality engineering, lean manufacturing, casting, turning, milling, drilling, cutting, welding, visual basic software, triple bottom line, sustainability, life cycle analysis