Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE MFE3002

 
TITLE Sustainable Manufacturing

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

 
DESCRIPTION The manufacturing industry is facing the sustainability challenge with an ever-increasing pressure to reduce its impacts on the environment.

This study-unit introduces the three pillars of sustainable manufacturing: Society, Economy and Environment. The techniques used to analyse and manage the use of resources (energy, water, materials, waste) in a sustainable manufacturing firm will be discussed. The study-unit describes how sustainable manufacturing starts from the design phase of a product and moves on to resource efficient production of the product itself.

Content:

1. The three pillars of Sustainable Manufacturing (Society, Economy, Environment)
2. Sustainable manufacturing metrics and indicators
3. Energy and water use in manufacturing
4. Environmental Assessment Techniques (LCA, Carbon footprint, Water footprint)
5. 6R approach (reduce, reuse, recycle, redesign, recover, remanufacture)
6. Low Impact Manufacturing (green cutting fluids and dry machining techniques)
7. Clean production techniques
8. Pollution prevention versus End-of-pipe techniques
9. Factory planning for sustainable manufacturing (layout and services, energy and water conservation measures, renewable energy technologies)
10. Lean Manufacturing for Sustainability

Study-unit Aims:

1. To introduce students to sustainability issues related to manufacturing.
2. To enable the student to learn measures and techniques used in industry to enhance sustainability.
3. To enable the future engineer to suggest and analyse sustainable manufacturing techniques.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
1. Describe the impact product design and manufacturing have on the environment.
2. Discuss the principles and application of lifecycle assessment and other environmental assessment techniques.
3. Describe how sustainable manufacturing techniques are employed to reduce the impact of the resources used during each stage of the product life-cycle.
4. Apply measures which could be taken to enhance sustainability in an industrial building (factory planning, energy conservation, renewable energy and water saving technologies).

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
1. Identify and use appropriate techniques to assess the environmental performance of an organisation or product or process.
2. Evaluate the conclusions of environmental assessment techniques.
3. Assess the benefits from clean production and low impact manufacturing practices.
4. Suggest and implement green measures in industry.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

1. Graedel and Allenby, "Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering", Pearson, 2010.
2. Souza, "Sustainable Operations and Closed-Loop Supply Chains", Business Expert Press, 2012.
3. Seliger, "Sustainability in Manufacturing - Recovery of Resources in Product and Material Cycles", Springer, 2007.
4. Dixit et al, "Environmentally Friendly Machining", Springer, 2012.
5. Niemann et al, "Design of Sustainable Product Life Cycles", Springer, 2009.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite Study-units: MFE1202, MFE2201, MFE2204

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Tutorial

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 25%
Examination (2 Hours) SEM2 Yes 75%

 
LECTURER/S Paul Refalo

 

 
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It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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