A New Approach for Sustainability-Based Material Selection Model of Toxic Chemicals in Manufacturing Domain

Abstract

AbstractThe issue of material selection though sustainability is something which needs a critical analysis of various factors that are vital for selection of materials based on several important characteristic features. There are greater challenges, which the material scientists, product designers, manufacturers, and environmentalists are facing in terms of sustainability of various systems. The role of designers and decision makers in selection process involving toxic chemical-related materials is something, which needs to be addressed very critically. This paper deals with the development of a system which systematically addresses the sustainability issues in materials selection for toxic chemical industry. The system features are first of all identified and are referred as sustainability parameters. These factors are then used to find the interrelationships among various design attributes. The existing relationships are highlighted by means of sustainability attribute structure, which is further represented by a matrix for its analysis. A function is then developed for analysis of various sustainability design attributes. A step-by-step framework is developed to evaluate and rank various toxic chemical materials from sustainability perspective. The proposed approach will guide decision makers, manufacturers, engineers, designer, and environmentalists in decision making while addressing the issue of sustainability in systems. An example has been considered to illustrate the developed approach.KeywordsMaterial selectionToxicologySustainabilityMulti-criteria decision makingManufacturing