An Open Architecture for the Sustainable Lifecycle of Products and Manufacturing Processes from the Holonic Paradigm

Abstract

The concept of integration of products and manufacturing processes in ecosystems is evolving from the consideration of environmental aspects to the integration of socio-economic aspects. On the other hand, the lifecycle of product and manufacturing process is the central point for organizing the activity that determines and materializes the environmental load of the product from cradle to grave. So far, there isn ́t an integrated model from the perspective of assessing the sustainability of products and processes with a focus on concurrent design. This paper develops a Holonic protomodel that constitutes an open architecture for lifecycle of sustainable products and processes that integrate the assess of products from social, economic and environmental perspective.