Impact of advanced manufacturing on sustainability: An overview of the special volume on advanced manufacturing for sustainability and low fossil carbon emissions

Abstract

Advanced manufacturing uses emerging technologies to critically enhance not only the economic competitiveness of individual manufacturers but also the sustainability of the whole industrial sector. New materials and technologies require new manufacturing processes and novel analytical models for process controls and parameter optimization regarding cost, reliability, quality, product flexibility, energy consumption, and fossil carbon emissions. The successful adoption of advanced manufacturing for sustainability can only be realized by following a systematic approach from concept development, product design and manufacturing to product delivery and service as well as in forward and reverse supply chain management. This special volume reports on progress of advanced manufacturing on sustainability improvements along the whole life cycle and covers the six themes: 1. Design theory and methodology for sustainability with advanced manufacturing; 2. Energy efficiency assessment and control of mechanical manufacturing systems; 3. Parameter optimization for advanced manufacturing and remanufacturing; 4. Low fossil-carbon process planning and production scheduling; 5. Integration of supply-chain innovations and advanced manufacturing; 6. Sustainable innovation for product-service systems. In addition, this SV introductory article, highlights future research directions, such as the need for energy consumption and emission data for advanced manufacturing processes, optimization models and control schemes, supply chain innovations, and product-service integration.