Productivity improvement through the development of sustainability metrics in wire manufacturing industry

Abstract

Lean manufacturing practices are currently becoming the driving force for the development of new strategies for green and sustainable manufacturing. Conventional value stream mapping (VSM) can be extended to sustainable value stream mapping (Sus-VSM), which assesses not only economical aspects but also environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. The productivity of the industries can be enhanced by mapping the current practises and scopes so that improvements can be easily identified and standardised. This paper deals with the development and assessment of sustainability metrics in four dimensions of sustainability to improve the productivity of the manufacturing industries. The sustainable VSM is validated in a wire manufacturing industry and various techniques of improvement are suggested to the industry. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) technique is done using the Solidworks sustainability module to quantitatively assess the environmental impacts of all the stages of a product's life. Analytical hierarchy process is used to analyse, identify and prioritise various metrics, likely to have a greater impact on productivity and sustainability.