Environment Conscious Manufacturing

Hotter temperatures, less arctic ice, loss of habitat-every other day, it seems, global warming and environmental issues make headlines. Consumer-driven environmental awareness combined with stricter recycling regulations have put the pressure on companies to produce and dispose of products in an environmentally responsible manner. Redefining indus

Table of Contents:
Industrial Metabolism: Roots and Basic Principles. Product Design for the Environment: The Life Cycle Perspective and a Methodological Framework for the Design Process. Product Lifecycle Monitoring via Embedded Sensors. Quantitative Decision-Making Techniques for Reverse/Closed-loop Supply Chain Design. Yesterday Proactive, Responsive Today: Use of Information to Enhance Planning in Closed Loop Supply Chains. Disassembly Line Balancing. Multi-Kanban System for Disassembly Line. Disassembly Sequencing Problem: Resolving the Complexity by Random Search Techniques. Human-in-the-Loop Disassembly Modeling and Planning. Planning Disassembly for Remanufacture-to-Order Systems. Facility and Storage Space Design Issues in Remanufacturing. Some Studies on Remanufacturing Activities in India. Optimal Control Policy for Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing Systems. Disassembly and Reverse Logistics: The Case of the Computer Industry. Evaluating Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing Barriers with Interpretive Structural Modeling.

About the Author :
Dr. Surendra M. Gupta, PE, is a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the Laboratory for Responsible Manufacturing at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BE in electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (India), an MBA from Bryant University, and an MSIE and PhD in industrial engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Gupta’s research interests are in the areas of production or manufacturing systems and operations research. He is primarily interested in environment conscious manufacturing, manufacturing of electronic products, MRP, JIT, and queueing theory. He has authored or coauthored about 350 technical papers that have been published in prestigious journals, books, and conference proceedings. His publications have been cited by thousands of researchers all over the world in journals, proceedings, books, and dissertations. He has traveled to all seven continents, that is, Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America and presented his work at international conferences there (except Antarctica). He is currently the area editor of environmental issues for Computers and Industrial Engineering, the associate editor for International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, and an editorial board member of a variety of journals. He has also served as a conference chair, track chair, and member of technical committees of a variety of international conferences. Dr. Gupta has been elected to the memberships of several honor societies and is listed in various Who’s Who publications. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Massachusetts and a member of ASEE, DSI, IIE, INFORMS, and POMS. Dr. Gupta is a recipient of the Outstanding Research Award and the Outstanding Industrial Engineering Professor Award (in recognition of teaching excellence) from Northeastern University. His recent activities can be viewed at http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~smgupta/, and he can be reached by e-mail at gupta@neu.edu. Dr. A.J.D. (Fred) Lambert, is an assistant professor of industrial ecology in the Department of Technology Management at the University of Technology at Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He received his BS in electrical engineering from the Technical College at Vlissingen and his MSc in technical physics and his PhD in theoretical plasma physics from the University of Technology at Eindhoven, all in the Netherlands. In addition to the University of Technology at Eindhoven (the Netherlands), Dr. Lambert has participated in research projects at the Philips Company, the University of Greifswald (Germany), the University of Trieste (Italy), the Technical University at Lausanne (Switzerland), and the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics at Rijnhuizen (the Netherlands). Dr. Lambert has published papers on several topics, including nuclear fusion, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, MHD power modeling, and, more recently, on disassembly sequencing. He has published more than 40 research papers in various scientific journals and has contributed to numerous books, conference proceedings, and professional papers. Dr. Lambert teaches undergraduate students energy efficiency and the managerial aspects of reuse and recycling; he supervises group projects on industrial ecology–related topics. He coaches graduate students on topics such as energy and waste management in industry, and sustainable energy resources. His recent activities can be viewed at http://w3.tm.tue.nl/en/ subdepartments/aw/ (technology studies). Dr. Lambert can be reached by e-mail at A.J.D.Lambert@tue.nl.