Workshop: Research and Education Needs in Sustainable Manufacturing; Atlanta, Georgia; July 2016

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a workshop that will serve as a platform to gather, discuss, and synthesize inputs from experts to address several issues in sustainable manufacturing. The outcomes of the workshop can be used nationwide to initiate a national agenda and a roadmap for research and education to operationalize sustainable manufacturing practices. The manufacturing sector is the engine for economic growth, particularly because growth in manufacturing drives additional activity in other sectors. However, in recent years, US manufacturing has dwindled and has faced numerous challenges. Sustainability has generated a new wave of manufacturing innovation and could become the vehicle to increase manufacturing competitiveness. To enable advanced manufacturing innovation in sustainable manufacturing, it must concurrently be addressed at the product, process and systems levels. Implementing more sustainable manufacturing practices requires the adoption of a closed-loop material flow strategy, where embedded value from products is recovered at end-of-life to increase product reuse, component remanufacturing and material recycling. In this respect many challenges exist with respect to technology capabilities for end-of-life non-disruptive product disassembly and formulate recommendations for core capability development, component remanufacturing and end-of-life processing of different material types. There is a need for better tools that can enable modeling, analysis and prediction of total lifecycle product performance. In addition, the education and workforce development needs in sustainable manufacturing have been repeatedly emphasized by industry leaders. The workshop will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 2016. The invited speakers bring distinct and complementary expertise in sustainable manufacturing. The objectives of the workshop are to (1) examine current state-of-art capabilities in product, process and systems domains to enable total lifecycle-based sustainable manufacturing; (2) identify technology gaps for end-of-life non-disruptive product disassembly and formulate recommendations for core capability development; (3) identify technology gaps for remanufacturing and formulate recommendations for capability development; (4) assess technology capabilities for end-of-life processing of different material types (such as metals, polymers and fibers) and formulate specific needs, gaps and challenges for high sustainability-impact materials; (5) gather existing capabilities and tools available to enable modeling, analysis and prediction of total lifecycle product performance; and (6) formulate recommendations for research, education and workforce development programs to advance sustainable manufacturing technologies. The workshop findings will be compiled to a report and widely disseminated.