A System Dynamics Modeling Framework for Sustainable Manufacturing

This paper proposes a framework for application of system dynamics modeling to sustainable manufacturing. Sustainable manufacturing involves interaction of multiple complex systems including those in manufacturing, environmental, financial, and social domains. A concerted effort involving a number of researchers may be required to develop the requisite capability to model sustainable manufacturing with a flexible scope. At present, it is difficult for researchers to collaborate, share, and reuse models and components due to lack of consistency in several aspects including taxonomy and modeling approaches. The proposed framework is a first step to move towards composability of sustainable manufacturing model components developed by different research teams. The proposed framework organizes the major factors influencing sustainable manufacturing into four interacting complex domains. The framework is intended for use as a platform to develop model components that may be integrated to analyze sustainable manufacturing for different industries and geographies.