PRISM Workshop on Sustainable Manufacturing for the Aerospace Industry: Product, Process and System Innovations for Next Generation Manufacturing

What is Sustainable Manufacturing? Implementing sustainable manufacturing across U.S. production facilities is becoming increasingly important and critical for competitive global manufacturing. Sustainable manufacturing is a topic that has gained national and international awareness, and therefore it is important to understand its core meaning. Although the definition of “sustainable manufacturing” can be found in numerous versions, often associated with products and processes, the central theme needs to be applied to the integration of products, processes, and systems. In this respect, the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing (ISM) at the University of Kentucky offers the following definition: Sustainable manufacturing addresses products, processes, and systems that  demonstrate reduced negative environmental impact,  offer improved energy and resource efficiency,  generate minimum quantity of wastes,  provide operational safety, and  offer improved personnel health while maintaining and/or improving the product and process quality with the overall life-cycle cost benefits.