Decision support for green supply chain operations by integrating dynamic simulation and LCA indicators: diaper case study.

As the issue of environmental sustainability is becoming an important business factor, companies are now looking for decision support tools to assess the fuller picture of the environmental impacts associated with their manufacturing operations and supply chain (SC) activities. Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is widely used to measure the environmental consequences assignable to a product. However, it is usually limited to a high-level snapshot of the environmental implications over the product value chain without consideration of the dynamics arising from the multitiered structure and the interactions along the SC. This paper proposes a framework for green supply chain management by integrating a SC dynamic simulation and LCA indicators to evaluate both the economic and environmental impacts of various SC decisions such as inventories, distribution network configuration, and ordering policy. The advantages of this framework are demonstrated through an industrially motivated case study involving diaper production. Three distinct scenarios are evaluated to highlight how the proposed approach enables integrated decision support for green SC design and operation.

Integrated decision support system for waste minimization analysis in chemical processes.

The need to build and operate environmentally friendly plants has challenged the chemical industry to consider waste minimization or even elimination starting from the early stages of process development. A thorough waste minimization analysis requires specialized expertise and is laborious, time-consuming, expensive, and knowledge-intensive. This has caused a major technical barrier for implementing waste minimization programswithin the industry. Previously, we had reported a systematic methodology and a knowledge-based system, called ENVOPExpert, for identifying waste minimization opportunities in chemical processes. In this paper, we propose an integrated qualitative-quantitative methodology to identify waste minimization alternatives and assess their efficacy in terms of environmental impact and process economics. A qualitative analysis is first conducted to identify the sources of wastes and to propose alternatives for eliminating or minimizing them. Environmental impact of each alternative is then calculated by doing a quantitative pollutant balance. The capital expenditure required for implementing the alternative and the resulting plant operating costs are also calculated and used in the evaluation of the waste minimization alternatives. Through this, practical and cost-effective options can be identified. This methodology has been implemented as an integrated decision support system and tested using the hydrodealkylation process case study with satisfactory results.