The environmental impact assessment of a company's manufacturing system

The major objective of this study is the estimation of the environmental impacts of a company’s manufacturing system. For this purpose, environmental key performance indicators are selected related to the energy consumption and pollutant gas emissions. To obtain accurate results and achieve an evaluation of the production system, a discrete event simulation tool was equipped. In this way, the production processes of a company were modeled and simulated in order to be assessed with regards to their environmental performance and impacts. The assessment of the investigated manufacturing system was carried out, by comparing it against a hypothetical ideal system of 100% efficiency in order for potential reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions to be identified. Additionally, a supplementary use of the proposed methodology is presented showing that modeling the production system in advance a company can save energy and associated costs as well as reduce carbon emissions.