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Social Sustainability and Manufacturing Simulation

Authors:
Andi H. Widok
Volker Wohlgemuth

Keywords: sustainability; discrete event simulation (DES); material flow analysis (MFA); life cycle analysis (LCA); social life cycle analysis (SLCA)

Abstract:
This paper presents the concept and prototype of a plugin, as part of a software suite (MILAN), aimed to provide technical analysts with the means to simulate various sustainability criteria in manufacturing companies. The plugin is intended to enable analyst to freely define relevant social influence indicators, as well as influence functions and combine them with the existing environmental and economic modeling approach. Various social indicators are, on the one hand still fuzzy, as well as disputed, and on the other hand, dependent on the company’s structure. In this regard, the free definition aims to give the modeler the needed flexibility to create a model of his choosing, while also providing him with a structural guideline on how the integration of social criteria is best realized in a holistic sustainability approach. This paper thus addresses the key challenges of the integration of a social perspective in manufacturing simulation and gives an overview over a first implementation of a software that is able to integrate the economic, environmental and social dimension in a single model.

Pages: 213 to 220

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2014

Publication date: October 12, 2014

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4537

ISBN: 978-1-61208-371-1

Location: Nice, France

Dates: from October 12, 2014 to October 16, 2014