Model-based Sustainability Assessment – An Enabler for Transition to Sustainable Manufacturing

The “sustainable manufacturing” concept has been discussed by researchers and manufacturers for decades. Still, a transition to sustainable manufacturing is limited due to constraints such as the lack of a practical definition of sustainable manufacturing, shortcomings of existing sustainability assessments, and an uncertainty of the effect of actions on the organization. This paper investigates the potential to study sustainable manufacturing through the prism of a complexity theory. The model of sustainable manufacturing based on the ideas of complexity theory is proposed. The use of the model as a foundation for sustainability assessments is suggested as an enabler for the transition to sustainable manufacturing.