Using Balanced Scorecard for Sustainable Design-centered Manufacturing

Sustainable design-centered manufacturing (SDM) will create competitive advantages for future new product development. However, selecting and balancing the indicators for economic, environmental, and social sustainability is difficult. In this research, we define the major indicators of social sustainability for development of SDM and propose a Balanced Scorecard method to evaluate the weighting factors among the three pillars and the indicators used to assess each pillar. The algorithm for the analysis is based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). A case, using the manufacturing data for Polylactic Acid (PLA), is developed. The results can be adapted to evaluate the performance of outcomes for new product development utilizing SDM.