Terminology to support manufacturing process characterization and assessment for sustainable production

The reported terms and definitions are not unique to sustainable production, and could foster widespread use of the concepts to improve the economic, environmental, and social performance of industry. In the future, the terminology described could be standardized through international standards organizations. Further, a rigorous review of research on manufacturing process characterization and process modeling in support of sustainable production is yet to be accomplished. Such a review would aid in organizing prior work by process type, perhaps by using a standard process taxonomy. Thus, a generalized, industry-relevant method for manufacturing process characterization could emerge to support sustainability assessment, and could be implemented through software applications accessible to a variety of users.