A survey on sustainability approaches in manufacturing

Awareness about climate change has led to policies and regulations but also customer preferences favoring sustainable production. Thus, producing businesses are confronted by this, as they consume a large share of resources. Therefore, when producing, additional dimensions beyond commercial feasibility ought to be considered. Here, literature on sustainability from the field of engineering science is systematically searched and analyzed for approaches leading to actual recommendations for action. Hence, this bottom-up approach, incorporating the production engineers’ point of view, represents an inside view of how the topic of sustainability has arrived at production companies. The focus on commercial feasibility ensures high relevance to practice, as production needs to become both sustainable and competitive. Even though exemplary collections of different approaches addressing the topic of sustainability in production can be found in literature, novelty is provided by the structured manner literature was collected and the special focus on approaches leading to practice-relevant recommendations for action. Thus, a comprehensive overview of approaches applicable to the manufacturing domain is presented.