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SFB 1026:  Sustainable Manufacturing - Shaping Global Value Creation

Subject Area Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Term from 2012 to 2016
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 199828953
 
Final Report Year 2017

Final Report Abstract

In the establishment proposal for the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1026, the members identified an urgent need for action in order to realise the potential of manufacturing towards sustainability. The results gathered by the scientific community and the CRC largely confirmed the increasing relevance of this statement. The current lifestyles of early industrialised and emerging countries surpass the limited resources and restoration capacities of the Earth and are still characterised by an unequal distribution of wealth. The manufacturing sector, as a globally significant stakeholder in many of the areas of human living, has the scope to shape future technologies and to play a crucial role in the improvement of the sustainability of value creation. The CRC 1026 “Sustainable Manufacturing – Shaping Global Value Creation” was eager to take up this challenge and intended to provide exemplary sustainable manufacturing solutions whose positive direct and indirect effects on the triple bottom line of sustainability are scientifically demonstrated. Holistic solutions are needed in order to find alternative development paths to the one followed by early industrialised and emerging countries to date. On the one hand, early industrialised countries continue to target economic growth, employing unsustainable material flows having a decreasing marginal benefit in terms of wealth. On the other hand, emerging countries strive to generate wealth and tend to catch up with material consumption levels of early industrialised ones. Reaching sustainability requires narrowing the gap between early industrialised and emerging countries, i.e. reaching an equal distribution of social benefits and environmental burden on a global level. Narrowing the gap in turn necessitates shifting perspective on value creation, i.e. considering criteria for economic, environmental and social value beyond mere costs and prices. The multidisciplinary team of the CRC 1026 was specifically motivated to address the challenge of sustainability within the domain of manufacturing activities and to shape a holistic reference of sustainable manufacturing. The CRC 1026 defined sustainable manufacturing as the creation of manufactured products that, in fulfilling their functionality over their entire life cycle, cause a sustainable impact on the environment (nature and humans) while delivering economic value. The interplay of disciplines within the CRC combined the depth of exemplary implementation of production technologies and the breadth of the systemic analysis of their sustainability. At the core of the approach of the CRC 1026 was the development and physical realisation of new promising manufacturing processes and equipment. Building on this exemplary technological development, the CRC 1026 developed methods for decision making that allow integrating technologies in technical systems and value creation networks in a sustainable way. The global perspective was moreover addressed through macroeconomics and knowledge dissemination approaches for effective and systemic change towards sustainability. The superiority of manufacturing solutions developed within the CRC regarding sustainability is defined by how far these solutions leverage effects on the three systems—environment, society and economy. CRC projects delivered a direct positive impact on the economic system through the development of methods for sustainable decision-making —especially at macroeconomic, microeconomic, corporate and value creation network levels. They were aimed at positively influencing the economic system along with the ecosystem through the development of cost- and eco-efficient processes, products, equipment and value creation networks. Finally, they drove positive impacts on the social system through the development of tools and processes for qualification and ergonomic work conditions. The CRC 1026 gained understanding about the challenges of sustainability and developed new promising manufacturing technologies, methods for integrating these technologies in value creation networks, as well as approaches for qualification and learning.

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