Fostering selection of sustainable manufacturing technologies – a case study involving product design, supply chain and life cycle performance

Abstract The main objective of this paper is to compare an emergent technology of manufacturing three-dimensional contoured thermoplastic sandwich structures with two technologies commonly used to produce similar components. The Life Cycle Engineering principles are applied to this case aiming at basing the selection on the economic and environmental life cycle performance of the alternatives. The approach integrates those two dimensions with an engineering perspective on technical and functional performance allowing to relate the product design and involved technology with the required resources and impacts generated. The analysis framework takes advantage of the use of process-based models endorsing sensitivity analysis of crucial technological, production and supply-chain parameters. The integration of functional, environmental and economic performance on a life cycle perspective in a single best-solutions space, for a specific business scenario, is a contribution to the methodology of life cycle engineering that fosters the adoption of more informed approaches in the manufacturing technologies selection.