An investigation into modeling and simulation approaches for sustainable operations management

Abstract

An Investigation into Modeling and Simulation Approaches for Sustainable Operations ManagementModeling & Simulation (M&S) studies have been widely used in industry to gain insights into existing or proposed systems of interest. The majority of these studies focus on productivity-related measures to evaluate systems' performance. This paradigm, however, needs to be shifted to cope with the advent of sustainability as it is increasingly becoming an important issue in the managerial and the organizational agenda. The application of M&S to evaluate the often competing metrics associated with sustainable operations management (SOM) is likely to be a challenge. The aim of this review is to investigate the underlying characteristics of SOM that lends towards modeling of production and service systems, and further to present an informed discussion on the suitability of specific modeling techniques in meeting the competing metrics for SOM. Triple bottom line, which is a widely used concept in sustainability and includes environmental, social and economic aspects, is used as a benchmark for assessing this. Findings from our research suggest that a hybrid (combined) M&S approach could be an appropriate method for SOM analysis; however it has its challenges!

Towards a Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis: A systematic review of approaches to sustainable manufacturing

“…Tranfield et al (2003) espoused three phases of processes which have been adopted by various researchers to systematically review full literature based on a defined research question, goals and scope (e.g. Chang et al, 2014;Garza-Reyes, 2015;Brones et al, 2015;Esmaeilian et al, 2016;Fakhimi et al, 2016). The three steps process involves data collection, data analysis, and synthesis.…”

“…The integration of DES with other sustainable manufacturing approaches into a common framework is not a new concept in sustainable product development (Kibira and McLean, 2006;Heilala, et al, 2008;Fakhimi et al, 2016). The combination of DES with SPD techniques and SPA tools has the potential to model production processes of a proposed or real scenario to investigate different production and sustainability aspects at different time intervals, reduce wastes, energy consumption, excessive time, and unused materials through process analysis and optimisation (Kibira and McLean, 2006;Widok, 2012).…”

Hybrid models as transdisciplinary research enablers

“…Simulation techniques such as DES (when used as a decision support tool in OR research and practice), have mainly focussed on productivity and efficiency-related KPIs in their analysis of outcome. However, with sustainability and the CE becoming increasingly important for businesses, it is arguable that existing KPIs must also include metrics that are specific to the triple bottom line—society, environment, and economy ( Fakhimi et al 2016 ). The identification of a sub-set of CE KPIs might be straightforward, as it is based on the challenges commonly faced by business (for example energy consumption, disposal and/or reuse of waste water, and recycling of waste) that use KPIs such as energy usage, CO2 emissions, and water footprint.…”

Assessing Patient Engagement in Health Care: Proposal for a Modeling and Simulation Framework for Behavioral Analysis

“…Modeling and simulation (M&S) have been shown to be suitable methods for mimicking real-world scenarios and assisting researchers and practitioners in the manufacturing field and various other sectors [ 3 , 4 ]. M&S techniques lend themselves to the conceptual representation of the system at hand and its implementation via a computer model.…”