Sustainable Manufacturing

3 credits · Graduate

Sustainable design, manufacturing, and management as exercised by the enterprise is a poorly understood idea and one that is not intuitively connected to business value or engineering practice. This is especially true for the manufacturing aspects of most enterprises (tools, processes, and systems). This course will provide the basis for understanding (1) what comprises sustainable practices in for-profit enterprises, (2) how to practice and measure continuous improvement using sustainability thinking, techniques, and tools for product and manufacturing process design, and (3) the techniques for and value of effective communication of sustainablilty performance to internal and external audiences. Material in the course will be supplemented by speakers with diverse backgrounds in corporate sustainability, environmental consulting, non-governmental organizations, and academia.