Title: Multi-criteria decision-making for the life cycle of sustainable high pressure die casting products

Authors: Emanuele Pagone; Michail Papanikolaou; Konstantinos Salonitis; Mark Jolly

Addresses: Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK ' Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK ' Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK ' Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK

Abstract: In the scientific literature there is a scarcity of comprehensive and organic studies on performance indicators encompassing sustainability and their influence on decision-making. This work aims at selecting the most suitable material to manufacture an automotive component using a high pressure die casting (HPDC) process according to four classes of metrics: cost, time, quality and sustainability. The performance of three different alloys (aluminium-A380, magnesium-AZ91D and zinc-ZA8) was evaluated considering overall product life cycle aspects and process characteristics through a deterministic technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Results show that the zinc alloy should be chosen on a unit mass-basis mainly thanks to its significantly superior quality and sustainability performance. This study demonstrates that the inclusion of the sustainability dimension in a multi-criteria decision analysis context challenges well-established material selection trends in the automotive industry developed during the past decades.

Keywords: high pressure die casting; HPDC; sustainable development; multi-criteria decision making; MCDM; lifecycle analysis; manufacturing systems; foundries; material selection; sustainability metrics; key performance indicators; KPIs; automotive products.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSM.2020.107140

International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, 2020 Vol.4 No.2/3/4, pp.101 - 120

Received: 27 Feb 2019
Accepted: 28 Jun 2019
Published online: 04 May 2020 *

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