Title: Advanced fractal manufacturing: multi-level and multi-scale proposal for sustainable manufacturing processes

Authors: M. Estela Peralta; Mariano Marcos; Francisco Aguayo; Juan Ramón Lama

Addresses: Design Engineering Department, University of Seville, C/Virgen de África, 7, 41011, Sevilla, Spain ' Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design Department, University of Cadiz, Avda. De la Universidad de Cadiz, 10, E-11519 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain ' Design Engineering Department, University of Seville, C/Virgen de África, 7, 41011, Sevilla, Spain ' Design Engineering Department, University of Seville, C/Virgen de África, 7, 41011, Sevilla, Spain

Abstract: The advances in sustainable development are gradually being included in all the industrial sectors. The manufacturing stage is one of the key action phases in the integrated strategy, life cycle management, because of the resource consumption that its exploitation supposes, besides the environmental impact that is generated. But, to integrate the conventional manufacturing framework (time, cost and quality) means considerably increasing the complexity of the manufacturing processes. However, it guarantees, with the new sustainability approaches (environmental and social efficiency), the economic and technical feasibility of the manufacturing process' results. Thus new frameworks that manage this complexity are required. Advances exist in this field of research; however, they are very general. This study presents a new bio-inspired framework for sustainable fractal manufacturing; this is proposed as a strategy to reduce the complexity and to search for the required sustainability in the machining processes.

Keywords: fractality; biomimicry; fractal system; industrial ecology; fractal-industrial analogy; sustainability; sustainable manufacturing; fractal manufacturing; triple-bottom line; sustainable machining; cleaner production.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2017.084375

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2017 Vol.10 No.1, pp.3 - 22

Received: 26 Jan 2016
Accepted: 29 Sep 2016

Published online: 06 Jun 2017 *

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