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Using two different conceptual approaches to environmental life‐cycle assessment, attributional and consequential, the purpose was to test the hypothesis that a typical lead free solder paste Sn95.5Ag3.8Cu0.7 is worse than Sn63Pb37 as far as global environmental impacts are concerned.

Single index weighting indices within the impact methodology Life cycle Impact Assessment Method based on Endpoint Modelling (LIME) impact methodology, were applied to the flows of three life cycle inventory models and their globally related flows. The LIME results based on three environmental impact categories, i.e. resource consumption, global warming and ozonelayer depletion are presented and discussed.

The attributional LCA (ALCA) results point towards a larger impact for Sn95.5Ag3.8Cu0.7 than Sn63Pb37 mostly due to the higher Sn and Ag content. This study confirms earlier similar ALCAs. The system expansion for the Consequential LCA (CLCA) did not change this conclusion.

The present study has not included the affected microelectronics packaging parts of electronic products, nor has it included toxic effects as they are local. ALCA was considered to be equal to CLCA for Sn95.5Ag3.8Cu0.7, where no Ag nor Sn recycling was included.

For the first time a global environmental impact assessment of the shift to Pb‐free solder paste using the LIME weighting method applied to a CLCA is reported. Environmental life‐cycle investigations intended to support decisions of an ecological nature in the microelectronics packaging industry should benefit from the consequential approach.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the methodology which can facilitate the concept of reconfiguration in the manufacturing system.

Design methodology includes the calculation of similarity matrix, formation of part family, and selection of part family. ALC algorithm has been used for part family formation and three criteria have been considered for the selection of part family. These criteria are reconfiguration effort, under-utilization cost, and floor space cost. AHP has been used to calculate the weights of criteria and reference ideal method has been used for the selection of alternatives.

In the manufacturing system, machines should be grouped on the basis of reconfiguration cost. When the time period is less, light machines and Group 1 machines are added and removed. In the case study, the concept of reconfiguration is useful for families (A, B, C, D). Machines can be reused by adding/removing some modules of machines. The concept of reconfiguration becomes more useful when it is implemented with lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing techniques Jidoka and Poka-yoke are used to increase the diagnosability of the system.

Industrial case study has been considered.

Market competition is increasing rapidly and it increases the demand and variety of products, due to which manufacturing enterprises are forced to adapt a manufacturing system which can adjust its capacity and functionality quickly at low cost. To reconfigure manufacturing system from one product/product family to another product/product family, changes can be done in hardware and/or software components in response to sudden changes in the market or in regulatory requirements.

An integrated approach for reconfiguration has been proposed considering the industrial application. It includes weighted Jaccard function, ALCA, AHP, RIM. The methodology for calculation of reconfiguration effort, under-utilization cost, and floor space cost has been presented for industrial case.

The concept of virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMS) is finding acceptance among researchers and practitioners as an extension to group technology. This paper is related to a research work which resulted in designing and developing VCMS, which by virtue of its abilities proves to be attractive to manufacturing organisations fitting into the category of SMEs. VCMS consists of enterprise modeller (EM), cell design manager (CDM), cell operation manager (COM), simulator (SIM), performance evaluator (PE) and report generator (REP). The “cell design manager” is a very important constituent of the VCMS, as this module helps to generate a number of cell configurations using different algorithms. A new algorithm styled as “Better alternative to ROC (BETROC)”, which possesses many distinct features to generate a number of alternative solutions, has been developed and reported in this paper.

The demand for more stringent environmental regulation on product end‐of‐life and production processes is enhanced by customer concerns for environmental protection. This has increased the need for industry to address environmental issues in the product design process. The emergence of international standards for environmental management, such as the ISO 14000 series, has also created a strong incentive for manufacturers to promote environmentally conscious products and processes. Considerable progress has been made in design for the environment (DFE). However, there is still a need for a structured approach to DFE that addresses environmental concerns in a coherent way. This approach should also support an environmental management system (EMS). This paper describes an organised process to address the problem of integrating environmental concerns into an early product design process that is consistent with such international standards as ISO 14001 EMS. This approach may help to improve the environmental performance of a product and to support an organisation’s EMS.

The formation of machine‐part families is an important task in the design of cellular and flexible manufacturing systems. The formation results in the creation of many benefits for manufacturing systems. Among the many methods utilized in machine‐cells formation, the similarity coefficient method (SCM) is most widely used. When SCM is used, the rearrangement of machine and part components is required to form machine‐part families. This process of rearrangement has been considered as being subjective and difficult and may result in improper assignments to parts families, resulting in a negation of benefits promised. This paper presents an effective algorithm to identify part‐families and bottleneck‐parts, given machine groupings, rather than addressing the machine grouping problem in general.

This paper aims to evaluate the collaboration quality performance of sugar company Z and its stakeholders (farmers and distributors) by considering the sustainability aspects. This assessment shall be able to integrate qualitative and quantitative factors in the model, which is critical in sugar supply chains involving multi-stakeholders.

Integration of quality function deployment (QFD), the fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) is administered to assess the efficiency score of each stakeholder involved. The evaluation encompasses collaboration behaviour factors since the input of collaboration activities will result in sustainability aspects such as revenue, green house gas (GHG) emissions and social impact. The analysis has been conducted in two scenarios, those are the basic scenario by utilising original data and the extended scenario by using projection data.

The result clarifies that the most influential behaviour factor in the collaboration activities is commitment (0.116), while the least important behaviour factors are power (0.008) and adaptation (0.008). Furthermore, by using the extended scenario, the overall efficiency for each benchmarking is higher compared to the condition before the improvement (basic scenario).

The result of this study is only relevant to the particular sugar supply chain and involving limited sustainability variables. Therefore, in a further study, more variables such as technical and financial aspects could be explored further in the assessment process.

The result of this study is available for each stakeholder and can be fundamental for the constant improvement in sustainable supply chain (SSC) practices. It shows that an improvement of one stakeholder will positively impact the entire system.

Smallholders and sugarcane farmers will recognise the significance of collaboration behaviour. Thus, they can enhance their mutual benefits by using the existing resources.

This paper arranges for a practical contribution by implementing advanced assessment methods in the sugar supply chain by taking into account the economic, environmental and social aspects. This comprehensive assessment process in the sugar supply chain is the novelty of this paper.

IF YOU should ever have a mind to experience the flavour of life in the British public library service during the early decades of this century, you could not do better than turn to the contemporary files of the periodicals of librarianship. Apart from its beastlier aspects, to which only a George Orwell could have done justice, the library journals reflected pretty well the public library world as it used to be: impoverished and imperfect, but optimistic and resilient.

Describes the Australian Libraries summit held in late 1988, concentrating on interlibrary lending (ILL) and document delivery aspects. Reports on the Summit′s main objective, that being to establish the most effective means of providing library and information services in Australia. Lists the Summit Resolutions and a summary of the discussions. Considers some of the debates concerning the current state of document supply in Australia.