A multidimensional holistic sustainability model for production systems

Abstract

Manufacturing companies face a volatile environment with multiple sustainability challenges threatening their competitiveness. To meet these challenges, they need to adapt quickly to the changing demands and environment to improve their sustainability in production. Therefore, this contribution presents a holistic and multidimensional model for sustainable production systems based on three levels: elements, overarching elements, and dimensions. First, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to capture the state of research. Second, two studies were conducted to identify and cluster the relevant sustainability elements. One of the studies is based on the SLR findings, which were verified by an expert survey. The other is based on a document analysis of sustainability reports. Finally, both studies are compared, and the results are presented. In total, 40 elements, such as energy efficiency, and eight overarching elements, such as efficiency, can be identified in addition to the three dimensions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Keywords

• Sustainability
• production systems
• modeling
• multidimensionality
• holism