Production planning for sustainable dry machining production systems

Purpose This work deals with production planning for a dry machining system, a sustainable manufacturing process that avoids the use of cutting fluids. The objective is to develop an optimal production plan, taking into account the cost and environmental impact of the raw materials, in order to meet random demands over a finite time horizon. Design/methodology/approach A mathematical model is developed to minimize the expected total cost by integrating several economic and environmental parameters, such as raw material costs, energy consumption, recycling, storage, shortage and CO2 emissions. The model is based on decision variables representing the duration of production periods for two distinct products. A numerical example is considered, and a sensitivity analysis is performed to illustrate the application of the model. Findings The results obtained show that an increase in the social cost of CO2 encourages more environmentally friendly production. In addition, the optimization of technological choices in terms of materials makes it possible to steer industrial decisions towards more sustainable solutions, reconciling economic performance and reduced environmental impact. Originality/value The novelty of the research lies in an innovative production planning optimization approach that explicitly considers environmental issues in the context of dry machining.