An advisory tool for sustainability-driven maintenance. A real case in mould and die industry

Abstract

Maintenance impacts on environmental, economical and social performances of a product are often overlooked or underestimated. Especially for durable goods, maintenance should positively influence the product sustainability profile extending its lifespan, but, negatively, it also adds operations and materials usage. Available sustainability (mostly environmental) assessment tools either do not consider maintenance impacts, or compute them just for already produced products, this extremely limiting (or even inhibiting) the capability to improve the sustainability profile of under-design products. The here presented tool, based on a Naïve Bayes Classifier, real-timely computes the sustainability performances of under-design moulds, thus advising the mould designer towards better performing design choices. The paper presents the tool development process and achieved results, exploiting the advantages of the selected target product: a long-lasting, frequently maintained capital good.