Understanding and evaluating environmental costs of manufacturing: the industrial management perspectives

It is noted that the collection, processing, recycling, and disposal of manufacturing-generated waste presents a significant engineering problem and a new major challenge to industrial engineers (IE) and engineering managers (EM). The author attempts to make industrial engineers and managers recognize that, in today's manufacturing, environmental-related waste avoidance and other considerations are very much among the key determinants of the success and failure of an enterprise. Thus, an effort is made to improve the thinking of these professionals and to provide a first step toward an integrated approach based on IE and EM principles in dealing with environmental costs and related problems, and for including these in a manufacturing program for actions.<>