Global manufacturing and the embodied energy of products

Manufacturing energy efficiency has become a key concern due to increasing energy costs and their associated environmental impact. It is important however, that investigations into the embodied energy of a product be in the context of global manufacturing rather than energy efficiency related to a particular product life cycle. This paper presents a model to assess the impact of global manufacturing on the embodied energy of products. Six different products manufactured from various raw materials in a global manufacturing network were used to carry out the assessment. The results show that product, material and key supply chain parameters play a crucial role. (C) 2010 CIRP.