Desenvolvimento metodológico para avaliação de desempenho ambiental em processos de usinagem de metais

Abstract

The growing concern of industrial companies with environmental issues is noticeable, aiming not only to improve their image before their stakeholders, but also to reduce waste in production processes and, consequently, in manufacturing costs. In this scenario, innovation is essential for improving the environmental performance of organizations and the consequent increase in their competitiveness. However, the strategic innovation process must be guided, aiming to concentrate efforts on activities that add value and provide more significant results in view of the defined objectives. In this way, it becomes relevant to use tools that enable the assessment of the environmental performance of industrial operations, and direct an action focused on the processes that have the greatest potential for improving their environmental efficiency. In the present study, a methodology was developed to evaluate the environmental performance of metal machining operations that allows the comparison between the different operations that makes up the production flow of the same product or different products. The objective of the proposed methodology is to identify the topics of lowest environmental efficiency of each operation and, consequently, guide the decision-making process for the environmental adequacy of the machining operations under analysis, through the reduction of waste and the environmental impacts caused by the performed activities. This methodology was developed based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method which is a tool that helps decision making that involves multi-criteria analysis. Once the methodology in question was defined, it was used to quantify the environmental performance indices of the machining operations present in the production flow of a product in the automotive chain, in order to demonstrate its applicability. With such data, a project to improve the machining operation was implemented, which presented the worst environmental performance index and, later, the methodology developed was used to reassess the environmental performance of this operation, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken to improve its process performance