4.1 This guide provides a systematic approach for characterizing the environmental aspects of manufacturing processes based on well-established formal languages.

Note 1: In computer science, a formal language is a language designed for use in situations in which natural language is unsuitable as, for example, in mathematics, logic, or computer programming. The symbols and formulas of such languages stand in precisely specified syntactic and semantic relations to one another. Formal representations are derived from formal languages.

Note 2: A UMP model is defined using formal languages, such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) (1),6 Unified Modeling Language (UML) (2), or Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to facilitate data exchange, computability, and communication with other manufacturing and analysis applications. These capabilities support manufacturers in evaluating, documenting, and improving performance. This guide specifically incorporates UML and XML but does not limit implementations to these languages.

4.2 This guide provides the structure and formalism to ensure consistency in characterizing manufacturing processes in a computer-interpretable way, thus enabling effective communication, computational analytics, and exchange of performance information.

4.3 Fig. 1 shows how this guide is used to transition manufacturing resources, such as industrial robots, machine tools, and auxiliary devices, from the phycical world to the digital world through graphical and formal representations. In doing so, required information to perform engineering analysis, such as optimization, simulation, and life cycle assessment, is characterized in a manner that is complete, standardized, and efficient.

FIG. 1 Overview of Significance and Use of this Guide

UMPs store digital representations of physical manufacturing assets and systems to enable engineering analysis, for example, optimization, simulation, and life cycle assessments.

Note 3: This guide will promote new tool development that can link manufacturing information and analytics for calculating the desired environmental performance measures.

4.4 This guide also supports the development of tools to improve decision support capabilities while facilitating the development and extension of standardized data and information bases.

Note 4: Data collected within manufacturing enterprises can be used to build enterprise-or-sector-specific databases that complement or extend Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) databases (ULE 880). This approach will improve the relevancy and completeness of the data while retaining key links to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods.

4.5 Fig. 2 presents a road map to this guide. Section 5 describes the graphical representation of the UMP. Section 6 presents a conceptual definition of the UMP concept. Section 7 presents a step-by-step guide on how to characterize a manufacturing process using the formal methods presented in Sections 5 and 6. Section 8 describes how to create a composed system model, or a network of UMPs.

FIG. 2 Systematic Illustration of Use of UMP Representation and Process Characterization Methodology to Develop a Number of Specific UMP Models to Support Model Composition

1.1 This guide provides an approach to characterize any category of manufacturing process and to systematically capture and describe relevant environmental information.

1.2 This guide defines the conceptual model of a unit manufacturing process (UMP) from which a formal representation can be specified.

1.3 This guide defines the graphical representation of a UMP model that supports the systematic structuring and visualizing of manufacturing information.

1.4 This guide defines a process characterization methodology to construct UMP models that characterize the environmental aspects of the manufacturing processes under study.

1.5 This guide provides the necessary structure and formality for identifying and capturing key information needed to assess manufacturing performance, yet provides no details about an actual assessment of the process performance.

1.6 This guide provides the conceptual definition for a system composed of multiple UMPs to represent a production system.

1.7 This guide may be used to complement other standards that address sustainability and the product life cycle. This guide most closely relates to the inventory component as discussed in the ISO 14040 series (ISO 14044) standards, and resource management as discussed in the ISO 55000 series (ISO 55001) standards.

1.8 This guide does not purport to address all of the security issues and the risks associated with manufacturing information. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to follow practices and establish appropriate information technology related security measures.

1.9 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.10 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.