Towards Sustainable Manufacturing: A Case Study for Sustainable Packaging Redesign

In the past decades, research was predominantly conducted to increase the operational efficiency and productivity of production processes. Currently, from a global perspective, a profound change in values in society is discernible. Starting from purely economic objectives of the last years, preserving the environment and a human-oriented design of socio-technical systems such as factories are becoming more and more important. In the future, this change emanating from society will also represent a major challenge for manufacturing companies to design processes and systems more sustainably. The organization’s objectives are changing so that manufacturing should be more resource-efficient, generate less or no waste, and allow a safe, ergonomic, and ethically correct work environment for employees. In this article, the authors show an example of the future symbiosis between economic, ecological, and social sustainability using the example of a case study from a real SME manufacturer. This case study aims to identify more sustainable alternatives for polystyrene-based packaging and thus contribute to more sustainable manufacturing.