A Prototype Web-Based User Interface 

for Sustainability Modeling and 

Optimization

Guodong Shao

David Westbrook

Alexander Brodsky

NISTIR 7850
NISTIR 7850

A Prototype Web-Based User Interface 

for Sustainability Modeling and 

Optimization

Guodong Shao

Systems Integration Division

Engineering Laboratory

David Westbrook

Computer Science Department

University of Maryland

Alexander Brodsky

Computer Science Department

George Mason University

March 2012

U.S. Department of Commerce

John E. Bryson, Secretary

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Patrick D. Gallagher, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director
A Prototype Web-Based User Interface for Sustainability Modeling and 

Optimization

Guodong Shao

System Integration Division

Engineering Laboratory

National Institute of Standards 

and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD 20899, U.S.A.

David Westbrook

Computer Science Department

University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742, 

U.S.A.

Alexander Brodsky

Computer Science 

Department

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA 22030, U.S.A.

A growing number of manufacturing industries are initiating efforts to address sustainability 

issues. Energy efficient manufacturing and low carbon manufacturing are gaining particular attention. 

Finding the optimal solution of operational strategy and investment planning by analyzing different 

options is important to decision makers as it allows them to make decisions to avoid the unnecessary high 

cost of energy and lower the associated carbon emissions. A decision guidance database system 

introduced in this paper enables the sustainability modeling and optimization for manufacturing processes. 

A graphical user interface of the database system will conveniently provide decision makers with analysis 

results and appropriate decision recommendations. This paper discusses the case studies developed 

previously using the decision guidance database tool and the development of a prototype web-based user 

interface for these case studies. This prototype provides foundation for future research on sustainability 

modeling and optimization and the tool can be easily enhanced to become a publicly available tool and 

used for more complex manufacturing processes and systems. 

Keywords: sustainable manufacturing; sustainable machining; energy management; decision 

guidance query language; optimization; user interface.

1. Introduction

Sustainable manufacturing has recently gained an increasing global interest (Seliger et al. 2011).

According to the Department of Commerce, sustainable manufacturing is ―the creation of 

manufactured products that use processes that minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve 

energy and natural resources, are safe for employees, communities, and consumers and are 

economically sound‖ (DOC 2010). The manufacturing sector accounts for about one third of all energy 

consumed in the United States (NAM 2010). Therefore, the U.S. manufacturing companies are starting 

to realize the importance of energy-efficient manufacturing. According to the U.S. Energy Information 

Administration (EIA), the cost of energy will substantially increase in the next two decades. Therefore, 

manufacturers who do not have much leeway when it comes to raising prices on their goods, will have 

to learn to run factories on less energy or risk financial strain (Rockwell 2010). The manufacturing 

industry has made progress with sustainability projects and energy management (Fujitsu. 2011, GM 

2010, Mort 2010, SAIC 2011). However, most of them are stand-alone projects. The solutions are 

provided on a problem by problem basis, without a systematically structured and generalized reusable 

approach. Many of the complex interactions were not taken into account and could not be handled. 

Only those manufacturers that plan to manage energy efficiency and emissions systematically, 

dynamically, consistently, quantitatively, and optimally will have a competitive advantage going 
forward. They need methodologies and decision tools, which provide measurement science-based 

assessment, evaluation, and decision guidance, to achieve this higher-level energy management (Choi 

et al. 2003, USCEEM 2011).

Decision optimization is an effective tool to make the best decision out of a multitude of 

possible alternatives by using rigorous mathematical techniques. A typical optimization model used in 

operations research (OR) specifies (1) decision variables, (2) constraints that have to be satisfied, and 

(3) an objective function to be optimized. However, modeling of a manufacturing process using OR 

tools such as Mathematical Programming (MP) and Constraint Programming (CP) presents a 

considerable challenge due to the complexity of both the problem and the tool. The MP modeling 

abstraction (e.g., A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming (AMPL) (AMPL 2011, Fourer 

et al. 2002) or the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) (GAMS 2012)) typically requires OR 

expertise and mathematical training (Brodsky et al. 2011).

Brodsky and Wang (2008) proposed a Decision Guidance Management System (DGMS) that 

supports what-if analysis, monitoring and control, statistical learning, and decision optimization using 

Decision Guidance Query Language (DGQL), which is an extension of the relational model with 

probability distributions over a set of attributes as random variables. The DGQL combines the database 

application modeling with optimization algorithms. The structured query language (SQL) is used to 

create abstract models and DGQL commands are used to formulate optimization problems as an MP 

formulation. The optimization problem is submitted to an external mathematical solver such as IBM 

ILOG CPLEX (CPLEX 2010), which takes the optimization objective, as well as applicable equations, 

inequalities, and algorithms to derive an optimization solution. The optimal solutions will be sent back 

to the database to replace the decision variables. Taking a sustainable manufacturing application as an 

example, DGQL views can utilize existing factory data such as energy consumption, production, 

technology, budget, and cost to formulate and solve an optimization problem, e.g., optimal energy 

usage to minimize the total cost. It is easy and intuitive for database application developers. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Sustainable Manufacturing (SM)

program is based on developing and deploying measurement science to achieve sustainability across 

manufacturing processes. This enables manufacturing resource efficiency and production network 

resiliency. The program will provide industry with the needed tools and infrastructure to enable and 

accelerate the development of production models capable of evaluating sustainability performance at 

the unit, plant floor, and supplier network levels. Sustainability Modeling and Optimization (SMO) is a 

project within the NIST SM program. The objective of the project is to develop a measurementscience-based integration framework for sustainable manufacturing to support (1) common concepts 

and models that facilitate integration of engineering information systems, (2) generic optimization 

approaches to aid performance assessment and decision making, and (3) common verification and 

validation methods to ensure credible modeling and analysis. 

The DGQL decision guidance tool (Brodsky and Wang 2008, Brodsky et al. 2011) is one of the 

candidate tools for the SMO project to explore, implement, test, verify, and validate the generic 

optimization approaches. Two sustainability modeling and optimization case studies - Energy 

Efficiency Manufacturing and Sustainable Machining have been implemented using the DGQL tool

(Shao et al. 2011a, Shao et al. 2011b). This paper discusses a prototype web-based user interface 

developed based on these case studies. Although not yet publicly available, we anticipate that the webbased user interface will provide users easy access to the optimization databases. 

The paper is subdivided into five main sections. The next section introduces the proposed 

decision guidance framework that includes the system users and user interface needs. Section 3 reviews 

the two sustainability modeling and optimization case studies. Section 4 introduces the design and 

development of the prototype web-based user interface for the two case studies. Finally, in Section 5, a 

summary is provided.
2. Decision Guidance Framework

Achieving sustainable manufacturing involves predicting the behavior of a complex system and 

making decisions to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and save operational costs, 

while maintaining desirable production and people-comfort levels. Predictions and decisions will be 

made in the presence of large amounts of dynamically collected data and learned uncertainty models. 

Figure 1 shows the DGMS application implementation architecture that provides measurement-science 

based optimal decision making for sustainable manufacturing. The measurement science applied 

includes sustainability indicators and metrics, measurement methods for energy, emissions, material, 

sustainable manufacturing data models, and assessment methods. The different layers of the decision 

guidance framework are addressed in the following sub-sections.

Web-Based User Interface

Data

Acquisition

DGQL

DGMS user

Raw

Database

Learning Decision

Optimization

Simulation &

Prediction

Learned

Knowledge

Domain

Knowledge

Decision

Optimization

Views

Prediction

Views

Learning Set

Views

External Data

Sources

DGMS Engine Layer

DGMS Application Layer (Sustainable Manufacturing)

Sustainability Technologies and Resources

Data Views

Sustainable Manufacturing Operation Data

Views

Sustainable Manufacturing Indicators/Metrics

Views

User Interface Layer

Figure 1. Framework of decision guidance for sustainable manufacturing.
2.1 DGMS engine layer

The DGMS engine layer depicted in Figure 1 is a productivity platform for iterative 

development of decision-guidance systems. DGQL supports the integration of (1) querying the data 

collection and construction of learning sets; (2) learning from the learning sets, using parameterized 

transformers and optionally defining an estimation utility, such as sum of squares of errors, to be 

minimized; (3) probabilistic prediction and simulation using expressions that involve random variables, 

such as expectation, variance, and probability of a logical formula; and (4) stochastic or deterministic 

optimization, where the search space is defined as a set of feasible non-deterministic query evaluations. 

The domain knowledge for all these tasks is expressed in a parameterized database query language, so 

that the development of models would be as simple as the development of a database (DB) reporting 

application. The DGMS combines the extensibility of database application modeling with the benefits 

of optimization algorithms based on MP and CP. DGMS functions can be automatically derived by the 

compiler from abstract model views, which are written using SQL. These abstract models may describe 

sustainable manufacturing application components and factors such as machining operations, 

equipments, tools, products, energy efficiency, emissions control, and local power generations. The 

SQL models can be annotated by indicating that some of the table columns are unknown and the value 

it computes is to be used as an optimization objective. Given this information, DGMS will 

automatically generate, at run time, a formal MP problem and deploy a mix of algorithms best suited 

for the problem at hand; e.g., Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) using IBM ILOG CPLEX 

solver. Therefore, when a new factor for manufacturing applications is introduced, the only requirement 

to form its optimization problem is to add a DGQL for this component. All systems static and dynamic 

data will be normalized and stored in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). 

2.2 DGMS application layer

To achieve sustainable manufacturing, industries are seeking not only the long-term strategic 

directions but also the improvement of operational performance towards sustainability. DGMS/DGQL

will help the users formulate the optimization problem that utilizes existing factory data such as energy 

consumption, production, technology, and cost. In this layer, DGQL views need to be developed and 

stored. These views should be used as modular building blocks and templates to solve other

manufacturing problems. The templates library provides reusable models and algorithms for a family of 

manufacturing processes; each template can be reused with minor adjustment for different cases within 

the family. A new type of applications can be added to the templates’ library. Moreover, the existing 

type of applications within the library can be executed with new data so that different manufacturers

that have the same problems could use the template by inputting their data to seek company-specific 

optimal decision guidance. 

As shown in Figure 1, the DGMS application layer includes three categories of views. The first 

two sets of views deal with the definition of the required data for DGQL. The last view provides

computations of the indicators and metrics. The views are described in the following subsections.

2.2.1 Sustainability technologies and resources data views

To make optimal decisions based on given requirements and budget constraints for new 

technologies and systems, the templates for storing the sustainability technology and resources’ data 

need to be designed and ready to be populated.

The sustainability technologies and resources data views include data schemas for technologies

and resources such as solar panels; standby generators; Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning 

(HVAC) system; Energy Management System (EMS); heat recovery system; machine center; cutting 
tool; material; and coolant. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) reference data also belongs to this category 

(EPA 2010). The data need to be formatted and stored in DB tables. For example, a generator data 

schema is as follows:

Generator (g_id, g_name, g_price, g_annual-maintenance, g_fuel-cost)

The schema shows the identifiers, names, prices, annual maintenance fees, and fuel cost of the 

generators in the database. The database schema can be populated using data from product specification 

and engineering information systems.

2.2.2 Sustainable manufacturing operation data views

Most manufacturing facilities need to better track and improve their performance on energy, 

material, and water usage, and control greenhouse gas emissions and waste. While sustainability 

technologies and resources data view cover the product data, the sustainable manufacturing operation 

view deals with the process data, machine setting data, and condition and constraint data such as 

cutting speed, cutting time, cutting tool life, amount of coolant needed, energy consumed, and carbon 

emission amount. For example, a machine spindle speed table is as follows:

SpindleSpeed (mID, tID, pID, sID, sSpeed) schema gives the spindle speed (sSpeed) on a 

particular stock (sID) for the product (pID) being produced using a particular tool (tID) on a particular 

machine (mID).

2.2.3 Sustainable manufacturing indicators and metrics’ views

The product and process data views provide the required data. However, to perform decision 

optimization, the analyst also needs to determine the indicators for sustainable manufacturing and their 

metrics. Algorithms to calculate these metrics need to be in place. The sustainable manufacturing 

indicators and metrics’ views provide computation model templates and representations for formulas 

and algorithms. For example, it may include total energy produced by a solar panel, total natural gas 

consumed by a generator, emission levels, energy cost, payback period, Return on Investment (ROI), 

and waste generated. The NIST metrics for products and processes sustainability performance (Feng et 

al. 2010) can be referenced when developing this view. An example of this view is as follows:

CREATE VIEW Metal_Chips_Emission 

SELECT p.pID, (s.Volume – p.Volume) * m.mDensity *m.WDe AS MCE

FROM Product p, Stock s, Material m

WHERE p.maID = m.maID and s.maID = m.maID

Where WDe is a factor from an LCA database for material disposal.

2.3 User interface layer

User interface enables the communication between the system and its users, it provides users 

with particular functionalities to access the information within the DGMS application layer. This 

information includes input data, computations, optimizations, and actionable recommendations. Figure 

2 shows the use case diagram for decision guidance of sustainable manufacturing. There are four types 

of potential users for the system:

Vendor: The vendor is a supplier of products and/or technologies, which are used by manufacturers. 

The vendor publishes and updates its products data in the system through a web-based user 

interface, so that customers can query most up-to-date product information. Product specification 

data includes product name, type, capacity, size, and price.

Customer: The customer is a potential buyer of the technology or products. S/he may query existing 
products information such as product name, type, capacity, size, and price through a web-based user 

interface.

Decision maker: The decision maker is the primary user of the system. By submitting a decision 

object query with input constraints and conditions, s/he could get an actionable recommendation for 

a specific problem.

System developer: The system developer serves as system administrator who can update system 

data, create new applications, modify/improve system design, and maintain/debug the system. 

A user interface can be developed using web-services such as Java Database Connectivity 

Application Programming Interface (JDBC API) or any specific application.

Decision Guidance Management

System for Sustainable

Manufacturing

Vendor Decision

maker

System developer

query decision

recommendation

update/modify

model query product info

publish/update

product data

Customer

Figure 2. Use cases of the decision guidance management system for sustainable manufacturing.

3. Two Case Studies for Sustainable Manufacturing Modeling and Optimization

Case studies, using DGQL, can be conducted to analyze, evaluate, and improve the 

sustainability performance of manufacturing processes, systems, and organizations. Such studies are 

designed to solve specific optimization problems and to answer specific objective questions.

In general, the goal of DGQL modeling is to provide a quantitative analysis for manufacturing 

processes, workflow, schedules, and to determine material, labor, equipment, tooling, inventory, 

material handling, and maintenance requirements in order to manage energy, emission, and waste. The 

activities for performing such a case study include 1) identifying a manufacturing problem for study, 2) 

collecting domain knowledge for that problem, such as identifying the indicators and their metrics, 3) 

developing a formal data model for the problem, collecting and processing available data, calibrating 

the model for unknown parameters, 4) determining the decision objectives and constraints, and 5) 

formulating and solving the optimization problem using DGQL. Two independent case studies from 

different categories are presented briefly in the following subsections. The DGQL models for these 

case studies are stored in the model library for future reuse.
3.1 Investment/planning for Energy Efficient Manufacturing

Manufacturers have been putting higher priority on meeting production requirements than on 

energy management. With the increasing energy price, government regulation, and environmental 

concerns, factory decision makers have to make decisions based on achieving energy-efficient 

manufacturing. 

The objective of this case study is to find the best energy usage patterns. Because of the 

complexity of systems, processes, and data, the decision making for investment and strategic planning 

is not a straightforward process. The inputs to these models may include data associated with budget, 

regulatory policies, the contract and incentives, and taxes. 

A large factor of electricity cost in manufacturing industries is the peak electric demand. 

Manufacturers can schedule their machines and equipment to run during periods of lower demand, but 

sometimes this is not possible. One of the more reasonable approaches is to use local generators during 

the periods of peak demand, but determining the appropriate configuration of local generators is also 

complicated. The components are interdependent and the interactions among them are complex, all the 

factors such as brand, type, size, capacity, and efficiency have to be taken into account. Shao et al. 

(2011a) has modeled energy demand control using DGQL for a manufacturing facility. The model is 

used to determine optimal investment of a combination of standby generators and/or renewable energy 

sources to improve energy efficiency, lower energy cost, and reduce the carbon footprint. Figure 3

illustrates the flow, inputs, and outputs of the model. 

- Energy

- Emission

- Cost

- ROI

- Payback period

Utility contract

Curtailment

contract

Energy

consumption

Relational Database Model

(SQL)

Production

schedule

Decision Guidance Query

Language (DGQL) Engine Knowledge Decision Recommendation

Constraints

Objective

Designation

Renewable

energy

technology

Model Input Data

Metrics

External Mathematical

Solver (IBM ILOG CPLEX)

Figure 3. Energy-efficient manufacturing DGQL modeling diagram.

The following activities were involved. 

1. Developed a methodology and metrics for assessing the energy-efficient manufacturing planning 

and investment. 

2. Identified data including energy consumption of both production loads and facility building 

services, and renewable energy technology data.

3. Collected data from sources such as utility contract, curtailment contract, production database,

EMS, and vendor’ product specifications.

4. Developed the data schema and stored the data into a RDBMS, which is the format that is ready for 
DGQL modeling. 

5. Developed DGQL views to calculate energy consumption, emissions, cost, and ROI for different 

scenarios. Constraints included the budget available, energy required, and limiting carbon emission.

6. Formulated an optimization problem and submitted it to the external solver.

7. Retrieved the optimal solution from the optimized database.

8. Made recommendations of purchase plans for local generators, and renewable energy sources such 

as solar panels.

3.2 Operation of low carbon manufacturing

To achieve sustainable and low carbon manufacturing, efforts to analyze and improve the 

energy usage and carbon emissions at the unit manufacturing process level are necessary. Depending on 

the objective, different approaches can be implemented at the workstation and machine level. A case 

study on this aspect assists decision making on machining purchases by determining optimal cutting 

conditions (spindle speed and cutting speed) for the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly 

machining. The spindle speed of conventional milling is relatively slow and it results in a longer 

machining time, causing an unnecessary excess of carbon dioxide emission (Desmira et al. 2009). The 

energy usage can be lowered if the spindle speed is increased, as this reduces the overall machining 

time. Finding the optimal speed to run a machine often comes down to solving the behavior problems 

of a complex system. As the spindle speed is increased, other parts on the machine and tooling take 

durability losses and their costs have to be taken into account. Eventually the disposal processes of 

tooling and other substances also cause an effect on the environment. 

Shao et al. (2011b) has performed a case study of low carbon machining using DGQL. Figure 4

illustrates the inputs and outputs for the machining model. The following activities were involved:

1. Developed a methodology and metrics for assessing the sustainability performance of a machining 

process. All factors including electricity consumption, tool usage, lubricant, coolant, and chips were 

each converted to equivalent CO2 emission. The optimal cutting conditions were obtained for 

lowest total system emission.

2. Designed and deployed a data collection methodology. Data for resources’ components such as 

machine, tool, coolant, lubricant, and material were extracted from the LCI database, production 

database, and machine tool specifications. 

3. Developed DGQL tables and views to formulate the optimization problem and submitted it to an 

external solver. 

4. Recommended a high-speed milling machine tool purchase based on the optimal cutting speed that 

led to a minimum total CO2 emission. In this case, the spindle speed is 6400 rpm, cutting speed is 

200.96 m/min, and feed rate is 1280 mm/min. 
- Energy

- CO2 Emission

- Cutting speed

- Spindle speed

- Cost

LCI

NC program

Machine

specifications

Relational Database Model

(SQL)

Product

design

Decision Guidance Query

Language (DGQL) Engine Knowledge Decision Recommendation

Constraints

Objective

Designation

Energy

consumption

Model Input Data

Metrics

External Mathematical

Solver (IBM ILOG CPLEX)

 

Figure 4. Sustainable machining DGQL modelling diagram.

4. Web-Based User Interface 

A prototype web-based user interface was developed for the case studies discussed in the 

previous section. It will be accessed using any web browser once it is publicly available to:

Provide users easy access to an optimized database

Update data records in the database

Display inputs, computations, optimizations, and actionable recommendations

In addition, it will provide password protected user-specific functionalities.

Figure 5 illustrates the prototype web-based graphical user interface (GUI) component diagram. 

The following applications and programming languages are used: Tomcat, Hypertext Markup 

Language (HTML), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), and PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL is an open source object-relational database system. It provides a platform upon which 

to develop in-house, web, or commercial software products that require a capable RDBMS 

(PostgreSQL 2010). The DGQL case study models described in the previous section reside within 

the PostgreSQL database.

Tomcat is a web server application that provides the web-based user interface with a unique 

Internet Protocol (IP) address, which can be accessed using any web browser from anywhere, at 

any time. 

HTML is the main markup language for web pages. It provides the basic building blocks of the 

interface. Everything on the screen—the colors, fonts, pictures, diagrams, tables, etc. - are created 

using HTML. 

JDBC is used to connect with the PostgreSQL database to perform the operation such as search, 

retrieve, and update information. In order to embed the JDBC code with the HTML code, Java 

Server Pages (JSP) syntax is necessary. Once JDBC retrieves information from the database, it can 

be displayed on the website using HTML.
Figure 5. Web-based user interface development diagram.

4.1 General use

The user interface will provide input, computations, and optimization data that any user can 

easily retrieve. All of this information is used to determine the final decision recommendation. Figure 6

to Figure 9 are the prototype GUI screen captures of functionalities of the sustainable machining case

using DGQL. As shown in the figures, functional buttons for the user to toggle are on the left hand side 

and the data display panel is on the right hand side.
Figure 6. Main screen of web-based user interface for the sustainable machining case.
Figure 7. Input tool information screen for the sustainable machining case.

Figure 8. Computation of tool emission screen for the sustainable machining case.
Figure 9. Recommendation of sustainable machining purchase decision.

The recommendation is displayed in Figure 9. Since the optimal Spindle Speed is 6477 rpm, the 

recommendation is to procure a high-speed machining center. This has shown that high-speed milling, 

characterized by a spindle rotation speed five to ten times faster than conventional milling, can be 

beneficial to sustainable manufacturing. By using DGQL modeling, we could also decide what high 

speed machining center needs to be purchased to minimize investment cost, with payback period or 

ROI as a constraint (e.g., decision maker wants to have a payback period of 2 years). 

4.2 Special purpose 

The user interface could also provide functionality for each of the four potential users - vendor, 

customer, decision maker, and system developer. Vendors will be able to update tables in the database. 

Customers will be able to look up specific product data that includes name, volume, identification, and 

LCA reference data associated with the products. Decision makers will be able to get an actionable 

recommendation or optimization results that meet their objective. System developers will be able to reconstruct any of the views, create new applications, and update, modify, or debug the system. The 

prototype interface screens for the four potential users are shown in Figure 10 to Figure 17.

As shown in Figure 10, specific users can navigate to their section of the site and obtain their 

specific functionality, assuming that they have the necessary credentials that are determined by an 
account with a username and password. Users can obtain an account by signing up.

Figure 10. Initial user screen.

Figure 11 to Figure 17 provide prototype screenshots of extended functionality for each 

potential user of the system. For example, a vendor can choose a database to update. The two currently 

available are Machining and Demand Control (Figure 11). The vendor can select and update various 

tables for the Machining case by topic areas indicated in Figure 12. The vendor can add new coolant 

data including the following fields: Coolant ID, Coolant Type, Carbon Dioxide from Production, 

Carbon Dioxide from Disposal, and Carbon Dioxide from Water Distribution (Figure 13).
Figure 11. Vendor login interface screen.

Figure 12. Screen of machining case tables for Vendor to update.

Figure 13. Screen of machining case coolant tables for Vendor to update.

A customer can view the product-related data, e.g., in Figure 14, the customer can choose to 

look up the product’s specification or the related LCA reference data. Figure 15 shows the product 

view. 
Figure 14. Screen of machining case for Customer to view.

Figure 15. Screen of machining case product view for Customer.

A decision maker can view the final Recommendation. For example, the machining purchase 

recommendation in Figure 16 shows that a high-speed machining center is more environmental 

friendly. 
Figure 16. Screen of machining case recommendation view for Decision Maker.

A system developer can create, view, modify, and delete any machining and demand control 

views. S/he can also update the system data, modify the design, debug the system, and create a new 

application.

Figure 17. Screen for System Developer.
5. Conclusion

Sustainable manufacturing is gaining global attention. Modeling and optimization of the 

manufacturing processes, system, and strategic and investment planning successfully is very important 

for manufacturers to achieve their sustainable manufacturing goals. To communicate to the system 

users with the optimization results and prediction of the behavior of complex systems, a web-based 

user interface has been developed to provide users easy access to the input data, computations, 

optimizations, and actionable recommendations. The specified web-based user interface can be easily 

extended and used for more manufacturing processes in the future.

The web-based user interface was designed for the two sustainable manufacturing optimization 

case studies: Sustainable machining and Energy-efficient manufacturing (Demand Control). The 

sustainable machining case study provides recommendations for purchasing machining centers that 

lead to minimum emissions, while the demand control case study suggested the number of local 

generators needed to control the peak demand and minimize the energy cost. 

The future research includes the development of generic optimization approaches, which cover 

information models that represents manufacturing unit processes, manufacturing unit assembly 

processes, process planning, and supply chain, data models and computational models required to 

perform optimization. As one of the decision support and optimization tools to verify and validate the 

generic optimization approaches, DGQL will be used to model more complex manufacturing processes

and process planning for industrial case studies. Based on the prototype and research discussed in this 

paper, eventually, a web-based user interface will be available to aid industrial users with decisionmaking to achieve sustainable manufacturing for selected cases.

DISCLAIMER

Certain commercial software systems are identified in this paper to facilitate understanding. Such 

identification does not imply that these software systems are necessarily the best available for the 

purpose. No approval or endorsement of any commercial product by the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology is intended or implied.

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