Design of downsized and efficient manufacturing systems

Downsizing of manufacturing systems is considered to be an option to reduce environmental impact of manufacturing. However, productivity is always the bottleneck to implement downsizing in practical production. On the other hand, eco-efficiency is considered to be the key issue in enhancing the sustainability of the society. To design eco-efficient manufacturing system, we have focused on some targets historically. At first, machining of mechanical products was the target, then fabrication of MEMS devices was focused on, and recently the concept has been expanded to the production of semi-conductor devices. These efforts have proved that downsized compact manufacturing systems can be eco-efficient choices for production in some industries.