Assigning processes for Sustainability

You can assign processes to materials and parts in your BoM. These are used to calculate the environmental impacts of the Product Manufacturing phase, and (if subtractive secondary processes are assigned) the initial mass of material required for the Material Production phase.

For Sustainability analysis, you can assign the processes that are stored in your database.
  • Processes are categorized as Primary, Secondary, or Joining & Finishing.
  • Each process has a Process dimension type that determines how to specify the Quantity and Unit of Measure.
Primary and Secondary processes can be assigned at the Material level, and Joining & Finishing processes can be assigned at the Part level.
Important: When assigning Primary and Secondary Processes to a material, ensure that the processes appear in the BoM in the correct order: a single Primary Process, optionally followed by one or more Secondary Processes in order of application. If the processes are not listed in the correct order, the analysis will not be carried out correctly.
Primary processes

A process (such as molding or casting) that is used to give initial shape and form to the raw material used to make the part.

You can assign a single Primary Process to each material in your BoM, and it is assumed to apply to 100% of the initial mass of material required to manufacture the part.
Note: If you also specify a subtractive Secondary Process, this initial mass before processing will be greater than the final mass of the part.

In most cases, the Primary Process has a dimension of 'Mass of part'. If the Primary Process has a dimension other than Mass, you will need to specify the Quantity for the process explicitly.

Secondary processes

A process that is used to give further shape to the part. Secondary processes include subtractive processes that remove material (such as grinding or cutting), and non-subtractive processes that do not remove material (such as deep drawing or laser machining).

You can assign multiple Secondary Processes to each material in your BoM.
  • For a subtractive process that has dimension 'Mass removed' (such as machining or grinding), you must specify the amount of material that is removed, either as an absolute mass, or as a % (by weight) of the material.
  • For a non-subtractive process that has a dimension other than mass (such as cutting and trimming, with dimension Area, or laser machining, with dimension Length), you must specify the Quantity as an absolute value.
  • For a non-subtractive process that applies to the entire material (such as deep drawing), the Quantity is assumed to be 'Mass of part' and you cannot change it.
When you run the analysis, the initial mass of material required (before secondary processing) is calculated (taking into account all secondary processes, if more than one has been specified). This initial mass is used to calculate the environmental impacts of the Material phase and the Primary Process, forms the Mass before Processing.

If you have specified more than one Secondary Process, the mass at each stage of the processing is also calculated. The Quantity that you specified in the BoM for the Secondary Process is used to calculate the environmental impacts of the Secondary Process itself.

Joining & Finishing processes

A process (such as painting) that can be applied to a part when it is in its final shape.

You can assign multiple Joining & Finishing Processes to each part in your BoM, and you must specify the Quantity for the process. The Unit of Measure you can use will depend on the dimension of the process. (For example, the dimension for Electroplating is 'Area', so the Quantity must be specified in units of area.)

When you run the analysis, it calculates the environmental impacts of the Joining & Finishing Process based on the Quantity that you specified in the BoM. It is assumed that the Joining & Finishing Process does not change the mass of the part.