The Manufacturing Systems and Supply Chain Research Laboratory (MSSC Lab) at the University of Kentucky is focused on conducting fundamental and applied research directed at improving the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability performance of manufacturing systems and supply chains. The MSSC Lab strives to develop innovative methods, through the application of manufacturing and industrial engineering principles, to design, operate, evaluate and manage manufacturing systems and supply chains to promote economic, environmental and societal performance goals simultaneously. Promoting sustainability in manufacturing requires equal emphasis on product, process and system domains, as performance in one area is very closely related, and depends on, the other two. As such, more recently, the research group at the MSSC Lab has also extended efforts to investigate the design and evaluation of total life-cycle product sustainability.

Current research thrusts of the MSSC Lab are focused primarily on:

• Development of performance measurement frameworks and metrics for sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation at the systems level
• Supply chain risk and resilience modeling, (3) digitally-enabled total life-cycle product configuration optimization for sustainability
• Quantitative evaluation of product life-cycle utilities (e.g.: recoverability, disassemblability, reusability, remanufacturability, etc.)
• Investigation of organizational capability, readiness, and requirements for, sustaining successful lean transformations

MSSC Lab research project sponsors include the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), USAF Research Laboratory, US Army, National Science Foundation, UK e-Learning Innovation Initiative, GE Aviation and GE Transportation.

Director: Dr. Fazleena Badurdeen