Despite the fact that the implementation of ISO 50001 has helped organizations to successfully accomplish energy saving policies, there is still a significant disparity in the number of companies certificated under ISO 50001 compared with other standards such as ISO 14001. Considering the compatibilities between both standards, a potential sector is identified for the integration of ISO 50001 in organizations that operate under ISO 14001 systems. The cost and time associated with the development and implementation of the Energy Management System are identified as being amongst the most important obstacles, restricting the number of companies that are inclined to this energy certification. As an attempt to overcome this limitation, in this work, both standards were analyzed in detail and their coincidences identified and organized to propose a novel methodology that allows companies to naturally integrate an Energy Management System based on ISO 50001 into an ISO 14001 already in operation. The results provide evidence of a strong compatibility among the energy and environmental management systems, allowing enterprises to integrate the former with minimum investment and resources. In order to validate the proposed methodology and to demonstrate the agreement between both programs, these procedures were applied in a manufacturing company of the automotive sector, considered as a high energy consumer according to the classification made by the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy in Mexico.

The human factor is becoming increasingly relevant for its role in industrial development; therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the machine–man–environment system in an integrated and not isolated way, as is commonly done, for evaluating the sustainability performance of manufacturing practices. For this reason, in this paper, an ergonomic triad model is proposed for calculating a novel Sustainable Work Index, (SWI), made up of the factors: human work, workstation design, organizational environment and sustainable environmental conditions. The methodology consists of defining the productive time, interviewing the workers, taking anthropometric measurements, assessing the environmental conditions, obtaining the indicators for each factor, calculating the index and interpreting the results to define improvement actions. The model was applied to a manufacturing industry obtaining a regular status with an index of 63.6%. Improvement actions were implemented, and it was possible to increase the index to 73.9%, which represents a good commitment of the company towards occupational health. The development of the new triad model to calculate the SWI will allow industries to visualize indicators of the interaction of the ergonomic triad, identify its current condition and propose actions to physically, organizationally and environmentally improve human well-being and system performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to present a method based on the application of method engineering, in order to eliminate downtime and improve the manufacturing cell.Design/methodology/approach: The research strategy employed was a case study applied to a manufacturing company to explore the causes of excessive dead time and low productivity. The methodology used was divided in five steps. The first corresponds to the analysis of the lathe and grinding process; the second is the elaboration of the man-machine diagram to identify dead times; the third is the application of the improvement proposal; the fourth is the redistribution of the cell to optimize the process; the fifth is to conclude from the results obtained.Findings: With the proposed method, the downtime was reduced by 41% and only 50% of the available labor is required, therefore, it is concluded that the method can be used to redesign manufacturing cells.Research limitations/implications: This research was limited to analyzing and improving human-machine interaction, since work is not just the machine, or the individual alone, or the individual manipulating the machine, therefore, no other tools were used to improve the time of machines operation.Practical implications: Designing a manufacturing cell that allows the operator to do his job with less fatigue and not adapt the operator to the job, as commonly happens.Social implications: Companies must show a greater interest in occupational health by including human capital in their optimization plans to avoid future harm to workers.Originality/value: The key contribution of this paper focused on developing a novel and practical methodology to design or re-design manufacturing cells to improve productivity considering the human factor, inspired by the main concepts of method engineering.

The paper presents a methodology to construct a Discrete Event Simulation model to assess the expansion of a container terminal. The methodology was applied to the Ensenada International Terminal located in Mexico. The simulation integrates all the operations of the container terminal including the arrival of vessels, trucks, and storage of containers. The expansion plan included the addition of anew berth, and additional storage yard space. The expansion model was evaluated under different demand increments. Recommendations were provided on the level of demand that the expansion may be able to serve. As a result, the additional berth will increase the capacity, but the projected storage space will support up to a 140% increase in demand with a 20% in reserve. The terminal must consider additional storage space either in the terminal or at an external facility for additional demand greater than 140%, or for having a larger storage reserve.

Water supply represents a significant electrical load worldwide. The operation of inefficient pumps contributes to increased energy demand and carbon footprint. Current methods for evaluating industrial water pumps present technical and economic challenges that need to be addressed. For these reasons, we developed a practical and cost-effective virtual instrument called the Pumping Evaluation System (PES). The PES tool performs real-time monitoring of electrical, hydraulic, and efficiency data, as well as the Operating Characteristic (OC) curves. The PES tool was implemented on a vertical pump currently used by a municipal water distribution plant in Mexicali, Mexico. A comparative analysis between the experimental data and the manufacturer’s data revealed potential energy savings of 361,455 kWh/year (24.35%) and an equivalent carbon footprint reduction of 157,233 kg of CO_2eq/year if the old pump is replaced by a new one, which is the lowest cost alternative according to a Life Cycle Cost (LCC).