Abstract: Sustainable manufacturing technologies are the new challenge faced by enterprises, industries,
and researchers. The development of a sustainability-based assessment method considering the
environmental and economic impacts is crucial to realize viable manufacturing. However, few studies
have addressed environmental economics and social flows using a common perspective. Mechanical
machining is one of the most-used manufacturing techniques. The overall ecological, economic,
and social footprint requires accurate and effective estimation and optimization. Several studies
have addressed this issue by examining the entire process of machining, but sustainability flows for
machining parameters and toolpaths have remained relatively unexplored. The lack of systematic
assistance tools bridging the gap between decision-maker preferences and the three sustainability
pillars—economic, social, and environmental—has impeded the widespread adoption of sustainable
machining practices. To this end, this paper proposes an integrated approach to the decision-making
problem that combines the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the Preference Ranking Organization
Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) for selecting a sustainable machining
strategy. The sustainability criteria are driven by manufacturing process parameters commonly
employed and regulated during the manufacturing phase. This includes toolpath strategies as a
qualitative input factor and manufacturing parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate, depth of
cut, and stepover as quantitative input factors, affirming the practical applicability of the method
in industrial contexts. New fundamental methods are also presented for selecting the most efficient
machining parameters and toolpaths according to the weights assigned to each ecological, social, and
economic footprint by the decision-maker (the manufacturer or production manager). In this way,
sustainable machining strategies in the manufacturing industry will be strengthened in integrity. In a
case study of part-end milling, both manufacturing parameters and toolpath strategies are considered
to establish sustainable feature-based machining decisions.
Keywords: sustainable machining; toolpath strategies; machining parameters; environmental impact;
machining cost; AHP; PROMETHEE
