Session: 02-07-01: Design for AM and Sustainability

Paper Number: 173434

Biological Systems as Inspiration for Designing and Evaluating Manufacturing Systems 

Biological systems exhibit traits such as adaptability, efficient resource use, redundancy, and resilience. These are qualities that are also increasingly needed in modern manufacturing systems. The manufacturing sector is continuing to evolve rapidly due to new technologies, product innovations, and changing market demands. It also remains one of the most energy and resource-intensive industries globally. Current approaches to manufacturing system design and evaluation often treat sustainability and resilience separately, leading to decisions that may optimize short-term performance but overlook long-term system-level impacts. This work proposes a biologically inspired framework to design and evaluate manufacturing systems, drawing lessons from ecosystems that naturally integrate efficiency and adaptability. Ecological systems, particularly food webs, serve as a compelling analogy for engineered systems. These biological networks efficiently allocate resources under stable conditions and maintain functional integrity during disruptions. This study explores how ecological attributes, such as biodiversity, diversity of flow paths, the presence of detritivores, and cycling behaviors, can be used to inform and assess manufacturing system design and evaluation. The goal is to build systems that remain resource efficient under normal conditions but are also capable of recovery and adaptation when challenged by unexpected changes. To investigate this, we apply ecological network analysis (ENA) to two levels of manufacturing: (1) full-system analysis, encompassing the entire lifecycle from material extraction through post-production, and (2) static floorplan-level analysis within manufacturing facilities. Ecological metrics such as Degree of System Order, Finn Cycling Index, and cyclicity are quantitatively compared to traditional engineering metrics including thermodynamic efficiency and production throughput. Our findings show that ecological metrics correlate with conventional engineering indicators but also offer unique insights into system-wide sustainability and resilience. Results suggest that biologically inspired evaluations are especially effective at the system level, where they can identify trade-offs, feedback loops, and underutilized capacities that may not be evident through traditional engineering approaches alone. This work demonstrates that using ecological network analysis enables more comprehensive evaluations of manufacturing systems, especially during the early stages of development. This work also demonstrates how biological characteristics can be incorporated into the design of manufacturing systems. For example, biodiversity in ecology has been shown to enhance system resilience. By applying this analogy to manufacturing and introducing diversity among machines and processes within a system, this was shown to lead to more robust operations. By mimicking the organizational structure of ecological systems, the results show that we can develop manufacturing networks that are not only highly efficient but also resilient to disruptions. This biologically inspired framework for both design and evaluation offers a promising path toward aligning technological innovation integration in manufacturing with long-term goals of sustainability and resilience.

Presenting Author: Hadear Hassan Texas A&M University

Presenting Author Biography: Hadear Hassan is a Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, where she is pursuing research at the intersection of innovation and manufacturing. Her work focuses on advancing smart and sustainable manufacturing systems, particularly through the use of bio-inspiration to enhance energy efficiency at a systems level. In addition to her research, Hadear is also deeply committed to engineering education. She has been recognized with several prestigious honors, including the J. George H. Thompson Fellowship (2022), the Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching (2023), the Walker Impact Award (2023), and the Cain Impact Award (2024). She is also an Associate Fellow in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) Academy for Future Faculty. In 2025, she was selected to attend the Global Young Scientists Summit in Singapore, a competitive international event for promising early-career researchers.

Authors:

Hadear Hassan Texas A&M University
Astrid Layton Texas A&M University