Digital Tools for Steering Sustainable Manufacturing: Insights on LCAC tool from the E2Comation Project

The digital and ecological transition of energy-intensive manufacturing sectors requires a new kind of integrated tools for real-time monitoring and predictive analysis to support through-process optimization. In this context, the service-oriented Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & Costing Tool (LCAC tool) has been developed within the Horizon 2020 E2Comation project. Such tool enables dynamic assessment of environmental and economic impacts at both factory and value chain levels, aligned with the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) methodological frameworks. The LCAC tool is constituted by three modules (Monitoring, Watchdog, and Marketplace modules) in order to produce both near-real-time and context-specific sustainability metrics. The Monitoring module uses a process-oriented architecture to collect high-frequency data (e.g., energy, compressed air) directly from floor sensors and aggregate them on an hourly basis. These data streams are first harmonized and then dynamically linked to functional units. This scheme enables time-sensitive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations and process-specific diagnostics via a web interface. Complementary monthly data (e.g., waste, raw materials) enrich the dataset for temporal consistency and broader impact coverage. The Watchdog module performs asynchronous LCA computations that are triggered by consumption anomalies. By benchmarking impact profiles over selected time intervals, it highlights significant deviations through visual analytics, supporting anomaly detection and root-cause analysis. Finally, the Marketplace module shifts the assessment procedure from process to product by associating cost and environmental impacts to specific stock-keeping units (SKUs) or batches. This approach supports batch-specific impact labeling and facilitates environmental data transparency in compliance with global tracking frameworks such as the EU Digital Product Passport. The LCAC tool demonstrated a robust and flexible architecture for environmental and economic performance evaluation in continuously changing manufacturing settings, offering actionable insights to operators, decision-makers, and downstream stakeholders in support of a reliable green transition.