**1. Introduction**

In the last three centuries, we have experienced four industrial revolutions. At the end of the eighteenth century, the steam engine powered the first revolution. Almost a 100 years later, electricity powered the second one leading to the proliferation of mass production lines. Nearly another 100 years later, the adoption of electronics, IT systems, and robotics sparked the third revolution [1].

The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, labeled "Industry 4.0" or "I4.0" or 4IR," was discussed for the first time in public at the Hanover Trade Fair in 2011 [2]. Since then, I4.0 has been revolutionizing industries by embracing the technologies offered by tools such as AI, advanced robotics, and cyber-physical systems.

Through these four industrial revolutions, efficiency, productivity, quality, and automation have greatly improved the delivery of products and services to customers. However, the manufacturing processes created by humans have had disastrous consequences on the environment due to "climate change." To mitigate climate change, engineers and manufacturers worldwide have stepped up the research into cradle-tocradle designs and sustainable manufacturing practices. Bio-inspired designs have been gaining momentum to create products and manufacturing methods that are eco-friendly.

Life has been thriving on the earth for 3.5 billion years. In just the past 200 years, starting with the invention of the steam engine, the four industrial revolutions ushered a pattern of destruction to our home called "The Earth." We can see the dangers of climate change as portrayed by the documentary "Six Degrees" by National Geographic, as massive amounts of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere raising the average temperature of the Earth [3]. The other dangers are plastic pollution and loss of biodiversity. One recent book by Bill Gates starts with the chapter "51 billion to zero." [4] It states,

*"There are two numbers you need to know about climate change. The first is 51 billion. The other is zero. Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year. Although the figure may go up or down a bit from year to year, it's generally increasing. This is where we are today. Zero is what we need to aim for. To stop the warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change—and these effects will be very bad—humans need to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere."*

The conclusion is very clear: Our current design and manufacturing methods are unsustainable and dangerous to the environment and, therefore, to ourselves ultimately. We need to learn and imitate nature's design principles and manufacturing methods.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has created a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a blueprint for peace and prosperity in countries [5]. In the last few decades, companies across the world have been attempting to make their factories green, lean, smart, and green. "Green" refers to technologies and practices for sustainability. "Lean" refers to lean product design, lean manufacturing, and lean service. "Smart" refers to leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies. A seminal book "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature," by Janine M. Benyus led to the creation of the Biomimicry Institute [6]. Biomimicry looks to nature for solving design problems in a regenerative way. Biomimicry is about learning from nature and applying that knowledge to design, make and operate products, systems, businesses, and cities that are compatible with the sustenance of the earth. The author proposed nine principles of biomimicry: (1) Nature runs on sunlight, (2) Nature uses only the energy it needs, (3) Nature fits form to function, (4) Nature recycles everything, (5) Nature rewards cooperation, (6) Nature banks on diversity, (7) Nature demands local expertise, (8) Nature curbs excesses from within, and (9) Nature taps the power of limits [7].

Another book "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" by William McDonough and Michael Braungart suggests several strategies to design products and systems that can be used and reused again and again, imitating nature's circular economy to attain the principles of cradle-to-cradle life cycles [8]. The essential principles of cradle-to-cradle design emphasize a shift from humanity's "cradle-to-grave"

### *Principles for Designing Green, Lean, and Smart Microfactories: Chicken as a Model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109645*

to nature's "cradle-to-cradle" with a deep understanding of Technical and biological metabolisms. This requires a system that does not create monstrous hybrids such as landfills but plans for efficient separation of technical and biological nutrients and recycles them endlessly, just as nature does.

Similarly, Gregory Unruth, the author of the book "Earth, Inc.: Using Nature's Rules to Build Sustainable Profits," gives five eco-minded rules called "bio-sphere rules" for the sustainable design of products and processes [9]. These five rules are (1) Materials parsimony, (2) Value cycle, (3) Power autonomy, (4) Sustainable product platforms, and (5) Function over form [10]. They aim to create closed-loop business processes. Currently, we see a great interest in learning the principles from nature and applying them in design and manufacturing to realize nature's "cradle-to-cradle" approach to sustainability. In recent times research into bio-inspired design has been gaining momentum [11]. Thousands of new eco-friendly products are designed, developed, and patented [12]. A significant amount of time and resources are spent on nature-inspired biomaterials such as Chitin and Chitosan [13]. Innovations are happening in 3D printing (additive manufacturing) technologies to bring it closer to nature's manufacturing methods in terms of sustainability [14]. There is an urgent need to create a framework to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations Organization (UNO).

Nature produces a variety of products, such as grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, herbs, wood, eggs, and meat, all in microfactories. A close observation of nature shows that all its products and manufacturing methods are green, lean, and smart. Most of the products of nature are manufactured in microfactories. For example, a plant manufacturing tomatoes, a bird producing eggs, and a womb assembling a baby. To expand on this discussion, we analyze a product of nature, the "egg," and the microfactory of nature, the "chicken" for their green, lean, and smart features.

## **2. Green, lean and smart product and production system: a framework**

Everything that nature creates—for example, a chicken egg—happens in a lightsout factory [15]. Even a human baby is entirely created in the dark factory of the mother's womb. **Figure 1** presents an IDEF (Integration Definition) [16] model of the egg production process. There are four parameters in IDEF representation of a system: Input, output, mechanism, and constraints or controls. The inputs are cereal grains, water, air, minerals and vitamins, and feed additives such as antioxidants and organic minerals. The outputs are eggs, urine, and feces. The mechanism that converts inputs into outputs is the biological body of the chicken. Constraints and controls are the availability of resources such as chicken feed, water, and suitable living conditions.

The feed sustains the female chicken and aids in its growth. A chicken turns a portion of the feed into follicles in its ovary. These tiny follicles travel through the chicken's approximately 70 cm long oviduct. As a follicle travels through the oviduct, many parts of the egg, including membranes, albumen, chalazae, and shell, are added by processes similar to nano and additive manufacturing. The whole process is executed within the oviduct factory. This 70 cm-long microfactory typically produces an egg a day during the breeding season. Depending on the bird species and seasons, the number of eggs per clutch and the frequency of egg delivery vary.

A matrix with five parameters, as shown in **Table 1**, is to study, appreciate, and explore any object in Nature [17]. These five parameters will be used to study the

### **Figure 1.**

*Chicken input-output IDEF model.*


### **Table 1.**

*Five parameters.*

"chicken egg" and the "chicken body" as a "green, lean, and smart" microfactory to draw insights for the bio-inspired design of future products and factories.

*Nature as Model*: "Biomimicry, biomimetics, bio-inspired design" is a new science that studies nature as the model to imitate its ways and take inspiration from its designs and processes to find solutions to human needs. For example, taking inspiration from a leaf, scientists and engineers have created solar cells to meet human energy needs.

*Nature as a measure (Metric)*: Nature has learned, through its 3.8 billion years of evolution, what works, what fits, and what lasts. Biomimicry uses ecological standards to benchmark our innovations.

*Nature as a mentor*: Biomimicry introduces a shift in thinking from "what we can extract from nature" to "what we can learn from nature." As physicists, chemists, engineers, and biologists explore nature, they are discovering nature's super-intelligent.

*Form*: Form is the visible shape or configuration of something. Or it is a particular way in which a thing exists or appears.

*Function*: The purposes for which a living or non-living thing exists. It implies a definite action or a particular kind of work (**Figure 2**).

*Principles for Designing Green, Lean, and Smart Microfactories: Chicken as a Model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109645*

**Figure 2.** *Three sets of metrics of the egg and the chicken microfactory.*
