Abstract: Manufacturing process is a main phase inducing resource consumption and environmental pollution during the part life cycle. Because of the variety of processes and complexity of their environmental impact mechanism, there is still lack of an efficient method to evaluate the environmental impact of part manufacturing processes. Each process is regarded as an input-process-output unit process, and can be described with process IPO model. Based on process IPO models and L. B. Leopold interactive matrix, a new evaluation method and its technical framework are presented. A case study of gear manufacturing is discussed, which shows that the method is practical.

Key words: Environment impact, Gear manufacturing, Green manufacturing, Manufacturing process