Thermal necrosis results fracture problems and implant failure if temperature exceeds 47 °C for one minute during bone drilling. To solve this problem, this work studied a new thermal model by using three drilling parameters: drill diameter, feed rate and spindle speed. Effects of those parameters to heat generation were studied. The drill diameters were 4 mm, 6 mm and 6 mm; the feed rates were 80 mm/min, 100 mm/min and 120 mm/min whereas the spindle speeds were 400 rpm, 500 rpm and 600 rpm then an optimization was done by Taguchi method to which combination parameter can be used to prevent thermal necrosis during bone drilling. The results showed that all the combination of parameters produce confidence results which were below 47 °C and finite element analysis combined with Taguchi method can be used for predicting temperature generation and optimizing bone drilling parameters prior to clinical bone drilling. All of the combination parameters can be used for surgeon to achieve sustainable orthopaedic surgery. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.