Strategic evolution of eco-products: a product life cycle planning methodology

This paper presents a methodology and a software tool to establish an eco-design concept of a product and its life cycle by assigning appropriate life cycle options to the components of the product. The product life cycle planning (LCP) methodology provides the following systematic procedures. First, the medium- or long-term production and collection plan for the product family is clarified. Next, target values for the product and its life cycle are set in the process of determination of customer-oriented specification and eco-specification. Then, eco-solution ideas to realize reasonable resource circulation are generated by using various life cycle option analysis charts. Finally, an eco-design concept which involves eco-solution ideas is evaluated for decision-making at early stages of product development. A design support tool was made for efficiently planning product life cycles by using quality function deployment and life cycle assessment data. Based on case studies, it was verified that the proposed methodology and tool are useful for developing multi-generational eco-products.     

Integrated eco-design decision-making for sustainable product development

This paper presents an integrated eco-design decision-making (IEDM) methodology that is formed using three stages: life cycle assessment, an eco-design process (Eco-Process) model and an enhanced eco-design quality function deployment process. All product sustainability considerations are conducted within a special eco-design house of quality. This brings together the analysis of factors relating to manufacturing processes, product usage and end-of-life strategy. The concentration of environmental considerations in one place insures that product sustainability is central to any design development and that the implications of change are fully identified and justified. The IEDM methodology utilises of a set of Eco-Process parameters and their associated relationships to allow users with complementary knowledge to enter and access information in a timely and controlled manner. They are then able to contribute their expertise to support decisions with the aim of providing more sustainable products. An application of the approach is presented in the context of a case study considering the redesign of a single-use medical forceps. The materials and production methods used are investigated with a view to quantifying their environmental impact. The resulting IEDM methodology can be seen to be widely and easily applicable.     

Strategic eco-design map of the complex products: toward visualisation of the design for environment

With growing sustainability and environmental concerns regarding the products, decision-makers and business managers need to integrate sustainability into business strategies and support it via systematic business processes and decision support tools. With the integration of the eco-efficiency attributes to the product development, more data should be analysed in engineering design. This integration also increases the complexity of the design process due to the large volume of data processing and diversity of the different attributes and features of the products. In this paper, we used the stock market metaphor to develop a visual data mining approach to the strategic eco-design assessment of the complex products. We presented a fresh framework using clustering and visualisation techniques to analyse the eco-efficiency profile of the different modules, components and parts of a complex product, and provide an efficient data exploration tool for decision-makers to facilitate processing of eco-design attributes, and strategic objectives at the same time. An illustrative example is provided to show the procedure of the application and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

水泥工业生态化及其相关的技术和设备

主要提出了水泥工厂生态设计,介绍了生态设计的定义、原则、范围、内容、设计方法等,重点讲述了水泥生态化与相关技术、设备的关系,同时还介绍了水泥工厂生态设计的实例。作者认为:传统水泥工业向生态化转型,即从不可持续发展的传统工业转向可持续发展的生态工业,意味着水泥工业正在努力实现与资源、环境、经济和社会的全面协调发展。水泥工业的范畴属于粉体工程,水泥产品及生产过程的环境特性在很大程度上决定于设计阶段,而水泥工业生态设计就是要把生态环境意识贯穿或渗透到水泥产品和生产工艺的设计之中。     

A model for co-evolution in manufacturing based on biological analogy

Manufacturing systems continue to adapt in order to survive the changing and challenging markets and global competition. Product and manufacturing design and capabilities are configured to allow the needed adaptation through innovative design, improved system paradigms, intelligent design and optimisation models, and product grouping to increase efficiency. In this research, it is hypothesised that the evolution and co-evolution of products and the machines used to manufacture them is akin to that observed in the adaptation of biological species. The symbiosis between products and manufacturing capabilities is studied using real examples, and a new model that establishes the symbiotic relationship between their evolution paths and observed co-evolution trends based on available historical information is proposed. Dual cladograms are used to track their evolution and detect useful potential development and plausible future evolution trends. When a state of co-evolution equilibrium is reached, a stimulus for more abrupt changes would be needed to cause further evolution on both sides. The co-evolution model has been applied to an example based on analysing the history of machine tools development and data from a major machine tools manufacturer. The evolution and co-evolution hypotheses of machined parts and machine tools were charted up to the currently observed state of equilibrium in this application field. This innovative model of co-evolution in manufacturing can help improve the utility of manufacturing resources and prolong the life of manufacturing systems beyond a single product generation and its variants.     

A framework for the design of knowledge management systems in eco-design

Eco-design is becoming a crucial challenge for many companies. The effective integration of environmental concerns into design is linked to the development of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). In this context, this paper proposes a framework to support the design of KMS for eco-design. This framework consists of two complementary parts linked to the main knowledge management strategies that KMS generally support. The first part of the framework concerns codification strategy and relies on an eco-design process reference model and the related adaptation of the GAMETH^® method used to locate and evaluate crucial knowledge systematically. The second part of the framework concerns the personalisation strategy. In this paper we propose to exploit the community of practice (CoP) theory by: (1) proposing guidelines defining the structural features of CoPs and (2) adapting a tool landscape providing insight on CoP instrumentation. Both guidelines support the setting up of a specific CoP. The exploitation of the framework is illustrated on a real case study.     

Improving users’ product acceptability: an approach based on Bayesian networks and a simulated annealing algorithm

Developing products that are properly suited to users’ needs and preferences in order to be accepted is one of the main challenges designers and engineers face constantly. Evaluating and improving users’ product acceptability has become an important research question. Many approaches leave the acceptability evaluation question for the last phases of the New Product Development process (NPD), when an almost finished prototype is available and when there is no time left for important modifications. In the early phase of the NPD process, the project managers need models and methods to evaluate the potential acceptability of the new concept and if required, to define actions to improve this concept. In this paper, a method with two main goals is proposed to tackle this problem. Its first goal consists in evaluating an index of users’ product acceptability. When this index is too low, the second goal concerns the optimal selection of the most appropriate actions (improvement scenario) to increase this previously assessed index and to optimise the supplementary cost. As information collected from users in the early phase is subject to uncertainty, the proposed method exploits the inference properties of Bayesian networks making it possible to make useful estimations of the acceptability index. Furthermore, the improvement scenarios are composed of actions that make it possible to improve different criteria composing the users’ acceptability index. The improvement problem is formulated as an optimisation problem to be solved by a simulated annealing algorithm. In order to illustrate its interest, the proposed method is applied to a real case concerning the design of a medical-stocking threading device.     

Knowledge integration and sharing for complex product development

Product development is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive process that involves extensive information and knowledge exchange and sharing among geographically distributed teams and developers. How to best integrate such heterogeneous product knowledge has become an extremely important knowledge management (KM) subject associated with product development. Product development knowledge integration and sharing is becoming a key issue in the enterprise KM. This paper addresses the challenges of product development knowledge integration and sharing during product development. The aim of this research work effort is to develop a method to enhance the integration and sharing of product knowledge during the development phase. This study presents a systematic approach to developing knowledge integration and sharing for product development. The proposed approach includes the steps for designing a framework of product development knowledge sharing, developing representation model for product development knowledge, designing product development knowledge sharing process, designing product development knowledge integration ontology, developing knowledge integration and sharing method for product development based on ontology, and implementation of product development knowledge integration and sharing method. The proposed method could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge integration and sharing among product developers in the product development process.     

Coordinated optimisation of platform-driven product line planning by bilevel programming

Product line planning (PLP) aims at an optimal combination of product feature offerings, suggesting itself to be a determinant decision for a company to satisfy diverse customer needs and gain competitive advantages. Fulfilment of planned product lines must make trade-offs between product variety and production costs. To balance the costs of product lines, manufacturers often adopt a product platform configuration (PPC) approach to redesign product and process platforms by adding new modules to the legacy platforms. The PPC is an effective means of providing product variety while controlling the manufacturing costs. The PLP and PPC problems have traditionally been investigated separately in the marketing research and engineering design fields. It is important to coordinate PLP and PPC decisions within a coherent optimisation framework. This paper proposes a bilevel mixed 0–1 nonlinear programming model to formulate coordinated optimisation for platform-driven product line planning. The upper level deals with the PLP problem by maximising the profit of an entire product line, whilst the lower level copes with the multiple product platforms optimisation for the optimal PPC in accordance with the upper level decisions of product line structure. To solve this bilevel programming model, a bilevel genetic algorithm is developed to find the optimal solution. A case study of coordinated optimisation between an automobile line and its product platforms is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed bilevel programming in comparison with a typical ‘all-in-one’ approach and a non-joint optimisation programming.     

Optimisation of product configuration in consideration of customer satisfaction and low carbon

Product configuration is one of the key technologies in the environment of mass customisation, and it has been emphasised and concerned by much research. However, previous studies mostly focus on the cost or the customer utility, but ignore the environmental concern which becomes an important design criterion due to the rising awareness of environmental protection. Moreover, various preferences of customers are also not considered. In this paper, we develop a new bi-objective optimisation model with simultaneous consideration of customer satisfaction and the environmental impact in product configuration. Two objectives of our model are the customer satisfaction index (CSI) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of products. The CSI is presented for the evaluation of customer satisfaction and the GHG emission model is developed to assess the environmental impact of the product. Essential constraints, such as selection, cost and compatibility, are also considered in the model. In addition, a two-phase approach is proposed to solve the optimisation model. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through a case study.     

Determining design requirements in QFD using fuzzy mixed-integer goal programming: application of a decision support system

In product development, the identification of critical design requirements (DRs) is key to satisfying customer needs because it helps produce more successful products in a shorter time. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a tool used in product development to systematically determine the DRs so as to attain higher customer satisfaction. In the QFD process, the simultaneous optimisation of more than one conflicting objective is generally required. However, it is very difficult for decision makers to determine the goal value of each objective in imprecise and uncertain environments. In order to overcome this problem, the present study proposes a fuzzy mixed-integer goal programming model that determines a combination of optimal DR values. Different from the existing fuzzy goal programming models, the values of the DRs in the proposed model are taken as discrete. Finally, a new Decision Support System is developed. The new system integrates QFD and mathematical programming, enabling the design team to effectively compare product design alternatives and make product development easier and faster. The proposed methodology is illustrated using a real-world application in the Turkish white goods industry.     

How to shift 100,000 products toward sustainability: creating a sustainable assortment at Haberkorn

Haberkorn is Austria’s biggest industrial wholesaler with ~1,000 employees and an annual turnover of about 260 Mill €. The range of goods consists of about 100,000 articles. Their goal: A sustainable assortment. The challenge: Assessing all the products and defining a sustainable product line. Goal and challenge are based on a corporate decision made by the management board: sustainability should meet the core business. As a scientific and implementation partner Haberkorn chose the Austrian Institute of Ecology. It is obvious that Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for 100,000 articles are hardly feasible. Hence, a special screening tool for estimating the sustainability potential on product group level in a quick and efficient way had to be developed. The screening tool consists of three categories to be rated: risks, chances, and strategic impact. Product groups with a high score are chosen for further treatment as “sustainability candidates.” In addition, a questionnaire concerning the sustainability performance, knowledge about the supply chain, and willingness to cooperate was sent to all suppliers, and basic facts concerning environmental, health, safety, and social aspects of the major materials used in the products were compiled (material manual). All product line managers have used the screening to detect the sustainability potential of their product groups, and the coached assessment process on individual product basis has started successfully. The next steps consist of the transformation process of sustainability candidates into a sustainability assortment and the evaluation process of high risk articles. This ought to result in improvement or potential elimination of products which jeopardize the user’s health, generate environmental damages, are produced under poor working conditions, etc.     

The Design Guidelines (DGLs), a knowledge-based system for industrial design developed accordingly to ISO-GPS (Geometrical Product Specifications) concepts

Product design and optimisation today involves so many fields of expertise, many of which are in rapid evolution, that it can be very difficult for the designer to manage them. This paper describes the development of the DGLs (Design Guidelines), a knowledge-based tool that could be of great help to designers and engineers in modifying their products to get compatibility with different manufacturing and verification technologies. The current release of the DGLs, heavily influenced by the adoption of some ISO-GPS (Geometrical Product Specification) concepts, has been validated using the Rapid Prototyping technique called FDM (Fluid Deposition Modelling) and the CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) verification technique.     

Generating collision-free tool orientations for 5-axis NC machining with a short ball-end cutter

A novel tool orientation optimisation algorithm is proposed for 5-axis NC machining with a short ball-end cutter. It can generate collision-free and smooth tool orientations along with a safe and shortest tool length (SSTL). The use of shorter cutters without collision is a key advantage of 5-axis machining because the magnitude of tool deflection and the stability of cutting process are greatly affected by the slenderness ratio of the cutter. Existing methods can calculate the SSTL in the NC simulation process. However, the SSTL is essentially determined by the tool orientations and should be considered in the process of tool path generation. To overcome this limitation, a new tool orientation optimisation algorithm is proposed. The SSTL is determined by optimising the tool orientations under the constraints of global collision avoidance and tool orientation smoothness. The algorithm first computes the global accessibility cone and the SSTL along each accessible tool orientation. Then the tool orientations are optimised based on the discrete dynamic programming with the SSTL along the whole tool path being the optimisation objective. Finally, the tool path is generated by globally smoothing the tool orientations. Computational examples and cutting experiment are given to illustrate the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

An enhanced displacement adjustment method: Springback and thinning compensation

In the paper, we present an enhanced numerical method for the forming tool design optimisation in sheet metal forming. The applied procedures enable a determination of appropriate forming tool geometry so that manufacture of a formed product with specified geometry would be ensured. Apart from springback occurred by the formed part after removal of the forming tools also impact of thinning of the sheet metal during the forming process is considered in the method, and both effects are correspondingly compensated in an iterative procedure of the forming tool geometry determination. The enhanced displacement adjustment method (E-DA) is based on the well-known displacement adjustment (DA) method the application of which is indeed relatively simple, but has proved also, due to an increased number of iterations needed to achieve the required tolerance and possible loss of accuracy, to be less successful when forming of parts with more complex geometry is considered. Computational efficiency in the E-DA method is achieved by applying additional point topology mappings, which establish corresponding interrelations between the discretised point topologies used in the definition of the prescribed product geometry, current tool geometry and on this basis actually computed product geometry, contributing thus significantly in improving the accuracy of communicated data. The advantage of the improved method over the conventional DA method is demonstrated by considering the forming tool design optimisation in channel bending and forming of cylindrically symmetric products.     

A generalised guideline for process changes for resource conservation networks

In the past one and a half decades, resource conservation network (RCN) synthesis has been well accepted by both academics and industrial practitioners in enhancing sustainability aspect for the process industry. Various insight-based pinch analysis and mathematical optimisation techniques have been proposed to synthesise optimum RCN. For the former, the developments to date have been focusing on various targeting and design tools, with very little emphasis on the systematic assessment of process changes. The latter involves the modification of process operating conditions (e.g., flowrate, concentration, temperature, etc.), which leads to further reduction of minimum fresh resource flowrates. In this study, the plus-minus principle in heat exchanger network synthesis is extended for use with graphical targeting tool in assessing opportunities for process changes in the RCN of fixed-flowrate problems, aiming to further reduce its minimum fresh resource flowrate. Literature examples are used for illustration.     

A hybrid particle swarm based method for process planning optimisation

A process planning (PP) problem is defined as to determine a set of operation-methods (machine, tool, and set-up configuration) that can convert the given stock to the designed part. Essentially, the PP problem involves the simultaneous decision making of two tasks: operation-method selection and sequencing. This is a combinatorial optimisation problem and it is difficult to find the best solution in a reasonable amount of time. In this article, an optimisation approach based on particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is proposed to solve the PP problem. Due to the characteristic of discrete process planning solution space and the continuous nature of the original PSO, a novel solution representation scheme is introduced for the application of PSO in solving the PP problem. Moreover, two kinds of local search algorithms are incorporated and interweaved with PSO evolution to improve the best solution in each generation. The numerical experiments and analysis have demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is capable of gaining a good quality solution in an efficient way.     

产品技术进化潜力预测研究

  产品技术预测是企业长久保持竞争优势的有效方法,发明问题解决理论（TRIZ）的技术进化理论能够对技术预测提供理论指导．在介绍TRIZ的技术进化模式、技术进化路线的基础上,提出如何搜索产品技术进化潜力及构建进化潜力雷达图的方法,并对产品技术进化潜力预测技术作了系统的总结．基于产品技术进化潜力预测技术开发了专用软件——产品技术进化潜力预测系统（EPMS）,可帮助企业快速、准确地把握产品的技术走向,并应用软件EPMS对蝶阀密封技术的进化潜力进行了预测．     

Applying structured methods to Eco-innovation. An evaluation of the Product Ideas Tree diagram

This paper reports on the first test of the Product Ideas Tree diagram (PIT): a structured method aimed to help Eco-innovation. The PIT diagram structures ideas output from chaotic idea generating sessions. This study compared four ways of conducting an Eco-innovation workshop. The results show that structured methods help Eco-innovation by improving the constructive communication between the participants. Further development of the PIT diagram promises to contribute several new approaches to sustainable product and process design.