Platform for the Integration of Assembly, Disassembly and Life Cycle Management

Information- and communication technologies as they are available by Internet can be used for the management of products life cycle. In the future it will be possible to link all technical products to the Internet and to supervise their life with economic and environmental aspects. Behind of the development of Internet there are theories like the agent theory and standards like XML, which allow the realization and efficient usage of flexible open networks to optimize each products technical usage. Assembly and disassembly are main processes in the life cycle, which finalize products and ensure their utilization. Taking into account the development of modular intelligent products there are new sustainable strategies for manufacturers. They need platforms to manage products and to add value in the after sales processes. This paper includes a definition of an overall platform for life Cycle management based on Internet and agent theories. It focuses on aspects of assembly and LCM of high quality capital goods like assembly systems.     

Maintenance: Changing Role in Life Cycle Management

As attention to environmental problems grows, product life cycle management is becoming a crucial issue in realizing a sustainable society. Our objective is to provide the functions necessary for such a society while minimizing material and energy consumption. From this viewpoint, we should redefine the role of maintenance as a prime method for life cycle management. In this paper, we first discuss the changing role of maintenance from the perspective of life cycle management. Then, we present a maintenance framework that shows management cycles of maintenance activities during the product life cycle. According to this framework, we identify technical issues of maintenance and discuss the advances of technologies supporting the change in the role of maintenance.     

Approximate Product Life Cycle Costing Method for the Conceptual Product Design

Although the product life cycle cost (LCC) is mainly committed by early design stages, designers do not consider the costs caused in subsequent phases of life cycle. The estimating method for the product life cycle cost in early design processes has been required because of both the lack of detailed information and time for a detailed LCC for a various range of design concepts. This paper suggests an approximate LCC method that allows the designer to make comparative LCC estimation between the different product concepts. The product attributes at the conceptual design phase and LCC factors are introduced and the significant product attributes are determined by statistical analysis. Neural network algorithms are applied to estimate LCC by considering the identified product attributes as inputs and the LCC as output. Trained learning algorithms for the known characteristics of existing products will quickly give the estimation of LCC for new product concepts. The estimation for maintenance and energy costs of electronic appliances is shown as an example. The proposed method provides the good estimation for the LCC and gives the guidelines leading to cost-effective design decision-making at the early design stage.     

Innovative Processes and Tools for Disassembly

Cycle economy as a paradigm for industry in the 21^st century depends on economical and ecological treatment of limited resources. The objective is to achieve more use with fewer resources. Adaptation processes including disassembly and re-assembly contribute significantly towards this objective. The usual disassembly of used products is characterized by a high rate of manual operations. The number of upcoming used products varies strongly. The goods which have to be disassembled have unknown product properties and a great variety of product types. To cope with such demands, modular disassembly processes and tools are developed. These are implemented in a integrated disassembly cell using product accompanying information systems for the control.     

Pro-active Life Cycle Engineering Support Tools

The extending responsibility of manufacturers regarding their products' environmental impact has led to the development of a wide range of Life Cycle Engineering tools and techniques. However, their efficiency has yet been limited by the need for detailed input data, typically unavailable in the early conceptual phases of design, when most far-reaching improvements can be achieved. This problem particularly holds true in a design environment of one-of-a-kind products, such as in many automation and machine design projects, where no previous generation products are available to provide the required analysis feedback. This paper presents a set of pro-active support tools that are specifically developed for the early design phases and cover the analytical as well as the creative steps of design. On the one hand, Eco-Cost Estimation Relationships form the core of the Eco-PaS system, which estimates the technical parameters, needed as input for most assessment tools, as a function of the functional parameters available in the concept development phase. On the other hand, the Ecodesign Knowledge System classifies both knowledge and user situations according to a common set of domain models in order to supply, at any time, adequate Life Cycle Engineering guidance, tailored to the specific user situation.     

Disassembly Scheduling with Multiple Product Types

We consider the problem of determining the disassembly schedules of used products while satisfying the demand of their parts/components over a planning horizon. The case of multiple product types with parts commonality is considered for the objective of minimizing the sum of setup, disassembly operation, and inventory holding costs. A heuristic algorithm is proposed using the linear programming relaxation approach. Test results of the case study on the data obtained from a disassembly shop show that the heuristic algorithm suggested in this paper works well for practical problems.     

Appropriate Human Involvement in Assembly and Disassembly

Product assembly as well as disassembly is often carried out by workers who have been trained and are flexible with respect to the different variants, delivery dates and changing lot sizes. Though there has been a strong tendency to mechanize and automate production during the last years many operations in assembly and disassembly are still very often performed manually. Furthermore there might be an increase in manually operated assembly or disassembly as a result of product equipment investments with shorter usage time. This keynote paper deals with the state of practice as well as the tendencies in product and production technology and the influence of markets. Another question is going to be the use of information technology on the shop floor level and between the shop floor and other levels within a company as well as the customers. Therefore industrial engineering is increasingly dealing with the influence of organization and structuring of production processes.     

Determining the Reuse Potential of Components Based on Life Cycle Data

Reuse of components is one of the most efficient strategies for product recovery, which requires reliable methods for assessing the quality and the remaining life of used components. A new methodology, presented in this paper, is based on the trend analysis of lifetime monitoring data. Data with similar trends were grouped and a number of analysis techniques such as Linear Multiple Regression, Dynamic Ordinary Kriging, Universal Kriging and Neural Networks were applied in order to find the most suitable methodology for each group. The methodology was validated by using lifetime monitoring data from a consumer product.     

Life Cycle-Based Service Design for Innovative Business Models

A successful service business requires a new life cycle-based approach with a comprehensive view of the real customer's demands. This includes the establishment of innovative business models. These business models cover the fields of planning, finance, ramp up, revamping, take back as well as a guarantee for the availability to supply maintenance and repair. The latter can finally lead to the operation of the machine itself in a performance-contracting model. Business models will also offer an excellent way to develop ecological potentials while fulfilling economical constraints. This was the background for a research project to analyze the machine-oriented service development with the goal of standardization, rationalization, and automation of life cycle-oriented service processes. Therefore, a service configurator was developed for the efficient supply of customer-based services. The configurator will also consider the suppliers of the machine manufacturer. The results were evaluated in an industrial environment with the help of an innovative business model.     

大型轧辊轴承座拆装机液压系统设计

介绍了一套大型轧辊轴承座拆装机的液压系统,分析了系统设计过程中的技术难点,确定了系统的主要性能参数.该液压系统已在轧钢生产、有色金属加工的大型企业投入使用.在实际应用中,该系统运行平稳、可靠,实现了轧辊轴承座的高效、可靠、安全的拆卸和安装.     

An Approach to Life Cycle Oriented Technical Service Design

The importance of technical, i.e. product related services has significantly increased over the past years. Traditionally, technical services are provided during product usage. In light of the potential impact of technical services on the entire product life cycle, the application of life cycle engineering techniques to service design is suggested. Consequently, the presented research work aims at developing a service design process. Based on three main strategies for combining products with related services, a corresponding design process is proposed. It simultaneously considers the product, process and information dimensions of services.     

Autonomous Processes in Assembly Systems

Today's assembly systems have to be flexible to adapt quickly to an increasing number and variety of products and changing demand volume. To manage these dynamics, flexible, reconfigurable, and autonomous assembly systems were proposed and partly realised in the last two decades. The flexibility and adaptability is realised by clustering the assembly system into subsystems and modules which get a certain degree of autonomy and control themselves in a decentralised way. This keynote paper will present the general principles of autonomy and the proposed concepts, methods and technologies to realise autonomous processes in assembly systems. Different approaches for design and autonomous operation of assembly will be explained and future trends towards fully autonomous components of an assembly system as well as autonomous parts and products will be discussed.     

工程机械液压缸拆装设备研制

经服役周期后,工程机械液压缸通常作报废处理。工程机械液压缸的再制造,能极大回收其残余价值。拆解与装配是液压缸再制造的关键工序。针对工程机械液压缸的拆解与装配,研制一套工程机械液压缸拆装设备。该设备采用液压系统作为动力,通过液压夹紧机构实现被拆解(装配)液压缸缸筒的自动装卡定位,通过液压工作机构完成被拆解(装配)液压缸活塞组件的自动拔出与装入。目前,该设备已在某科研院所的"工程机械零部件再制造关键技术与装备"这一科研项目中得到成功应用。该设备的应用,不仅显著提高液压缸拆装效率与自动化程度,而且有效降低拆装过程中对液压缸关键零部件的损伤。     

Co-Evolution of Product Families and Assembly Systems

To cope with the intense global competition that is characterized by high product variety and short life cycles, manufacturers need to share manufacturing systems across products and product generations. Co-evolution of product families and assembly systems is proposed as a novel methodology for the joint design and reconfiguration of product families and assembly systems over several product generations. The co-evolution methodology capitalizes on the opportunities for design and assembly system reuse that are offered by modular product architectures and reconfigurable assembly systems. As a result, co-evolution can lead to reduced product development costs and increased responsiveness to market changes.     

Life Cycle Simulation System for Life Cycle Process Planning

To realize closed loop manufacturing, it is essential to design product life cycles and to plan life cycle processes property. Life cycle simulation has been recognized as an effective tool in this direction. In this paper, we present a life cycle simulation system developed as a general tool for life cycle design and management. The system includes functions for modelling and controlling each life cycle process in a flexible manner. The system maintains usage history of products and parts independently taking the reuse of parts into account. Examples of the simulation are shown for both a rapid life cycle scenario and for a part sharing scenario over the product generations.     

Design in the New e-Commerce Era

The computing and communication have become indispensable in every aspect of design and manufacturing. Its impacts on production engineering community have been significant and long lasting. In this paper, we reviewed new e-Commerce models that directly link among production capabilities and with end consumers. We then identified three major forces that will affect the design community, namely, speed of decision, expansion of scope and degree of concurrency. Understanding the implication of these forces would be conducive to leading structural changes in design. The transformations include expanding the scope of design, linking customers and suppliers proactively throughout the entire value chain, and collaborating across boundaries.     

Integration of Product Design and Assembly Planning in the Digital Factory

As assembly process planning fulfils the main function of connecting product design to production simulation and thus, the production system itself, a feasible software solution is needed to support this process. Thus, a novel concept is presented that aims at improving the integration of digital product design and assembly planning by introducing a consistent data structuring. This approach helps to reduce redundant tasks and supports the continuous data exchange. It is based on the use of assembly features, i.e. pre-defined geometry elements that contain additional technological information.The prototypical implementation of the concept focuses on the use of commercially available software tools, expanding them with additional functionality for the application of assembly features. The feature-based concept has been tested with a scenario from the automotive supplier industry. For the considered assembly, a comparison between the conventional and the feature-based planning approach is presented in the paper. It points out that the major advantages of the developed concept can be seen in an improved data consistency as well as a higher level of efficiency within the planning activities.     

Creo产品装配成功率预测系统开发

为了解决在产品设计阶段对产品装配精度与装配成功率进行预测的问题,针对装配体模型,基于公差分析理论,运用VS2010与Matlab混合编程技术,开发了Creo环境下的装配成功率预测系统。该系统可以对装配体约束信息、材料特征、形状特征、精度信息(包括尺寸精度、几何精度、表面精度)等进行自动提取,基于极值法、概率法和蒙特卡罗法等对装配体进行公差分析,基于蒙特卡罗法进行装配体模型装配精度的自动计算和装配成功率预测,最后以某齿轮装配件为研究对象对系统进行了测试应用。结果表明,该系统可以便捷、准确地实现产品装配成功率的预测。     

Integration of Economics into Engineering with an Application to the Recycling Market

This paper describes integration of recent economics concepts Into engineering. Direct and Indirect effects of new technology on its users and society depend on the economic system in which it operates. They can be formulated and analyzed by experimental economics, computational economics and the market microstructure theory, which have all emerged recently in economics. We describe how such Integration can be done both In general and with an example: a recycling economy model. An Integrated approach of engineering and economics that treats human behavior, market structure and technology on an empirical and theoretical basis makes it possible to describe a process whereby used product units are collected from consumers for reuse.