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De-manufacturing method and tool: the link between design and circular business models
Full text linkI modelli di business tradizionali sfruttano i giacimenti di minerali, metalli e risorse fossili come se fossero illimitate e reintegrabili, quali queste non sono. Questo atteggiamento è aggravato dalla recente crescita demografica ed economica dei Paesi in via di sviluppo, che ha portato i) all'aumento della domanda di beni industriali e di consumo in tutto il mondo, ii) al deterioramento permanente della qualità delle risorse naturali come acqua, aria e suolo. L'aumento dei consumi e la produzione insostenibile hanno gradualmente aumentato la pressione per modificare i comportamenti di produzione e consumo, soprattutto nel settore delle imprese, rendendo necessario il passaggio a un'economia circolare. Il de-manufacturing è una soluzione fondamentale per sostenere questa metamorfosi. Esso combina le strategie di fine vita di un prodotto introducento nella fase di progettazione considerazioni ad esse relative, accanto ai tradizionali driver di progettazione, quali sono quello economico, tecnico. Partendo dal de-manufacturing, il presente lavoro propone e applica approcci volti a supportare la fase di progettazione nel consentire strategie di fine vita valide e appropriate. Vengono sviluppati quattro strumenti per riscrivere il destino lineare dei prodotti esistenti e disegnare cicli circolari per i nuovi prodotti. Viene sviluppato un approccio trasversale per far creare un connubio tra le soluzioni tecniche e quelle economiche. I risultati dell'implementazione degli approcci e dell'utilizzo degli strumenti sviluppati mostrano effetti promettenti: lo strumento Durabot valuta dinamicamente la sostenibilità dei prodotti durevoli; PReSCoM trova nuove applicazioni per gli scarti dei materiali compositi, riducendo fortemente impatto ambientale di prodotto e di processo. Lo strumento DfD introduce feedback quantitativi per valutare la bontà della progettazione dal punto di vista ambientale. La matrice di correlazione sfrutta le potenzialità nascoste degli strumenti sopra citati e di quelli sviluppati per digitalizzare i processsi manufactturieri e i cicli vita dei prodotti, al fine di individuare come questi possano aprire nuove strade, verso una circolarità di prodotti e processi, che sia anche economicamente sostenibile. I quattro metodi sono distinti in reattivi, che si applicano ai prodotti già presenti nel mercato, e proattivi, che si concentrano sullo sviluppo di prodotti nati in ottica circolare. Talvolta si fa uso della metodologia del Life Cycle Assessment, e molteplici sono gli indicatori proposti nella fase di estrazione e interpretazione dei risultati dell'analisi. Questo mira ad ampliare la visione del mondo aziendale, che è sempre più incentrata unicamente sull'emissione di gas climalteranti: un numero crescente di aziende si impegnano a diventare carbon neutral, net-zero o climate positive, trascurando però le enormi sfide che la Terra e l'umanità stanno affrontando, la scarsità e la contaminazione di risorse in primis. I lavori futuri dovrebbero concentrarsi sull'estensione dell'applicazione degli strumenti a nuovi prodotti, nella loro validazione attraverso una procedura strutturata e sulla definizione di indicatori che valutino quando un'organizzazione è pronta a implementare un nuovo modello di business circolare.The traditional business as usual exploits the supply of minerals, metals and fossil resources as if they were unlimited and replenishable, but they are not. This attitude is exacerbated by the recent population and economic growth of developing countries that gives rise to i) increasing demand for industrial and consumer goods worldwide, ii) permanently damaged quality of natural resources such as water, air and soil. This heightened consumption and unsustainable production have gradually increased the pressure to change production and consumption behavior, especially in the business sector, making it necessary to shift toward a circular economy. De-manufacturing is a critical solution for supporting this metamorphosis. It enables the implementation of environmentally sustainable End of Life strategies e.g. reuse of components, especially when it is introduced in the design stage, next to the traditional drivers. Starting from the de-manufacturing principles, the present work proposes and applies approaches intended to support the design phase in enabling valuable and creditable EoL strategies. Four tools are developed to overwrite existing goods' linear destiny and sketch circular loops for new products. A cross-sectioning approach is developed to have technical solutions taking off in the economic one. Results show promising effects from implementing the approaches and using the developed tools: the Durabot tool dynamically assesses the sustainability of durable products; PReSCoM finds new applications for composite materials' scraps, heavily lowering their environmental burden. The DfD tool introduces quantitative feedback to evaluate the goodness of design from the environmental perspective. The correlation matrix exploits hidden potentialities of the above-cited and digitalization tools for the sake of economically sustainable circularity. All the approaches, both reactive and proactive, are meant to subsume all the challenges of the present economy. When the Life Cycle Assessment methodology is involved, multiple indicators are available for analysis. This effort contrasts the more and more companies that pledge to become carbon neutral, net-zero or climate positive, overlooking the huge challenges the Earth and humankind are facing (resources scarcity and contamination above all). Future works should focus on extending the application of the tools to new products, validate them through a structured validation procedure, and define the indicators that would evaluate when an organization is ready to implement a new CMBs
How de-manufacturing supports circular economy linking design and EoL - a literature review
Full text linkDe-manufacturing is at the basis of the Industry of the Future that competitively and sustainably will manage natural resources. This review retrieved 106 papers investigating the main obstacles that prevent Circular Economy from being a reality and the possible actions to overcome them. The analysis of the literature outlined a great discussion regarding the key topics of CE, de-manufacturing, disassembly and re-manufacturing. The CREDIT analysis proposed by the authors clusters all the risen barriers in 6 factors (Culture, Resources, Economy, Design, Information, Technology) and 18 sub-factors. The CREDIT analysis highlights among the two most critical barriers, the costs of the activities that occur at the EoL stage and the urgency to train designers to approach design thinking to the whole Product Lifecycle; here an innovative focus of research can be more incisive to overcome the actual barriers. Future research needs to focus the attention on the potentialities hidden behind a strong cooperation between academies and enterprises in order to find a balance among the several existing DfX or unveil and tackle their single limitations. Cooperation (industrial symbiosis, academy, etc) and innovative technological solutions of industry 4.0 can help tackle the obstacle
A machine learning based method for parametric environmental impact model for electric vehicles
Full text linkEnvironmental managers attempt to increasingly incorporate precautionary principles into decision making. The literature lacks Machine Learning -based approaches for forewarning lifecycle environmental impacts. This paper proposes a method to support electric vehicle design. The main innovation of the work lays in merging Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Machine Learning foundations to provide support and awareness to designers. The present approach overcomes the present literature because it provides a method for the design phase, is based on a well-established methodology (LCA) and provides quantitative results from little inputs. The approach exploits machine Learning Methods to develop models with the design features of a generic electric vehicle (such as vehicle mass and distance traveled) in six phases (Problem definition; Data collection; Data Preparation; Modeling; Model evaluation; Model interpretation). Differently from existing environmental analyses, all stages of the product life cycle have been considered in building the database; moreover, the model provides quantitative results. Regression models and supervised algorithms were used. The obtained model can be used by product engineers, as well as those not experts on LCA. Moreover, the model guarantees the database and hypothesis's uniqueness, ensuring the results coherence and comparability. The level of accuracy obtained in the case study (error or 17%) is comparable with studies handling full environmental analysis (that should be more accurate), and outstanding, as the present case is for the design phase. Future works will focus on additional significative indicators, similar electric vehicle design and integration with prospective LCA approache
Carbon reduction engineering through value chains intersection, product and process re-design, industrial processes’ scraps de-manufacturing
No full textComposite materials use recently increased, although treatments at their End of Life are inexistent or highly inefficient (from the environmental perspective). Thus, openness to cooperation is needed, supported by methodologies for design for de-manufacturing. The approach proposed in the present work aims at transforming industrial processes' scraps and off-specification pieces in primary materials, through re-design, without the risk of cannibalisation. It is mainly intended for industrial processes of composite materials; its objective is to find alternative applications to their invaluable final disposal and supports the merging of existing supply chains (Industrial Symbiosis). Nevertheless, it can be easily extended to non-composite and/or non-scraps. Re-design enables the establishment of waste-to-treasure composite scraps' life cycles and is evaluated through Life Cycle Assessment. The application of the approach involved four Italian companies and results reveal that industrial symbiosis can reduce emissions (from -45% to more than -90%). Guidelines were outlined: involve End of Life operators to know how waste treatments, share information, favour networking and proximity, apply design for disassembly principles, consider simple shapes and modularity during (re)design. Future works will focus on off-the-shelf components and the economic evaluation of the proposed de-manufacturing actions and supply strategies
User centered system design and prototype for household food waste reduction
No full textThe total quantity of food waste in Europe has been estimated at around 88 million tons per year. About 42 % is thrown out by households, of which 60 % would be avoidable by increasing users' awareness. The present paper aims to develop an integrated system to reduce household food waste and improve the end-users' lifestyle in terms of health and well-being. A smart fridge able to track the stocks, a web application and a set of related services have been designed and prototyped to guide the user in the proper storage of food and support him/her in purchase planning and food preparation. The system was positively evaluated in terms of usability, it is use contributes to both environmental and economic benefits, leading respectively to a reduction of environmental impacts of about 21 % and a yearly savings amounting up to 285 euro, in comparison with a traditional system
A predictive eco-design method and tool for electric vehicles of Industry 4.0
Full text linkDecisions made at the design stage have a far-reaching effect on the product's entire life cycle. The present paper proposes a method, from which a tool is further developed, to support designers of industrial electric vehicles in making informed decisions. The eco-design method and tool can be applied to the design of different electric vehicles such as autonomous guided vehicles and shuttles, which are widely used for improving logistics in Industry 4.0 contexts. The goal is to make the designer more aware of the consumption of material resources and able to configure a use phase more efficiently in energy resource consumption. Unlike existing literature, this method contemplates all the product lifecycle stages and provides qualitative results. The method is intended for the design of electric vehicles and evaluation of choices from the environmental point of view; nevertheless, it can be further adapted for other products and economic evaluations
Eco-design tool to support the design of industrial electric vehicles. The case studies of an electric shuttle and an autonomous mobile robot
Full text linkThe benefits of process optimization brought by multiple tools that appeared in shopfloors with the fourth industrial revolution are undiscussed; however, they need electricity to run and require critical materials. Additionally, the significant impact on sustainability that early design decisions can have over the entire lifecycle is well-recognized. The literature counts several environmental analyses of electric vehicles but narrows almost uniquely on passengers’ cars. Currently, the literature should i) enwiden the range of analyzed products, ii) consider all stages of the product life cycle, iii) provide tools suitable for the early stage of design, able to return consistent results handling very little data. As electrification is concerned, in the literature there are approaches intended to assess the environmental impacts or focused on the design tool. The proposed approach, further applied to develop an eco-design tool, overcomes the existing literature by providing a tool i) able to handle few data, ii) that considers all the product lifecycle phases, and iii) allows designers to assess and compare alternative scenarios. A method is proposed, and a tool derived. Two applications concern an electric shuttle and an autonomous mobile robot; with the latter the gap of assessing the environmental impact of autonomous mobile robots is also filled. The obtained results are reasonably comparable with other existing works. Results are compared to a full LCA for the frame assembly and prove that i) the tool is reliable, and it more likely overestimates the impacts; ii) the design phase is subjected to high variability, and this affects the tool results. Future works may introduce additional types of batteries, deeper focus on the manufacturing phase; machine learning techniques may support future extension of the tool and create parametric models for conceptual and early design. The proposed method and tool can be extended to the economic sphere
Enabling Circular Business Models through Design Methods and Tools
Full text linkDespite the availability of multiple CBMs that merge economic sustainability with environmental considerations, each enterprise faces its own challenges in the transition from a linear to a circular economy. This work proposes an approach for organizations to determine which CBM aligns best with their practices, starting from available design tools, and being supported by the correlation matrix serves as allowing design tools to be integrated among core resources. With the support of the proposed approach, designers can extend their overview over multiple stages of a product's lifecycle. The paper focuses on three design tools and identifies the lifecycle extension strategies they enable. The application provides an example of the implementation of the approach and involves three tools: the first quantitatively evaluates the environmental and economic sustainability of durable products; the second interrogates virtual 3D models and identifies recycling criticalities; the latter supports the research of new supply chain partners to avoid landfilling and incineration. The correlation matrix correlates the functionalities of the tools and ecofriendly models to commercialize goods and offer services, scheduling and prioritizing the introduction of innovative aspects and business models. Future work could introduce quantitative milestones for a more robust evaluation
The Application of Circular Economy Principles Through Re-design, Scraps De-manufacturing, and Value Chains Merge
Full text linkNowaday the industrial interest, as well as the academic one, on the development and implementation of circular approaches is growing. In parallel, the use of composite materials steeply increased in the last decades which are hardly disposable. The present work proposes an eco-design method that guides the reuse and remanufacturing of scraps. The core is the re-design of processes that introduce materials derived from scraps from other value chains. Two cases are investigated: the first concerns the production of panels for the wind sector. Using scraps from the wind blades’ trimming almost eliminates the emissions derived from the panel production. Also, the material of a component of an espresso coffee machine has been replaced by scraps from kitchen sinks; this process requires resources only for shredding. The case study allows to highlight also the importance of sharing information and networking among the actors of the supply chains and the relative distance of cooperating organizations
Design of electric vehicles for Industry 4.0: the case of an Autonomous Mobile Robot
Full text linkIn Industry 4.0, electric vehicles for logistics are widely used, such as shuttles for transporting people and Autonomous Guided Vehicles for industrial equipment. Environmental impact analyses and eco-design guidelines are essential tools in the design phase, where choices have a decisive effect on the entire product life cycle. This work proposes a method and tool aiming to make industrial electric vehicle designers aware of their choices. The proposed tool allows the preventive analysis of the different life cycle phases to highlight the consumption of materials and energy required to optimize the use and the End of Life strategy. Furthermore, it is intended to support the designers who are not provided with much product lifecycle information to obtain an overall picture of how environmental impacts are spread throughout the lifecycle; this will help provide feedback on their choices a pave the way for a more sustainable use phase in the manufacturing plant. It is based on developing a simplified and modular structure where the main product parameters are included for each life cycle phase. The tool is validated in a case study regarding the customization of an Autonomous Mobile Robot, equipped also a robotic arm; the two are connected by a customized structure. The results, which focus both on environmental and economic perspectives, contribute to filling the existing gap in the environmental evaluation of the analyzed product segment; moreover, they highlight how the material and manufacturing phase may be outstanding over the use or End of Life. This is mainly due to the short distances covered during the useful lifetime, which only cover industrial plant areas
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