How Does Modularity Affect Green Design?

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Durand ◽  
Cassandra Telenko ◽  
Carolyn Seepersad
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Green Design ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Material Efficiency ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
Modular Architectures ◽  
George Foreman ◽  
Selection Of

Product architecture significantly influences environmental impact. Modular architectures aid manufacture and reuse, thereby reducing manufacturing-related impacts and diverting usable waste from landfills. In contrast, modular product architectures may also sacrifice product performance or lead to over-designed products. These side-effects can increase environmental impact. The Black and Decker Firestorm and G5 George Foreman Griddle were studied to uncover and understand the effects of product architecture on energy and material efficiency. Both products incorporate component sharing for fulfilling multiple functions and incur environmental tradeoffs as a result. Experimentation, reverse engineering, and life cycle analysis of these products were used to inspire a number of guidelines for green design of modular product architectures. Difficulties involved the design of interfaces and selection of components for shared modules.

Life cycle analysis of mortars and its environmental impact

2005 ◽  
Vol 895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Moropoulou ◽  
Christopher Koroneos ◽  
Maria Karoglou ◽  
Eleni Aggelakopoulou ◽  
Asterios Bakolas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Cement Binder ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Lca Results

AbstractOver the years considerable research has been conducted on masonry mortars regarding their compatibility with under restoration structures. The environmental dimension of these materials may sometimes be a prohibitive factor in the selection of these materials. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that can be used to assess the environmental impact of the materials. LCA can be a very useful tool in the decision making for the selection of appropriate restoration structural material. In this work, a comparison between traditional type of mortars and modern ones (cement-based) is attempted. Two mortars of traditional type are investigated: with aerial lime binder, with aerial lime and artificial pozzolanic additive and one with cement binder. The LCA results indicate that the traditional types of mortars are more sustainable compared to cementbased mortars. For the impact assessment, the method used is Eco-indicator 95

scholarly journals Knowledge-Based Decision Support for Concept Evaluation Using the Extended Impact Model of Modular Product Families

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 547
Author(s):  
Erik Greve ◽  
Christoph Fuchs ◽  
Bahram Hamraz ◽  
Marc Windheim ◽  
Christoph Rennpferdt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Impact Model ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
Concept Evaluation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

The design of modular product families enables a high external variety of products by a low internal variety of components and processes. This variety optimization leads to large economic savings along the entire value chain. However, when designing and selecting suitable modular product architecture concepts, often only direct costs are considered, and indirect costs as well as cross-cost center benefits are neglected. A lack of knowledge about the full savings potential often results in the selection of inferior solutions. Since available approaches do not adequately address this problem, this paper provides a new methodological support tool that ensures consideration of the full savings potentials in the evaluation of modular product architecture concepts. For this purpose, the visual knowledge base of the Impact Model of Modular Product Families (IMF) is used, extended and implemented in a model-based environment using SysML. The newly developed Sys-IMF is then applied to the product family example of electric medium-voltage motors. The support tool is dynamic, expandable and filterable and embedded in a methodical procedure for knowledge-based decision support. Sys-IMF supports decision makers in the early phase of interdisciplinary product development and enables the selection of the most suitable modular solution for the company.

scholarly journals Development of a Configure-to-Order-Based Process for the Implementation of Modular Product Architectures: A Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2971-2980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Michael Seiler ◽  
Erik Greve ◽  
Dieter Krause
Keyword(s):  
Global Market ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Special Equipment ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
Modular Architectures ◽  
Market Trends ◽  
Engineer To Order ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
High Degree

AbstractAs todays’ global market trends lead to an increasing demand for individualised products, manufacturers need to cope with a high degree of internal and external variety, which has a severe impact on complexity and therefore -costs. When implementing modular product architectures, it becomes obvious, that the actual Engineer-to-Order (ETO) processes cannot cope with the requirements of such a product architecture. It is crucial to develop a complying Configure-to-Order (CTO) process in order to make full use of its suppled benefits. As there is no existing approach about how to methodically change an existing ETO process into an adequate CTO process, we intend to fill this gap with this paper by showing an approach for the development of a CTO process for modular product architectures. Furthermore, we show the application and evaluation of this approach in a case study with a special equipment manufacturer (SME), that is already implementing modular architectures.

Leasing, Modularity, and the Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Agrawal ◽  
Atalay Atasu ◽  
Sezer Ülkü
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Durable Goods ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Model Choice ◽  
Modular Architecture ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Modular Product

We investigate the economic and environmental implications of jointly implementing leasing and modularity, two prominent circular economy strategies, and their interaction. We develop a durable goods model to obtain insights for firms considering the use of these strategies. We first analyze the effect of adopting leasing on a firm’s product architecture choice. We find that a modular product architecture is more attractive under leasing only if off-lease products depreciate to a greater extent. We next analyze the effect of adopting a modular product architecture on the firm’s business model choice. We find that adopting a modular architecture can cause a leasing firm to switch to selling but will not lead a selling firm to switch to leasing. Building on these results, we show that leasing a modular product is preferred by the firm only under limited conditions (i.e., when production costs are low, off-lease products are in relatively better condition, and when there is a large difference between depreciation levels of different modules). Finally, we show that jointly implementing leasing and modularity can also lead to higher environmental impact than only adopting leasing or modularity in isolation. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact Associated with the Supply Chain and Production of Biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. through Life Cycle Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Giraldi-Díaz ◽  
Lorena De Medina-Salas ◽  
Eduardo Castillo-González ◽  
Max De la Cruz-Benavides
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Jatropha Curcas ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Jatropha Curcas L

scholarly journals METHOD FOR UPGRADING A COMPONENT WITHIN REFURBISHMENT

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2057-2066
Author(s):  
Nicola Viktoria Ganter ◽  
Behrend Bode ◽  
Paul Christoph Gembarski ◽  
Roland Lachmayer
Keyword(s):  
Closed System ◽  
Individual Component ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Additive Processes ◽  
Modular Product ◽  
General Method

AbstractOne of the arguments against an increased use of repair is that, due to the constantly growing progress, an often already outdated component would be restored. However, refurbishment also allows a component to be modified in order to upgrade it to the state of the art or to adapt it to changed requirements. Many existing approaches regarding Design for Upgradeability are based on a modular product architecture. In these approaches, however, only the upgradeability of a product is considered through the exchange of components. Nevertheless, the exchange and improvement of individual component regions within a refurbishment has already been successfully carried out using additive processes. In this paper, a general method is presented to support the reengineering process, which is necessary to refurbish and upgrade a damaged component. In order to identify which areas can be replaced in the closed system of a component, the systematics of the modular product architecture are used. This allows dependencies between functions and component regions to be identified. Thus, it possible to determine which functions can be integrated into the intended component.

The Influence of Digital Design and IT on Modular Product Architecture

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tucker J. Marion ◽  
Marc H. Meyer ◽  
Gloria Barczak
Keyword(s):  
Digital Design ◽  
Product Architecture ◽  
Modular Product

scholarly journals The Ecological Footprint Accounting of Products: When Larger Is Not Worse

Resources ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Patrizi ◽  
Valentina Niccolucci ◽  
Riccardo Pulselli ◽  
Elena Neri ◽  
Simone Bastianoni
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Ecological Footprint ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Product System ◽  
Sustainability Evaluation ◽  
Competitive Systems ◽  
The Status ◽  
Resource Accounting ◽  
Selection Of

One of the main goals of any (sustainability) indicator should be the communication of a clear, unambiguous, and simplified message about the status of the analyzed system. The selected indicator is expected to declare explicitly how its numerical value depicts a situation, for example, positive or negative, sustainable or unsustainable, especially when a comparison among similar or competitive systems is performed. This aspect should be a primary and discriminating issue when the selection of a set of opportune indicators is operated. The Ecological Footprint (EF) has become one of the most popular and widely used sustainability indicators. It is a resource accounting method with an area based metric in which the units of measure are global hectares or hectares with world average bio-productivity. Its main goal is to underline the link between the (un)sustainability level of a product, a system, an activity or a population life style, with the land demand for providing goods, energy, and ecological services needed to sustain that product, system, activity, or population. Therefore, the traditional rationale behind the message of EF is: the larger EF value, the larger environmental impact in terms of resources use, the lower position in the sustainability rank. The aim of this paper was to investigate if this rationale is everywhere opportune and unambiguous, or if sometimes its use requires paying a special attention. Then, a three-dimensional modification of the classical EF framework for the sustainability evaluation of a product has been proposed following a previous work by Niccolucci and co-authors (2009). Finally, the potentialities of the model have been tested by using a case study from the agricultural context.

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