"Concurrent Engineering (CE) has already initiated a cultural change in the design and manufacturing of new products. It is expected to lead to better engineered and faster built products. But, in order for a company to take advantage of the power of CE, the members of product development teams have to be educated in the CE method of product development and how decisions made about one aspect of a design can affect other aspects. They also have to be educated in the usefulness of the tools that can be used for CE. Those tools include intelligent agents which can be used to offer design suggestions and criticisms. The goal of this project is to build a computer system which will simulate a design environment and demonstrate the essential aspects of CE, in a way that they can be intuitively understood. It is supported by a grant from the Competitive Product Development Institute at the Digital Equipment Corporation."

Orientador: Sandro Donnini Mancini / Banca: Gerson Araujo de Medeiros / Banca: José Lázaro Ferraz / Resumo: Os equipamentos eletroeletrônicos fazem parte de uma indústria em expansão na qual a constante inovação torna-se rapidamente obsoletos. O aumento de resíduos eletroeletrônicos incitou várias políticas de descarte e reciclagem, mas ainda faltam estudos qualitativos para que se possa entender quais são os maiores impactos no meio ambiente e o que se fazer para amenizá-los. A pesquisa consistirá na avaliação do desempenho ambiental de dois modelos de impressoras. Será baseada na metodologia de Avaliação de Ciclo da Vida e na posterior simulação de cenários de disposição final. Fez-se uma caracterização de materiais, peças e massas. A impressora A apresentou um impacto 35% maior que a impressora B devido às suas diferenças de composição e funcionalidades. Nos dois casos, o material em maior quantidade e responsável pela maior parcela do impacto calculado foi o HIPS (Poliestireno de Alto Impacto) e a maioria dos impactos pode ser vista na categoria de Combustíveis Fósseis / Abstract: The electronic equipments are part of a booming industry where constant innovation makes them quickly obsolete equipment. The increase of electronic waste concern generated various disposal and recycling policies but there is still a lak of quantitative studies on the impacts of such products so that they can understand what the major impacts on the environment and what can be done to mitigate the impacts. This research consisted in the characterization of two printers of different models regarding to materials, parts, and weight and using the tool life cycle analyses to quantify the environmental impact of each of them separately and combined. To complete the study a simulation disposal scenarios was made with one of the printers to understand the impacts of recycling, reuse and disposal in a sanitary landfill. The printer. A presented a 35% greater impact than printer B due to their differences in composition and functionality. In both cases the material in greater quantity and responsible for most of the impact was HIPS (High Impact Poltystyrene) and the largest share of the impacts can be seen in the category of fossil fuels / Mestre

As a result of rapid product development, the product life cycle has become shorter, and thus the amount of waste from discarded industrial products has risen dramatically. An awareness of the world???s environmental problems has stimulated researchers to explore the opportunities to reuse, recycle and remanufacture end-of-life products. Disassembly is a systematic approach to separating products into components or subassemblies in order to facilitate recovery of components or materials. However, the full disassembly of a product tends to be unproductive due to technical and cost constraints and product conditions after usage. Therefore, selective disassembly has been introduced as a more practical approach, where only a limited number of disassembly paths that lead to selected parts with recovering potential are considered. This research focuses on the development of a selective disassembly methodology by reversing an assembly sequencing approach. The methodology uses a step-by-step approach to generate a disassembly sequence diagram. This involves listing all the parts within the product, generating a liaison diagram to illustrate part relationships and then establishing precedence rules describing prerequisite actions for each liaison. This is followed by segregating disassembly paths that lead to the removal of selected parts or subassemblies. Then a winnowing process is applied to these paths to eliminate invalid disassembly states and transitions. The last step is to select the optimal disassembly path by using the time requirement as the main selection criterion. In order to shorten the time for carrying out the sequencing process, a javabased program that is capable of performing the first three steps has been created. The program requires three basic inputs in forms of precedence rules, and user-required part (s) and disassembly rules, prescribing which liaison (s) should be done subsequent to a particular liaison. The viability of the methodology and the program is proved through seven case studies conducted on a fishing reel, a single-hole punch, a kettle, an entire washing machine and three washing machine subassemblies. The application of the program allows the users to determine an optimal disassembly sequence in a very short time and with only basic product information as the input.

Wind energy is a promising alternative energy source due to its environmental, economic, and social benefits and, as such, has garnered public support and government incentives for its development and implementation. With the growing number of wind parks in Oregon, a life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a representative new wind park is needed to investigate the potential impacts on the environment. One of the major drawbacks of wind energy generation is its variability due to the stochastic nature of wind. To make wind energy a more reliable source, wind energy generation should be supplemented with controllable energy generation or storage. Thus, the aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the effects of supplemental energy systems on the environmental impacts of wind energy systems. First, the environmental impact of a single wind turbine is examined from raw material extraction to the end of life stage. Research needs are identified to support the assessment of the environmental impacts of wind energy and supplemental energy systems from a life cycle perspective. Next, supplemental electricity generation systems investigated are biomass, hydro, and natural gas electricity generation, and zinc-bromine battery storage. Finally, the results for each system are compared to coal energy generation. It appears that the wind park has lower environmental impact than coal energy generation when paired with any of the complimentary systems investigated. Overall, hydropower appears to be the best option to supplement wind power from an environmental perspective for a potential wind park site in northern Oregon. / Graduation date: 2013

With the advent of digital imaging technology, the options available to consumers in consumer imaging have increased tremendously. From image capture through image processing and output, many options have emerged; however, the relative environmental impacts of these different options are not clear cut. Simplistically, one might say that the use of a digital camera has a lesser environmental burden than the use of a reloadable film camera because the image produced as a result of using the digital camera avoids chemicals in film developing. However, digital cameras require electronics and computers that need energy; and, energy production is one of the contributors to greenhouse gasses like CO2. Assessment of the environmental impacts of these different options can help provide feedback to decision makers and insights that will help reduce environmental impact through product system design. One tool that has been used to relate environmental impacts with functions provide to consumers through products or services is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA, which has been standardized by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in ISO14000, is used here to evaluate both traditional film and digital imaging systems. Data from publicly available databases and both external and internal Eastman Kodak Company studies were utilized to develop LCA modules for the different processes involved. Product and service business models are explored for both technologies through ten different imaging and output scenarios. The functional unit used is the capture, processing and output of one 4 x6 image. Four impact categories (energy use, greenhouse emission, water use and waste generation) across four life cycle phases (upstream, distribution, use, and end of life) are explored for the ten scenarios. LCA is also evaluated as a tool to help facilitate strategic level environmental performance issues with both new and established business activities. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to evaluate the impact of assumptions made in the course of the assessment and comments are made regarding the effectiveness of LCA for strategic assessment and product service strategies in lowering environmental impact. Results indicate that the lowest impact scenarios are Digital Capture to LCD Display for Greenhouse Emissions and Energy Use and Film Capture to Wholesale Print for Water Use and Waste Generation. Highest impacts were seen for Greenhouse Emissions in the Film Capture to Retail Print scenario. In the Energy Use and Water Use category, the Digital Capture to CRT Computer Display was the highest scenario. For Waste Generation, the Digital Capture to Inkjet Print was the highest impact scenario.

This thesis will investigate the possibility of leasing as a 'greener' form of business transaction. With leasing, the customer pays for the service obtained form the product, but does not own the physical asset; ownership remains with the lessor. This has been claimed to increase resource productivity and close material loops. Numerous complications exist, however, such as tax regulations limiting operating leases to terms of 75% of the total product's life. In addition, no clear pattern has emerged in leasing practices, and in most cases manufacturers approach leasing on an ad hoc basis. Research has found that usage-phase impacts play a major role in determining the advantages realized by leasing. Products such as vehicles or refrigerators that continually consume energy negatively impact the environment much more during their use than during manufacturing or transportation. Because most lease agreements contain maintenance contracts, the opportunity to upgrade and increase product efficiency during this use-phase is paramount to reducing negative impacts. Remanufacturing also shows potential to further reduce resource requirements. However, if product efficiency is not improving significantly, remanufacturing alone does not make a significant impact. In some cases, such as carpets, remanufacturing is not practical, but recycling can be utilized. However, tax regulations require leased terms to be less than that of a product's designed life, hastening replacement. This has the potential to offset any advantages seen with a lease agreement. Academic work in this area remains very limited and product-specific. Case study analyses performed in this thesis found that increased product turnover can actually be environmentally beneficial when product technology is improving. These gains can be further improved with remanufacturing and optimized product replacement moderated by lease agreements. If usage energy is significantly less than manufacturing energy, leasing has little value for reducing impacts. Also leasing may motivate closed material loops, without improving product efficiencies there is no advantage to optimizing life cycles with lease contracts.

Electronic waste has become a growing concern in the world among governments, businesses, and consumers. These concerns are well founded as electronics waste presents economic, social, and environmental challenges. Economically, discarding electronic waste into landfills represents inefficient use of valuable materials and energy resources. Socially, improperly recycled electronic waste that takes place in third world countries with poor labor standards represents a moral dilemma for developed countries. Environmentally, electronic waste is a threat to all living organisms as it contains proportionally high levels of poisonous and toxic materials. To deal with these growing challenges a strong response needs to be made by all the stakeholders in the life-cycle of electronic devices. However, despite the apparent need, compared to the rapid increases in electronic technology that make it faster, more available, and more affordable, the technology to process electronic waste has not kept pace. This fact alone points to the inadequate funding, attention, and research that has been invested in the problem. Though it also points to an opportunity; the opportunity to build an efficient system to deal with the problem using what is already known about the lifecycle of electronic devices. Therefore, the goal of this work is to create a modeling tool to help stakeholders in the lifecycle of electronic devices understand the consequences of their choices as they affect the use of material and energy resources. To focus the research, LCD computer monitors are chosen as a case study. LCD computer monitors provide a level of sophistication high enough to be interesting in terms of the stakeholders involved, yet simple enough to provide a reasonable scope for this research that is still accessible to the layman As a corollary to this modeling effort, the relatively new systems modeling language SysML and ParaMagic, a program that integrates analysis modeling capability into SysML, will be evaluated. SysML was designed with Model Based Systems Engineering principles in mind thus it seems that it is a natural fit to the problem domain. Furthermore, testing SysML will provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the new language. The findings with respect to LCD computer monitors show that increasing the number of end of life options and the amount of monitors flowing into those options could result in substantial network wide material and energy savings. The findings with respect to SysML and ParaMagic are mixed. Although SysML provides tremendous modeling freedom, this freedom can result in increased upfront costs for developing executable models. Similarly, ParaMagic was found to be an effective tool for creating small executable models, but as the size of models increase its effectiveness tends to zero.

As a result of rapid product development, the product life cycle has become shorter, and thus the amount of waste from discarded industrial products has risen dramatically. An awareness of the world???s environmental problems has stimulated researchers to explore the opportunities to reuse, recycle and remanufacture end-of-life products. Disassembly is a systematic approach to separating products into components or subassemblies in order to facilitate recovery of components or materials. However, the full disassembly of a product tends to be unproductive due to technical and cost constraints and product conditions after usage. Therefore, selective disassembly has been introduced as a more practical approach, where only a limited number of disassembly paths that lead to selected parts with recovering potential are considered. This research focuses on the development of a selective disassembly methodology by reversing an assembly sequencing approach. The methodology uses a step-by-step approach to generate a disassembly sequence diagram. This involves listing all the parts within the product, generating a liaison diagram to illustrate part relationships and then establishing precedence rules describing prerequisite actions for each liaison. This is followed by segregating disassembly paths that lead to the removal of selected parts or subassemblies. Then a winnowing process is applied to these paths to eliminate invalid disassembly states and transitions. The last step is to select the optimal disassembly path by using the time requirement as the main selection criterion. In order to shorten the time for carrying out the sequencing process, a javabased program that is capable of performing the first three steps has been created. The program requires three basic inputs in forms of precedence rules, and user-required part (s) and disassembly rules, prescribing which liaison (s) should be done subsequent to a particular liaison. The viability of the methodology and the program is proved through seven case studies conducted on a fishing reel, a single-hole punch, a kettle, an entire washing machine and three washing machine subassemblies. The application of the program allows the users to determine an optimal disassembly sequence in a very short time and with only basic product information as the input.

Dans un contexte réglementaire contraignant (REACh), ce projet a pour but de développer une méthode permettant d'évaluer, le plus amont possible du processus de conception, le risque chimique potentiellement présenté par un équipement aéronautique depuis sa livraison jusqu'à sa fin de vie. Le résultat s'intègre dans l'ensemble des paramètres gérés par les concepteurs, dans un but d'amélioration de la traçabilité des substances dangereuses et de maîtrise du risque chimique présenté par l'équipement. Le développement de la méthode s'appuie tant sur l'analyse des modes d'évaluation classiques de risques chimiques, pour différents périmètres, que sur celle des pratiques de conception aéronautiques. En parallèle, des tests in situ en Bureaux d'Etudes sont réalisés itérativement, permettant de définir des outils d'évaluation et d'aide à la décision adaptés aux besoins identifiés des concepteurs. Les travaux aboutissent à la proposition d'une méthode permettant au concepteur de répondre à la problématique risque chimique à partir des seules données issues du processus de conception, rendant cette nouvelle approche miscible à ses activités quotidiennes. / In a restrictive context (REACh regulation), this project aims at developping a method enabling one to evaluate, as soon as possible in the design process, the potential chemical risk related to any aeronautic equipment' s part during their different life cycle steps (from delivery to end of life). Assesment results is integrated among the numerous data that are by designers, in order to improve hazardous substances traceability and equipment's chemical risk control. The method's development lays on the analysis of different chemical risk assessments modes (different perimeters) and the understanding of aeronautical design practices. In situ tests (design offices) have been run in an iterative way, in order to define assessment ans decision making tools responding to designers identified needs. The work done leads to the proposal of a method which enables the designer to cope with chemical risk problematics, only from the data resulting from design process : this new approach can be considered as miscible in designer's daily activities.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T11:52:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-07-23Bitstream added on 2015-03-03T12:06:27Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000803503.pdf: 1104411 bytes, checksum: 85ccc688e0d741d11d63b00619c11c11 (MD5) / Os equipamentos eletroeletrônicos fazem parte de uma indústria em expansão na qual a constante inovação torna-se rapidamente obsoletos. O aumento de resíduos eletroeletrônicos incitou várias políticas de descarte e reciclagem, mas ainda faltam estudos qualitativos para que se possa entender quais são os maiores impactos no meio ambiente e o que se fazer para amenizá-los. A pesquisa consistirá na avaliação do desempenho ambiental de dois modelos de impressoras. Será baseada na metodologia de Avaliação de Ciclo da Vida e na posterior simulação de cenários de disposição final. Fez-se uma caracterização de materiais, peças e massas. A impressora A apresentou um impacto 35% maior que a impressora B devido às suas diferenças de composição e funcionalidades. Nos dois casos, o material em maior quantidade e responsável pela maior parcela do impacto calculado foi o HIPS (Poliestireno de Alto Impacto) e a maioria dos impactos pode ser vista na categoria de Combustíveis Fósseis / The electronic equipments are part of a booming industry where constant innovation makes them quickly obsolete equipment. The increase of electronic waste concern generated various disposal and recycling policies but there is still a lak of quantitative studies on the impacts of such products so that they can understand what the major impacts on the environment and what can be done to mitigate the impacts. This research consisted in the characterization of two printers of different models regarding to materials, parts, and weight and using the tool life cycle analyses to quantify the environmental impact of each of them separately and combined. To complete the study a simulation disposal scenarios was made with one of the printers to understand the impacts of recycling, reuse and disposal in a sanitary landfill. The printer. A presented a 35% greater impact than printer B due to their differences in composition and functionality. In both cases the material in greater quantity and responsible for most of the impact was HIPS (High Impact Poltystyrene) and the largest share of the impacts can be seen in the category of fossil fuels