As the architecture and construction industry places an increased emphasis on sustainability, building researchers are seeking more comprehensive methods to evaluate and reduce a building's environmental impacts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has emerged as one of the most capable tools to aid in this assessment. Presently there are no guiding principles for the use of LCA in the building industry. This thesis aims to provide guidelines to help architects utilize LCA methodology as part of the design process. This study reviews a number of previously-completed whole-building LCA case-studies to understand different LCA scenarios of use in the building industry. In addition, a set of North American and international LCA tools were evaluated for their utility in different scenarios. The state of research was assessed to find answers to some critical issues concerning LCA. Based on these analyses, a number of scenarios of use of LCA were identified and a set of guidelines was proposed to conduct LCA for buildings. It was concluded that the present use of LCA is limited due to limited tool capabilities, deficient databases and lack of a building-specific methodology. The study recognizes these limitations and recommends specific research opportunities for future researchers. However, it is concluded that approximate LCA results obtained from the tools available today can be useful in informing design-decisions, keeping in mind the lack of precision in the results.

Traditionally, environmental impacts of man made products have been determined by performing a life cycle assessment (LCA) on the product. As the name implies, LCA is usually covers the entire life of the product in a so-called "cradle-to-grave" assessment. In determining environmental impacts over the whole product life, LCA's are reasonably adequate. However, in providing detailed impacts on a particular phase of life, LCA's are lacking. Detailed assessments are important because very few stakeholders have influence over a product during all phases of life. Stakeholders need detailed impact assessments in their particular phase of life. More detailed assessments give stakeholders more information that can be used for better environmental management (EM) and more environmentally benign operations. In many LCA's, the manufacturing phase of life has been over-generalized and over-simplified because of its relatively small environmental impact, as compared to other phases of life. Nevertheless, certain stakeholders, such as manufacturing companies, need detailed impact information for the manufacturing phase of life so that they can create a more sustainable manufacturing process. Most traditional LCA's use a case-based approach, which was deemed to be inadequate. For these LCA's, the information provided for each case is often quite detailed and specific. However, this makes the assessment less flexible, limiting the quality of the assessment to the degree that the current scenario matches the existing cases. In order to make a more user-specific assessment, a model-based approach was used. To give the model flexibility, a parametric model was created based on mathematical equations that represent various parts of the manufacturing process. To give the model structure, an activity-based costing (ABC) approach was used. Using the ABC structure, the manufacturing process was broken down into activities, each of which was characterized by mathematical models. Large models would be difficult to construct and simulate by hand, so a model was built with the aid of a computer. The modeling language SysML (Systems Modeling Language) was used to create an object-oriented model of the manufacturing process, using the ABC structure. SysML defines overall properties and behaviors of the various elements in the model, while the plug-in tool ParaMagic was used to execute the model via a Mathematica Solver. The model computes carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and waste mass generation for a particular manufacturing scenario. The goal of the model was to quantify environmental impact factors in order to aid manufacturing stakeholders in EM. The overall goal of the research was to determine whether an activity-based, object-oriented model was a valid approach, and whether the computer-aided tools adequately implemented this approach. Findings show that SysML is capable of modeling large and complex systems. However, due to some limitations of Paramagic, only some of SysML's capabilities were utilized. Nevertheless, Paramagic is capable of extracting information out of a manufacturing model built in SysML, and solving parametric relations in Mathematica in a timely manner. Timely solutions of complex models are critical for stakeholders keeping a competitive edge.

As the green movement begins to sweep through the construction industry, decision-makers are beginning to include a sustainable aspect to their purchase decisions. Selecting a product solely based on its sustainability, however, is not enough to drive product selection in the construction industry. Cost still dominates the selection of building products. The level of sustainability of a product and its cost are not interconnected as market prices do not reflect the cost of environmental impacts, such as the cost of global warming or fossil fuel depletion. Having two distinct aspects to consider adds complexity in the product selection process. Typically, it constrains decision-makers to perform a trade-off analysis that does not necessarily guarantee the most environmentally preferable purchase decision. This study proposes a life-cycle management (LCM) system that reinforces the choices made by decision-makers by providing a scientific justification for those decisions. The proposed system analyses the environmental and economic performance of building product through life-cycle analysis and purchase price analysis. It operates on tools publicly available in the market and state-of-the-art analysis, assessment, and interpretation methods. The LCM system combines two distinct product attributes into a single performance score that can be easily interpreted. It allows decision-makers to compare product scores and ultimately make the most environmentally responsible and financially viable selection. A comprehensive approach is used to refine and test the LCM system using case studies comprised of an environmental and economic performance evaluation of flooring products. The contribution of this research includes the consideration of a holistic approach to product selection based on environmental and cost performance. Pre-construction estimators and construction managers could improve their estimating and product selection practices using the proposed system. Material suppliers can also benefit from this approach, as they can use it to enhance their pricing strategies, marketing plans, and overall product competitiveness.

由於全球化時代的來臨，企業無不善用全球的人才與資源，以提升自我的競爭力，增加企業發展的契機。為了加速企業發展速度，越來越多企業透過購併模式，快速結合不同公司的人才與資源，提升自我的競爭力。但在購併的過程中，如何有效整合不同公司的人才與資源，就變成一個很重要發展課題。 在整合不同的公司過程中，除了外在的人才與資源整合外，內在各公司間核心知識的整合與應用更為重要。透過PLM（Product Lifecycle Management）系統平台，可以實踐整合外在的人才與資源，更可以進一步整合各公司間的核心知識，進而產生各項應用與回饋。 本研究由相關文獻探討，藉由企業購併、知識管理和資訊系統整合之概念，推展出以「組織」、 「流程」和「資料」三個構面的研究架構，透過跨公司 PLM 系統整併實際案例，整理出一PLM系統平台運作方式，探討企業產品生命週期管理系統整合發展之影響因子。 由個案分析與研究發現得出研究結論如下: 研究結論1： 企業間進行產品生命週期管理系統整合前，具有RD 開發和 IT 技術專業背景之A型人才擔任此整合專案規劃和執行者，是導入成功的關鍵考量因素。 研究結論2： 企業間進行產品生命週期管理系統整合時，高層主管在專案中的有力支持與表達、良好的溝通、良好完整的教育訓練與技術轉移計畫，是成功的關鍵做法。 研究結論3： 企業間進行產品生命週期管理系統整合時，做好完整的Legacy Data Migration和以流程再造／創新的態度，將不合理流程一併進行調整與改善，是成功的關鍵做法。 研究結論4：企業間進行產品生命週期管理系統整合後，使用該單一、公開、共用的資訊流程平台，有助於新產品之開發時程縮短和開發成本降低。 關鍵字: 知識管理，產品生命週期，系統整合，PLM / Since the advent of the era of globalization, companies take advantage of are all use of personnel and resources of the world, to enhance its competitiveness and to increase opportunities for enterprise growing up. In order to accelerate the pace of enterprise enlargement, more and more companies are through M&A mode, quickly combining different company's talents and resources to enhance its competitiveness. But in the process of acquisition, how to effectively integrate the talents and resources of different companies becomes a very important studying. In addition to the integration of external talents and resources, the inner core between each company in the integration and application of knowledge is more important, in the process of integrating different companies. It can integrate the external talent and resources via PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system platform operation. And even to the core knowledge among the companies to reproduce various applications and feedback. Case study analysis & findings conclude as bellows: Conclusions 1: Planning phase, before inter-enterprise PLM systems integration, a high position, both RD engineering and IT professional skill background, A-type talent as this integrated project owner of planning and implementation, is the key to the success of the considerations. Conclusions 2: Execution phase, during inter-enterprise PLM systems integration, the strong support for the project from the executives, a well communication and a comprehensive training & technology transfer programs are the keys to success. Conclusions 3: Execution phase, during inter-enterprise PLM system integration, it is critical to have a full span Legacy data migration and to adjust/improve the unreasonable the process with process reengineering/process innovative attitude. Conclusions 4: Sustaining phase, after inter-enterprise PLM system integration, the use of the unique, opened platform for information sharing, contributes to the shortening of the develoemnt schedule and the reducing materials costs on new products development. Keywords: knowledge management, product life-cycle, systems integration, PLM

Sediment control devices (SCDs) are critical to reducing the contamination of waterways from adjacent construction sites. Perimeter sediment controls retard the flow of surface runoff water originating on site and subsequently reduce solid, nutrient, and metal concentrations suspended in the flowing water. Silt fence is a commonly used SCD comprised of geotextile filter fabric, steel or wood support posts, and wire mesh reinforcement. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) uses an extensive amount of silt fence every year, and because of high degradation of geotextile in the field, the silt fence installations are rarely recycled. This research measures the performance of five SCDs (two types of silt fence, mulch berm, compost sock, and straw bales) at suspended solid, turbidity, nutrient, and metal reduction. A life cycle analysis (LCA) is performed to identify environmental impacts associated with material production, assembly, installation, use on site, and disposal. An impact analysis is performed according to for each SCD. Results of the impact analysis are compared to determine the SCD with lowest overall environmental impact. Results of the SCD performance study show that silt fence installations performed the best at reducing suspended solids and turbidity, mulch was best at reducing nutrients, and compost was the best at reducing metal concentrations. The life cycle impact analysis indicates that a mulch berm is the SCD with the lowest overall environmental impact. The impact analysis included global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, and aquatic toxicity.

FDI har sedan början på 80-talet växt sig allt större och blivit en av de viktigaste tillgångarna till finansiellt och fysiskt kapital i världen. FDI har enligt många studier en viktig funktion för ett lands ekonomiska utveckling, detta gäller främst för outvecklade länder men också utvecklade länder. Studiens mål var att hitta viktiga faktorer som påverkade FDI inflöde till Sub-Sahara regionen. Den empiriska analysen gjordes med hjälp av en OLS regressionsmodell och hade 42 observationer sammanlagt. Huvudvariabeln var FDI/BNP. Resultatet av den empiriska analysen visade att den viktigaste faktoren för FDI inflöde hos länder söder om Sahara är ett lands ekonomiska öppenhet. Öppenhet visade en positiv signifikans i alla regressioner som gjordes. BNP per capita hade en negativ signifikans i den första regressionen men visade ingen signifikans när kunskapskapital och språkskillnader testades i regressioner. Variabeln för naturtillgångar hade en positiv signifikans när en tredje regression gjordes där länder delades upp i två språkkategorier.

<p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1988</p> / digitalisering@umu

Due to increasing interest in sustainable development, today s engineer is often tasked with designing systems that are environmentally benign over their entire life cycles. Unfortunately, environmental assessments commonly suffer from significant uncertainty due to lack of information, particularly for time-distant life cycle aspects. Under severe uncertainty, traditional uncertainty formalisms require more information than is available. However, a recently devised formalism, information-gap decision theory (IGDT), requires no more information than a nominal estimate; error bounds on that estimate are unknown. The IGDT decision strategy, accordingly, favors the design that is robust to the most estimation error while still guaranteeing no worse than some good enough critical level of performance. In some cases, one can use IGDT to identify a preferable design option without needing more information or more complex uncertainty analysis. In this dissertation, IGDT is investigated and shown to enhance decision support for environmentally benign design and manufacturing (EBDM) problems. First, the applicability of the theory to EBDM problems is characterized. Conditions that warrant an info-gap analysis are reviewed, the insight it can reveal about design robustness is demonstrated, and practical limitations to its use are revealed. Second, a new mathematical technique is presented that expands capabilities for analyzing robustness to multiple info-gap uncertainties simultaneously. The technique elicits scaling factors more rigorously than before and allows one to imprecisely express their beliefs about info-gap scaling. Two examples problems affected by info-gaps are investigated: oil filter selection and remanufacturing process selection. It is shown that limited information about uncertainty can, in some cases, indeed enable one to identify a most preferable design without requiring more information.

In the past few decades, globalization has led to a world economy with unbounded consumption. In addition to the consequential impoverishment of natural resources, this large consumption produces copious amounts of waste and requires high energy use. Proper end-of-life strategies can help to reduce the global impact of these inefficiencies. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate, through life-cycles analyses of an automotive transfer case and a gear, the positive environmental impact of remanufacturing strategies compared to recycling and disposal end-of-life strategies. In this study, the energy consumption, the air emissions and the wastes resulting from the entire supply chain s engineering processes will be quantitatively evaluated through calculations and also industrial or governmental data. In disposal end-of-life strategies, the analysis will begin with the ore mining phase, will go through material refining and processing; and eventually end with the final parts machining. In recycling scenarios and remanufacturing scenarios, the analysis will begin with the used material collection, will go through material s reprocessing or refurbishing and will finally end with the new or renewed parts machining. This study will show the significant impact of high energy consumption processes such as electrolysis of aluminum and metal melting. It will also show how shipping and collection phases can dramatically change or annihilate the advantage of sustainable reuse scenarios depending on the sorting strategies adopted in the supply chain. To conclude, the goal of this research is to demonstrate how remanufacturing strategies can reduce the energy consumption, air emissions and waste. This thesis will also show how inappropriate supply chain management can negate the impact of these savings.

A multidisciplinaridade, característica de um Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), sobretudo em um ambiente de Engenharia Simultânea (CE - do inglês Concurrent Engineering), no qual vários métodos e ferramentas são utilizados, torna complexo o fluxo de informações ao longo do processo. Embora existam abordagens como a Gestão do Ciclo de Vida do Produto (PLM - do inglês Product Lifecycle Management) e ferramentas de apoio (e.g. CAD; CAE; CAM), não há uma linguagem comum a todos os elementos do PDP, causando múltiplas interpretações da informação, podendo prejudicar os resultados. Neste contexto, destaca-se o dinamismo dos requisitos do produto ao longo do PDP. Muitas empresas costumam considerar etapas isoladas no início do PDP para a identificação dos requisitos do produto, porém, geralmente, não consideram as interações entre os diferentes requisitos e seu impacto sobre os elementos do sistema que compõem o produto. Diante de tal problemática, a abordagem Engenharia de Sistemas, baseada em Modelos (MbSE - do inglês Model-based System Engineering), propõe uma representação de produto através de um modelo único e atemporal, que assume o papel de guiar todo o ciclo de vida do produto, sendo a única fonte de informação aos stakeholders (i.e. envolvidos no PDP), representando todas as inter-relações existentes entre componentes, sistemas e subsistemas. Para aplicar a abordagem MbSE, muitos estudos propõem o uso da linguagem SysML (System Modeling Language) para modelar sistemas complexos. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor um modelo de sistema que possibilite a fiel representação de um produto, auxiliando a identificação e gestão dos requisitos ao longo do PDP. O modelo proposto possibilita o acesso e rastreabilidade das informações do produto, em diferentes níveis de abstração, a todos os stakeholders. A execução dos procedimentos metodológicos da pesquisa baseia-se na abordagem DSR. Tal abordagem é composta pelas etapas de identificação do problema, definição de objetivos, desenvolvimento da solução, avaliação e comunicação dos resultados. A pesquisa é aplicada no contexto de uma fabricante global de máquinas agrícolas, sobretudo no PDP de um trator. O produto será representado através de um modelo de sistema usando a linguagem SysML. A modelagem e acesso às informações do produto, através do modelo, são demonstrados e avaliados de acordo com os critérios da DSR. Utilizando o modelo, é possível identificar o impacto dos requisitos nos diferentes componentes do produto, bem como as inter-relações presentes no sistema. Além disso, possibilita-se o acesso às informações do modelo por diferentes stakeholders, demonstrando seu uso com ferramentas CAD e de Gestão de Requisitos. / The Product Development Process (PDP) multidisciplinary characteristic, into a Concurrent Engineering (CE) environment, where several systems, methods and tools are used, means that the information flow on PDP becomes complex. There are approaches, even as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and support tolls (e.g. CAD; CAE; CAM), but there is no a common language for all PDP components, arise multiple interpretations about information, prejudicing product results. This scenario highlights the requirements dynamism along the PDP stages. These are given from the customer needs, increasing its detail level through the process evolution. Generally, enterprises treat the requirements through standalone stages at the PDP start, but not consider the requirements interactions and its impacts about the all products systems components. In this context, the Model-based System Engineering (MbSE) approach proposes a product representation structure, through a unique and atemporal model, which assumes the role of a PDP guide, being the unique information source to stakeholders. This model is able to represent all components, system and subsystems interactions. Last years, several enterprises has used the language System Modeling Language (SysML) for modeling complex systems, achieving good results. In this sense, the goal of this work is propose a model that allows a loyal product representation, able to help the requirements definition and management along the PDP. This model allow the product information access, usage and traceability at various abstraction levels, by all stakeholders. The execution of the methodological procedures is based on the DSR approach. This approach consists of problem identification, goal setting, solution development, evaluation and reporting of results. The research is applied in the context of a global manufacturer of agricultural machinery, especially a tractor PDP. The product is represented through a system model using the SysML language. The modeling and product information is demonstrated and evaluated according to the DSR criteria. Using the model, is possible to identify the impact of the requirements on the different components of the product, as well as the interrelationships present in the system. In addition, it is possible to access the model information by different stakeholders, demonstrating its use with CAD tools and Requirements Management.