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Study on life-cycle design for the post mass production paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2000

YASUSHI UMEDA
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minami-Osawa 1-1, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
AKIRA NONOMURA
Affiliation:
DENSO Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
TETSUO TOMIYAMA
Affiliation:
RACE: Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering, the University of Tokyo, Komaba 4-6-1, Meguro-Ku-Tokyo 153-8904, Japan

Abstract

Environmental issues require a new manufacturing paradigm because the current mass production and mass consumption paradigm inevitably cause them. We have already proposed a new manufacturing paradigm called the “Post Mass Production Paradigm (PMPP)” that advocates sustainable production by decoupling economic growth from material and energy consumption. To realize PMPP, appropriate planning of a product life cycle (design of life cycle) is indispensable in addition to the traditional environmental conscious design methodologies. For supporting the design of a life cycle, this paper proposes a life-cycle simulation system that consists of a life-cycle simulator, an optimizer, a model editor, and knowledge bases. The simulation system evaluates product life cycles from an integrated view of environmental consciousness and economic profitability and optimizes the life cycles. A case study with the simulation system illustrates that the environmental impacts can be reduced drastically without decreasing corporate profits by appropriately combining maintenance, reuse and recycling, and by taking into consideration that optimized modular structures differ according to life-cycle options.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

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