IE RESEARCH PAPER

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

PGDIE-42

Industrial Engineering

 Assignment on Industrial Engineering:

Presented by:

Vikas Sakre(Roll No:103)

A SYNOPSIS OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING METHODS UTILIZED IN DESIGNING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

T.J. Caporello and P.M. Wolfe

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering,

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5906, U.S.A.

Abstract

Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing and Designing for the Environment have become considerably important in the recent years due to the results of sustained high living standards and dynamic population growth. The scope of activity involved is immense. Physical products must not only proceed from "cradle to grave" but now must proceed "cradle to reincarnation". Business practices must be altered and enhanced to address a multitude of items needed to produce products with less overall environmental impact. This paper presents both the physical product system and the business process system and identifies key areas where the competencies of industrial engineers can best be used.

Introduction

The recognition by both consumer and producer that the creation, use, and disposal of more environmentally benign products is a notion whose time has arrived. From the stand point of the consumer, one need only recognize the growing public awareness of the effects of human activity, its impact on the environment, and the resulting effect it has on the sustainability of a quality of life standard to understand the passion with which they respond. From the standpoint of the producer, rapidly growing governmental environmental regulations that impact all facets of a company's operations, can present both barriers to success as well as create new competitive opportunities for those who are aptly prepared.

The overall envirnmental impact caused by products and services that satisfy our individual and societal needs is typically established up front, as decisions are made during product conceptualization and development phases. It is here where issues must be dealt with and decisions made accurately and in a timely manner to be effective from a business standpoint. Although much progress has been made, recent research from both the public and private domains has indicated that overall, the necessary tools, techniques, and educational opportunities needed to accomplish the incorporation of environmental objectives into product design are currently either not available, not adequately developed, or not well understood and hence not yet adopted by industry to any measure of the full potential of the overall objective.

The Product System

The physical product system and the generic product life cycle phases are illustrated in Figure 1. The product system is used to identify activities and inventory all materials and energy consumption during the life a physical material. This inventory includes accounting for all indirect materials, byproducts, and residuals produced as a result of producing a product. The generic product life cycle phase legend identifies the particular area of focus this phase considers in the product system. The product system also accounts for material to by recycled in the form of pure material recycling, remanufacturing, reuse, or as a material to be downcycled into other products that require less stringent performance characteristics.

 

The Life Cycle Design Process

Design for the environment (DFE) initiatives being developed mostly in the public domain are emerging as the robust systematic approach for integrating environmental issues into the design and thereby aid in the realization, of the full potential of the overall objective. A Life Cycle Design process (LCD) for this is illustrated in Figure 2. This process together with the product system provide a complete framework which links all activities from raw material extraction, manufacturing, and use to final disposal of all residuals with business decision processes.

This framework will be used to help identify, for the industry engineer, unique opportunities to utilize every facet of their competence domain. Throughout the major steps of LCD, Needs Analysis, Requirements, Design and Implementation, constant decision support is required to evaluate all aspects of design impact. Figure 3 illustrates the major contribution decision support provides to support DFE. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides the necessary environmental impact assessment required to judge a preferred product design from a set of alternatives. This is done by first taking a complete inventory of all physical materials and energy consumed during the life of the product under investigation, this includes all residuals and indirect materials. Next, the impact that this inventory set is established following the three steps of impact assessment. They are classification of the materials into impact types, characterization of these types as to there environmental influence, and finally, setting some value criteria for each are that influences, or effects, the environment. Valuation for impact assessment remains as the area requiring addition research. Improvement analysis promises to optimize a set of alternative product and process enhancements to reduce overall impact.