Modifying module boundaries to design remanufacturable products: the modular grouping explorer tool

Abstract

A major challenge of the current decade is rationalising the consumption of all our material and energy resources to encourage a sustainable economy. One of the solutions for achieving these objectives is remanufacturing; however, this end-of-life option has to be optimised. End-of-life solutions currently proposed in the literature aim to identify the best end-of-life option for the architecture of given products; they may also use an algorithm to optimise the disassembly sequence or group components according to end-of-life options. None of these methods explicitly proposes a total redefinition of the architecture, adapting this to sustainable ends of life by increasing the proportion of remanufacturable and recyclable modules. The method proposed in this paper makes it possible to identify remanufacturable and recyclable modules using criteria of cost and environmental impact; the method groups together remanufacturable and recyclable modules using criteria of reliability and obsolescence, and redefines the perimeters of such modules. This approach is tested on a case study (expresso machine); the study highlights the advantages of such an approach (the exhaustive exploration of product architectures while redefining module frontiers) as well as its limitations.

Keywords:

• lifecycle design
• modular design
• remanufacturing
• eco-design tool