Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design

This issue focuses on design and manufacturing theories and methodologies aimed at achieving environmental sustainability. It has been two decades since environmental sustainability and related issues have been discussed as main issues in design and manufacturing. In these 20 years, theories and methodologies have been developed on environmentally conscious design, including the design of disassembly and life cycle assessment, and manufacturing techniques for saving energy and resources and low emission. In spite of these efforts, the seriousness of the environmental issues, e.g., global warming, is getting harder and harder and new issues continuously arise. It has gradually been recognized that essential problems reside within the manufacturing industry structure and the center of the manufacturing industry has shifted from developed countries such as Japan and US to developing countries with accelerating mass production and mass consumption. Based on this recognition, this special issues deals with rather novel topics emerging in the domain of design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability. The first five papers provide a global scope on the relationship between environmental sustainability and manufacturing industry, including global energy consumption patterns, manufacturing industry scenario writing, informative reviews on lean remanufacturing, urban mining, and education on resource scarcity. The second three papers focus on human recognition and behavior – emerging topics in this domain – including socially responsible investment, customer choice, and the routing of electric vehicles. The last five papers propose new methods or technologies of environmentally conscious design and sustainable manufacturing, including ecobusiness design, electric vehicle heating systems, and the sustainability evaluation of manufacturing processes. Some papers, revised and extended in response to the editor’s invitations, were originally presented at EcoDesign 2013: 8th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (Jeju, Korea). The editor sincerely thanks the authors and reviewers for their devoted work in making this special issue possible. We hope that these articles will encourage further research on design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability.

Mini Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 677-677
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Tool ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Motion Extraction ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Distributed Energy Generation ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design

As the third special issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability for IJAT, this issue focuses on design and manufacturing theories and methodologies for achieving environmental sustainability and the topic of the special issue seems to be becoming established in this journal. This special issue contains six articles consisting of a wide variety of rather novel topics emerging in the domain of design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability. The first three deal with design problem in the broader sense: designing of system of systems taking distributed energy generation systems, upgradable design problems, and selection problem of end-of-life products recovery options integrated from the view of environmental load and cost. The last three papers deal with manufacturing problems in the broader sense – motion extraction problems for disassembly automation, machine tool energy efficiency, and optimization problems related to machine tool operating conditions for increasing environmental sustainability. Some papers, revised and extended at the editor’s request, were presented originally at EcoDesign 2015, the ninth international symposium on environmentally conscious design and inverse manufacturing, held in Tokyo, Japan, 2015. The editor thanks the authors and reviewers for their comprehensive efforts in making this special issue possible and hopes these articles will encourage further research on design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability.

Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing Toward Sustainability

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Matsubara
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Product Lifecycle ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Manufacturing Technologies ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design

“Sustainability,” a concept leading the 21st Century, calls for the manufacturing industry and its products to achieve sustainability. This issue treats such aspects as CO2 emission and global warming, depletion of natural resources and fossil fuel, and emission of toxic and hazardous substances. Sustainability requires the manufacturing industry to make at least two major changes while maintaining or increasing competitiveness and added product value: 1. Lifecycle thinking requiring manufacturers to design, evaluate, and manage the complete product lifecycle, including use and end-of-life stages. 2. Minimizing everything in the product lifecycle, including products, material and energy use, manufacturing and inverse manufacturing systems, and logistics­ the consummate lean lifecycle. In this sense, sustainable manufacturing is an extension of current advances in manufacturing technologies, but with an emphasis on wider, holistic applications. This special issue brings together manuscripts discussing vital viewpoints on design and manufacturing moving toward sustainability. The first two papers by Kishita et al. and Matsumoto et al. advocate sustainable resource circulation systems. Papers 3 to 6 by Masui, Sakao et al., Fargnoli, and Fukushige et al. discuss environmentally conscious design. Papers 7 and 8 by Narita et al. and Kondoh et al. propose evaluations of environmental awareness of manufacturing systems. The last three papers by Komoto et al., Takata et al., and Hiraoka et al. discuss postsales activities– collection, and reuse–indispensable to sustainable manufacturing. We thank the authors for their most interesting contributions to this special issue and the reviewers and editors for their invaluable effort, and hope you, our discriminating readers, will begin discussing and implementing ideas and applications for moving the manufacturing industry toward sustainability.

scholarly journals Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 855-856
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Circulation System ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Design And Manufacturing

This is the fifth Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability. The first Special Issue on this topic was issued in 2009, and the previous one was in 2018. The acceptance of sustainability has been increasing, as evidenced by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), various carbon neutral movements, and, among others, the gradual recognition of potential impacts of the EU’s “Circular Economy,” which promotes circulation-based businesses to increase the employment and market competitiveness of the EU. This increase in acceptance has brought with it increased activity in the research area of design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability, with the result that this fifth Special Issue includes seventeen well-written papers, a significant increase over the six that appeared in the fourth. The first paper “Potential Impacts of the European Union’s Circular Economy Policy on Japanese Manufacturers” overviews the EU’s Circular Economy and points out key enabling technologies. To approach environmental sustainability, we should promote various technologies related to ecodesign, process technologies, business strategy, and digital technology. At the same time, we must focus on life cycle design and management, an indispensable technology which synthesizes a sustainable circulation system by integrating the technologies mentioned above. Accordingly, this Special Issue covers both aspects, with the seventeen manuscripts in it organized as follows. The first three papers, authored by Y. Umeda et al., K. Halada, and M. Kojima, give overviews and discuss requirements for technological development. The next two manuscripts by K. Fujimoto et al. and Y. Kikuchi et al. discuss modeling, simulation, and assessment of circulation systems. Papers six to eight, written by W.-H. Chung et al., S. Yamada et al., and K. Yoda et al. develop life cycle design methods. The remaining manuscripts advance fundamental technologies. Manuscripts nine to eleven, by R. Yonemoto et al., T. Samukawa et al., and Y. Yaguchi et al., deal with sustainable manufacturing. Finally, six manuscripts by C. Tokoro et al., K. Tsuji et al., A. Ogawa et al., A. Yoshimura et al., T. Hiruta et al., and S. Nasu et al. are about life cycle processes; recycling technologies and product use phase such as car sharing and maintenance. Most of the papers, revised and extended in response to the editor’s invitations, were originally presented at EcoDesign 2019: the 11th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, held in Yokohama, Japan. The editor sincerely thanks the authors and reviewers for their devoted work in making this Special Issue possible. We hope that these articles will encourage further research into design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Special Issue on Application of Robot and AI

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-139
Author(s):  
Naoki Asakawa
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Path Generation ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skilled Worker ◽  
Robot Hands

Due to changes in the global industrial structure, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry has decreased in developed countries. One of solutions to this situation offered in Industry 4.0 is “the utilization of robots and AI as alternatives to skilled workers.” This solution has been applied to various operations conventionally performed by skilled workers and has yielded consistent results. A skilled worker has two skills, namely, “physical operation skill” and “decision making skill,” which correspond to the utilization of robots and AI, respectively. Conventionally, robots have simply played back programs they were taught. However, owing to feedback technologies using force, position, or various other sensors, robots have come to be able to perform smart operations. In some of these, the capabilities of robots exceed those of human workers. For example, while humans are highly adaptive to various operations, it is difficult for them to maintain a constant force or position for long periods of time. Generally, humans make decisions about operations according to their experience, and this experience is gained from many instances of trial and error. Now, the trial-and-error learning of AI has become significantly superior to that of humans in terms of both number and speed. As a result, many systems can find operational strategies or answers much faster than humans can. This special issue features papers on robot hands, path planning, kinematics, and AI. Papers related to robot hands present an actuator using new principles, new movements, and the realization of the precise sense of the human hand. Papers related to path planning present path generation on the basis of CAD data, path generation using image processing, automatic path generation on the basis of environmental information, and the prediction of error and correction. Path generation using VR technology and error compensation using an AI technique are also presented. A paper related to kinematics presents the analysis and evaluation of a new mechanism with the aim of new applications in the field of machining. In closing, I would like to thank the authors, reviewers, and editors, without whose hard work and earnest cooperation this issue could not have been completed and presented.

Experiences of Teaching “Life Cycle Design” Course at Tokyo Metropolitan University

Manufacturing ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Tokyo Metropolitan ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Teaching Life ◽  
Metropolitan University ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design

This paper describes the outline of “life cycle design” course the author teaches and illustrates some experiences and findings with results of questionnaires to attendees of the lecture. “Life cycle design” is a half-year course to third-year students at Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan. The main subject is environmentally conscious design focusing on life cycle thinking. This course intends to establish general and correct viewpoints toward relationship between manufacturing industry and the environmental issues, which are indispensable knowledge as mechanical engineers, rather than to educate environmental specialists. Results of questionnaires indicate that this course succeeded in increasing students’ interest in this area and awareness of importance of the environmental issues. However, some students feel bewildered because of wide variety of topics and, therefore, lack of a central theory.

OVERVIEW OF MANUFACTURING STRATEGY IN JAPAN

1996 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
JAY LEE
Keyword(s):  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Semiconductor Industry ◽  
Manufacturing Strategy ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
The Past ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
The Status ◽  
Manufacturing Technologies ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design

Japan has been a world leader in manufacturing in the past several decades. Undoubtedly, this leadership will persist well into the 21st century. It is, therefore, very important to understand the status of Japan's manufacturing technologies as well as its projected manufacturing strategies for the future, especially those technologies which would generate substantial impact on the manufacturing industries in the next five years. This paper highlights current Japanese manufacturing strategies. Examples on several major industries including the industrial machinery industry, the semiconductor industry, and the automotive industry will be given. In addition, major initiatives on emerging technologies, including micromachine, environmentally conscious design and manufacturing, and manufacturing globalization support are described.

Integrating I-DEAS With Remanufacturing and Assemblability Assessments

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uma-Sankar Kalyan-Seshu ◽  
Bert Bras
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Input Information ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Specific Objective ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design ◽  
Effective Design

Abstract A growing concern about the environment, and especially about waste and landfill, has motivated research into environmentally conscious design and manufacturing approaches. This has placed new burdens on designers. In order to aid designers in their new tasks, one of our objectives is to minimize the gathering of information and maximize the utility of existing design information. In the research discussed in this paper, the specific objective is to enable the quantification and enhancement of product remanufacturability. Guidelines for integrating some of the commercially available CAD packages (like I-DEAS, Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA) to remanufacturing assessments, and ways to use the input information to these assessments for making other assessments (like assemblability) are developed. A number of case studies are given to illustrate the approach. Our long term goal is to identify the minimum amount of information needed to do effective design for the life-cycle.

Environmentally-Conscious Design Methods for Manufacturing Firms with Servicification

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohiko Sakao ◽  
◽  
Mattias Lindahl ◽  
Anna Öhrwall-Rönnbäck
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Design Methods ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Manufacturing Company ◽  
Environmentally Conscious Design ◽  
Empirical Case Studies

Servicification is a key toward environmental conscious business in the manufacturing industry. After looking at the business and economic implications of Integrated Product and Service Offerings, the paper suggests specifications for methods beneficial for such a manufacturing company. The paper is based on the empirical case studies of 120 Swedish manufacturing firms of different sizes. It is expected to encourage discussion on this crucial theme in mature economies such as those of Europe and Japan.

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