LCA/LCC Tool for Decision- Making in the Design Phase · 2000, Catia V5 R16 CAD System IAS SAM...

LCA/LCC Tool for DecisionLCA/LCC Tool for Decision--Making in the Design PhaseMaking in the Design Phase

Aurora Dimache, GMIT, Ireland

The 3rd international Conference on Life Cycle Management, Zurich, August 2007

SMEsSMEs and Environmental Complianceand Environmental Compliance

SMEs recognise the importance of demanding environmental legislation (e.g. WEEE Directive, ELV Directive, REACH Directive) increasing customer demands and competition

Requirements for environmental compliance are cascading from the primary companies (OEMs) down the supply chain

Organisations have difficulty in implementing legislative requirements in their products and processes and measuring the environmental compliance of their companies

Organisations mostly use conventional methods such as guidelinesor checklists in measuring environmental compliance

The use of DFE (Design for Environment) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) in measuring environmental compliance is low


How to Help How to Help SMEsSMEs

In response to the needs expressed by the interviewed SMEs, the authors developed:

– a set of tools to be used by SMEs in order to develop environmentally superior products: the LCA tool and the LCC tool


Background to LCABackground to LCA

A decision-making tool to identify environmental burdens and evaluate the environmental consequences of a product, process or service over its life-cycle from cradle to grave

Standardized by the International Organization for Standardization

Forms the conceptual basis for a number of management approaches that consider a product across its life-cycle, covering resource acquisition, product manufacturing, product use, and end-of-life


Key Features of LCAKey Features of LCA

Consideration of multiple life cycle stages – the physical sequence of operations in a product system, cradle-to-

cradle

– the primary stages are materials acquisition and processing, manufacturing, use and end-of-life disposal

– within each of these stages, processes are defined

Consideration of multiple environment and resource issues– LCA studies expose trade-offs by analyzing significant inputs from the

earth and outputs to the environment across the various life-cycle stages

An assessment or interpretation of the significance of the results– can vary from aggregation of data into a set of simple indicators to the

consolidation of the data into a core set of indicators using a variety of weighting or scoring methods


LCA and Design for EnvironmentLCA and Design for Environment

LCA is a powerful tool that can be used in the design process to:

– improve products: analyse the origins of problems related to a particular product and redesign the product or process in order to reduce the impact on the environment; design new, more environmentally friendly products (DFE)

– make decisions: choose between comparable products; choose between different design alternatives; prove that one product isenvironmentally preferable to another

– benchmark a product against competitive products


Background to LCCBackground to LCC

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) can be used to evaluate design alternatives and perform trade-off studies in order to optimise the life cycle cost

It is estimated that 70-80% of the production cost is committed at the early design phase

It is better to eliminate costs when they are committed instead of trying to cut costs after they are incurred→ that’s where LCC can help

Accumulated product cost

TimeProduct

developmentProduct planning Production

Cost committed

Cost incurred


Key Features of LCCKey Features of LCC

LCC is the process of economic analysis to assess the total cost of a product/project, including the environmental costs

This analysis provides important inputs in the decision-making process in the product design, development and use

LCC can be effectively applied to evaluate costs associated with:

– a specific process/activity– a specific part of a product– only selected phases of a product’s life cycle– the total life cycle of the system/product


LCC and Design for EnvironmentLCC and Design for Environment

LCC allows comparisons of design alternatives by estimating the costs associated with each alternative

Product suppliers can optimise their designs by evaluating alternatives and by performing trade-off studies

They can also assess various operating and maintenance strategies to optimise life cycle cost


The LCA Tool: DFE WorkbenchThe LCA Tool: DFE Workbench

A CAD integrated tool – Pro Engineer 2001, Solid Works 2000, Catia V5 R16

CAD System

IAS

SAM

Advisoragent

Knowledgeagent

Report generator


Impact Assessment System (IAS)Impact Assessment System (IAS)

The Impact Assessment System (IAS) is an abridged quantitative approach to LCA

It automatically extracts the appropriate data from the CAD drawing

Environmental impact may be calculated for each component or for the entire assembly



CAD integrated



Environmental impact for part


Structure Assessment Method (SAM)Structure Assessment Method (SAM)

The Structure Assessment Method (SAM) is a complex methodology, which quantitatively measures and records data such as:

– material compatibility/substitution– components’ serviceability– total standard disassembly times– Etc.


Structure Assessment Method (SAM)Structure Assessment Method (SAM)

Disassembly time

No. of fasteners


Advisor Agent and Knowledge AgentAdvisor Agent and Knowledge Agent

The Advisor Agent has two functions: – to prioritize variables generated by the IAS and SAM tools

– to give advice to the designer on alternative structural characteristics

The Knowledge Agent provides advice to the designer in a consultative mode (for example, help to find a material with specific mechanical and environmental properties)


Advisor Agent and Knowledge AgentAdvisor Agent and Knowledge Agent

Advice for designer: material


Report GeneratorReport Generator

The Report Generator automatically generates reports on the product designed by the user


Report GeneratorReport GeneratorReport for

part


Report GeneratorReport GeneratorLife cycle report for

part


The LCC ToolThe LCC Tool

The cost estimation tool can be used to evaluate design alternatives and perform trade-off studies in order to optimise the life cycle cost

It is intended to support designers in the decision-making process by giving indications of the individual life cycle stages costs and the overall life cycle cost of the product

The cost model aims to show the influence of different changes in the design on the total cost of the product


Product structure as

in CAD

Details added and/or

extracted from CAD



Material composition

of the assembly



Assembly/part

processes with details



Details related to

the assembly packaging



Details related to the use and EOL phase of the

assembly



Cost report for

the assembly



Cost report for the assembly

(graphical representation)



The Output of the LCC ToolThe Output of the LCC Tool

A summary of the costs necessary to produce, use and dispose the product. This information is shown per product and per component

A graphical representation of the product cost of each life cycle stage that permits the designer to see at which stage improvements should be made

A graphical representation of the components’ costs. This will show a hierarchy of costs and the designer will be able to see which component is the most cost-effective and which needs re-design


ConclusionsConclusions

The authors propose two powerful decision-support tools to designers in the early phases of product development: a Life Cycle Assessment tool and a Life Cycle Cost estimation tool

The two systems provide results like costs and environmental impact that offer a solid base for decision-making to the product designer when it comes to producing environmentally-compliant products in a cost-effective manner

LCA/LCC Tool for Decision- Making in the Design Phase · 2000, Catia V5 R16 CAD System IAS SAM...

Documents

Transcript of LCA/LCC Tool for Decision- Making in the Design Phase · 2000, Catia V5 R16 CAD System IAS SAM...