Critical Success Factors for Sustainable Business Networks

In order to ensure product compliance, companies need to be informed about an increasing amount of regulations worldwide and collect related material data throughout the supply chain. As return rates have proven to be low with traditional measures, new solutions need to be established. The approach of exchanging product compliance data using a network-based Information System has shown its potential with the International Material Data System (IMDS) in the automotive industry. Nevertheless, such Sustainable Business Networks (SBNs) are not used to their full extend and have not reached a high market penetration in any other industries. Therefore this research analyses the reasons for market adoption of SBNs, and extracts the critical success factors in the application area of product compliance. Finally a ranking of the success factors is established leveraging the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Integration of substance compliance and a product lifecycle management system in case organization

Abstract. Substance compliance is the field of identifying applicable product material regulations and managing the product composition to match those regulations. As the various regulations expand and new standards are added, manufacturers must take increased precautions to ensure their products are in line with the latest regulations and standards for example by developing system integrations to ensure better management processes. This thesis aims to study the development and implementation of an integration of a substance compliance management system with a product lifecycle management (PLM) system in a case organization. The perspective is on identifying how an integration of substance compliance and a PLM system can be conducted and what to take into consideration when introducing such an interface to current operations. The research methods used were two sets of semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. The findings of this study indicate that substance compliance has connections to data quality. In the case organization in particular, in order to fully grasp the benefits of the integration, special care should be put into completing a three-step plan focused on improving data quality management, using change management to introduce the integration, and utilizing an early and proactive approach to substance compliance. The study largely focuses on giving actionable improvement recommendations, but it also contributes to the substance compliance literature by conducting a brief literature study on the topic and showing the connection of product data quality with the field of study.Aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuuden hallitsemisen ja tuotteen elinkaaren hallintajärjestelmän yhdistäminen kohdeyrityksessä. Tiivistelmä. Aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuuden hallitseminen on ala, jossa tunnistetaan tuotemateriaalien lainsäädännöllisiä vaatimuksia ja varmistetaan, että tuote ei sisällä vaatimustenvastaisia aineita. Tuotemateriaaleja koskevien säädösten määrän kasvaessa elektroniikkavalmistajien on huolehdittava entistä tarkemmin, että heidän tuotteensa noudattavat viimeisimpiä lainsäädäntöjä ja standardeja. Yksi tapa tehdä näin on esimerkiksi panostaa systeemien yhdistämiseen, joka takaa paremmat hallintaprosessit. Tämän diplomityön tarkoitus on tutkia aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuuden ja tuotteen elinkaaren hallintajärjestelmän yhdistämistä kohdeyrityksessä. Pääpaino työssä on tunnistaa, miten kahden järjestelmän yhdistäminen voidaan toteuttaa, sekä mitä tulisi ottaa huomioon yhdistetyn järjestelmän käyttöönotossa. Diplomityössä käytettiin kahta eri puolistrukturoitua haastattelua sekä osallistuvia havainnointeja tutkimusmenetelminä. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuudella on yhteys tuotedatan laatuun. Jotta kohdeyrityksessä voitaisiin ottaa täysi hyöty yhdistetystä järjestelmästä, tulisi yrityksen toteuttaa kolmiaskeleinen parannussuunnitelma. Suunnitelman tavoite on parantaa tuotedatanlaadun hallintaa, hyödyntää muutosjohtamisen oppeja järjestelmän kehittämiseen ja käyttöönottoon, ja edesauttaa kohdeyritystä ennakoivaan aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuuteen. Työ keskittyy suurimmaksi osaksi kohdeyrityksen parannusehdotusten antamiseen, mutta se myös edistää aineiden vaatimustenmukaisuuteen kohdistuvaa kirjallisuutta pienellä kirjallisuuskatsauksella ja esittämällä linkin tuotedatan laadun kanssa

Green and Safe “By Design”: A Conceptual Tool to Avoid Hazardous Substances in Early Phases of Product Development

Sustainability has to be managed in order to guarantee health, social equity, resource optimization and economic activities and this awareness is grown considerably. At the same time, this consciousness leads us to consider sustainability also as a social and a business driver on the economic side and a great opportunity by an environmental point of view. Further, according to several regulations, producers are responsible of their devices in terms of environmental pollution, from production and market launch to disposal activities when they become unusable. This fact changes the role of designers, which becomes wider in a multidisciplinary context. For this reason, this paper proposes an approach that supports designers during the development of more sustainable products with the aim to reduce the amount of hazardous substances (according to European RoHS regulations) and it allows firms and academic R&D departments to reduce risks of a missing compliance. The approach is structured according to a flowchart that addresses designers to more suitable product solutions in terms of environmental impact. The methodology applied to the case studies, in fact, show that an early assessment in first design phases allows developers to have safer and more sustainable product prototypes and its application can be proposed also during design courses in an educational context.

Green and Safe “By Design”: A Conceptual Tool to Avoid Hazardous Substances in Early Phases of Product Development

Sustainability has to be managed in order to guarantee health, social equity, resource optimization and economic activities and this awareness is grown considerably. At the same time, this consciousness leads us to consider sustainability also as a social and a business driver on the economic side and a great opportunity by an environmental point of view. Further, according to several regulations, producers are responsible of their devices in terms of environmental pollution, from production and market launch to disposal activities when they become unusable. This fact changes the role of designers, which becomes wider in a multidisciplinary context. For this reason, this paper proposes an approach that supports designers during the development of more sustainable products with the aim to reduce the amount of hazardous substances (according to European RoHS regulations) and it allows firms and academic R&D departments to reduce risks of a missing compliance. The approach is structured according to a flowchart that addresses designers to more suitable product solutions in terms of environmental impact. The methodology applied to the case studies, in fact, show that an early assessment in first design phases allows developers to have safer and more sustainable product prototypes and its application can be proposed also during design courses in an educational context.

Reverse Logistics Sustainability For Environmental Performance

International audienceToday, the trend of doing business concerns not only the efficiency but also the sustainability of product and the health of environment. In order to reduce waste generation and improve product or product development process in term of time, cost and quality, organization focuses more and more on Product lifecycle sustainability. It helps reducing waste, conserving resources, using recycling materials, designing product for easy disassembly and avoiding using hazardous material. This paper proposes a knowledge management architecture, based on a multi-agent system, which focuses on the “sustainability” in order to manage knowledge in each stage of the product lifecycle, and particularly in the recovery process. The aim of this research work is to distribute the environmental knowledge about sustainability (e.g. environmental regulations, rules, norms...) by using multi agent system architecture. The proposed system will make the link between the agent's knowledge base and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) systems. It will help the decision makers in each stage of the lifecycle and make them take into account the environmental impact of their decisions. The proposed architecture will be illustrated on an industrial case study

A case studies approach to the analysis of profiling and framing structures for pervasive information systems

Model-Based/Driven Development (MDD) constitutes an approach to software design and development that potentially contributes to: concepts closer to domain and reduction of semantic gaps; automation and less sensitivity to technological changes; capture of expert knowledge and reuse. The widespread adoption of pervasive technologies as basis for new systems and applications, lead to the need of effectively design pervasive information systems that properly fulfil the goals they were designed for. This paper presents a profiling and framing structure approach for the development of Pervasive Information Systems (PIS). This profiling and framing structure allows the organization of the functionality that can be assigned to computational devices in a system and of the corresponding development structures and models, being. The proposed approach enables a structural approach to PIS development. The paper also presents two case studies that allowed demonstrating the applicability of the approach.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

New model of component-based product-oriented environmental management system (C-POEMS) for small and medium-sized enterprises

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Product-oriented environmental improvement is a great challenge for SMEs. There are two main reasons for this; firstly, a contradictory situation exists because SMEs lack the knowledge and competence to adopt the mainstream principle holistic approach of environmental product policy and regulations, and, secondly, there is a growing demand to incorporate environmental management system (EMS) and product dimension via ecodesign. To address these issues, this research focused on a product-oriented environmental management system (POEMS) that has been specifically developed to solve these problems. However, POEMS studies so far lack methodological development and focus more on how to incorporate EMS and eco-design rather than how to interpret the contents and improve POEMS as a standard tool. This research aimed to develop a new model, namely, component-based POEMS (CPOEMS). The C-POEMS model is a first attempt to define a potential standardised form of POEMS in its contents and structure, and form the basis for a useable self-help format for SMEs. A C-POEMS model, comprising stages of process, categories of functional areas/units, and elements, and a diagnosis template, as a component-based application, are developed and formulated. Through primary research, the C-POEMS conceptual model was verified and applicability of a C-POEMS component to SMEs was validated. C-POEMS made major contributions of two aspects: (1) methodological development of POEMS; (2) improvement of the format applicable for SMEs incorporating mainstream principles. Regarding methodological development of POEMS, arguments of existing POEMS methods were revealed, and the suggestions as well as analytical information in this research would provide benefit for further research in this field. The C-POEMS improved POEMS by providing clear contents and structure with predefined prior and iii correlated categories of functional area/units, which are helpful for SMEs. In addition, a diagnostic approach would help SMEs recognise their own problems and focus areas. As a result, SMEs can reduce the initial time to identify a structure of product-related environmental management, and increase opportunities to focus on major targets and product aspect for environmental improvements. Because of time constraint and underdevelopment of POEMS, there remain problems, in particular, to fully integrate EMS and eco-design, and the asymmetric situation between maintaining the broad scope of POEMS and focusing upon specific areas and user demand. However, this C-POEMS model provides a foundation for the development of EMS for SME’s and for ongoing development of POEMS

Development of a design for end-of-life approach in a strongly guided design process. Application to high-tech products.

In response to a growing concern for environmental problems and to waste management from mass production products, several regulations have appeared to tackle end-of-life (EoL) issues. They address for instance end-of-life vehicles or waste electrical and electronic equipment. EoL management mainly lays on both EoL industry and product design. Thus, new methods of design have already been implemented since the past decades to answer the regulation requirements, notably through material choices and product architecture. However, some high-tech products remain out of the scope of these legislations. But for some years, initiatives have emerged for these products, coming from governments, international programs or customers’ requirements which become increasingly strict. This paper focuses on a new design approach that would allow taking into account EoL considerations for such type of products, based on EoL strategies and adapted to aeronautic and defence products.Travail effectué dans le cadre de projet de recherche collaboratif du réseau national d'Eco-Conception de Systèmes Durables ECOS

Development framework pattern for pervasive information systems

During last decade, the world watched a social acceptance of computing and computers, enhanced information technology devices, wireless networks, and Internet; they gradually became a fundamental resource for individuals. Nowadays, people, organizations, and the environment are empowered by computing devices and systems; they depend on services offered by modern Pervasive Information Systems supported by complex software systems and technology. Research on software development for PIS-delivered information, on issues and challenges on software development for them, and several other contributions have been delivered. Among these contributions are a development framework for PIS, a profiling and framing structure approach, and a SPEM 2.0 extension. This chapter, revisiting these contributions, provides an additional contribution: a pattern to support the use of the development framework and profiling approach on software development for PIS. This contribution completes a first series of contributions for the development of PIS. This chapter also presents a case study that allowed demonstrating the applicability of these contribution