Leveraging Circular Economy through a Methodology for Smart Service Systems Engineering

Product Service Systems (PSS) and Smart Services are powerful means for deploying Circular Economy (CE) goals in industrial practices, through dematerialization, extension of product lifetime and efficiency increase by digitization. Within this article, approaches from PSS design, Smart Service design and Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) are combined to form a Methodology for Smart Service Architecture Definition (MESSIAH). First, analyses of present system modelling procedures and systems modelling notations in terms of their suitability for Smart Service development are presented. The results indicate that current notations and tools do not entirely fit the requirements of Smart Service development, but that they can be adapted in order to do so. The developed methodology includes a modelling language system, the MESSIAH Blueprinting framework, a systematic procedure and MESSIAH CE, which is specifically designed for addressing CE strategies and practices. The methodology was validated on the example of a Smart Sustainable Street Light System for Cycling Security (SHEILA). MESSIAH proved useful to help Smart Service design teams develop service-driven and robust Smart Services. By applying MESSIAH CE, a sustainable Smart Service, which addresses CE goals, has been developed

Utilization of Product Lifecycle Data from PLM Systems in Platforms for Industrial Symbiosis

Industrial Symbiosis represents a promising approach to foster the transformation towards a circular economy. To involve businesses in Industrial Symbiosis, online platforms and input-output matching tools for facilitating the exchange of by-products have been provided by industry organizations and facilitators. Regarding the discrete parts and product manufacturing industry (DPPM), little success is being reported for such platforms and tools. Within the scope of this research, a list of Input-Output matching tools was analysed regarding data sources which are currently used for input-output Matching. Specifications of by-products in the DPPM industry were reviewed in order to identify a list of requirements for data sources. Shortcomings of the currently existing input-output matching tools were identified and suggestions for additional data sources used for input-output matching in IS in DPPM were given. Results show that datasets currently used do not include organisational data sources such as Product Data Management (PDM) systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, and or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

The influence of anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics on the relaxation processes in lipid membranes

In the proximity of melting transitions of artificial and biological membranes fluctuations in enthalpy, area, volume and concentration are enhanced. This results in domain formation, changes of the elastic constants, changes in permeability and slowing down of relaxation processes. In this study we used pressure perturbation calorimetry to investigate the relaxation time scale after a jump into the melting transition regime of artificial lipid membranes. This time corresponds to the characteristic rate of domain growth. The studies were performed on single-component large unilamellar and multilamellar vesicle systems with and without the addition of small molecules such as general anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics. These drugs interact with membranes and affect melting points and profiles. In all systems we found that heat capacity and relaxation times are related to each other in a simple manner. The maximum relaxation time depends on the cooperativity of the heat capacity profile and decreases with a broadening of the transition. For this reason the influence of a drug on the time scale of domain formation processes can be understood on the basis of their influence on the heat capacity profile. This allows estimations of the time scale of domain formation processes in biological membranes.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure