Aldo Roberto Ometto

Sustainability in manufacturing: Recovery of resources in product and material cycles

Global Framework.- Life Cycle Engineering and Management.- Product Development.- Processes and Tools for Disassembly.- Planning for Remanufacturing and Recycling.- Enabling for Sustainability in Engineering.- Roadmap.

Life Cycle Assessment of Urea Formaldehyde Resin: Comparison by CML (2001), EDIP (1997) and USEtox (2008) Methods for Toxicological Impact Categories

This paper presents a Life Cycle Assessment comparison using CML (2001), EDIP (1997) and USETox (2008) methods for the impact assessment of urea formaldehyde resin (UF) used in the production of wood panels in Brazil. The impact results were focused just on toxicological categories like human toxicity and ecotoxicity. The main hotspots of UF resin were free formaldehyde air emissions to aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicity and for human toxicity category, the results showed that emissions to air of nitrogen oxides from urea (raw material) are also very important and not just free formaldehyde air emissions like previously checked in literature.

Business Issues in Remanufacturing: Two Brazilian Cases in the Automotive Industry

Remanufacturing can be regarded as a more sustainable way of manufacturing due to its economical and environmental benefits, compared to traditional manufacturing. Consequently, there is an ever increasing body of literature on remanufacturing, but there is still a lack of empirical data on it. This paper describes and analyses two Brazilian remanufacturing cases in the automotive industry. Based on them, some business issues are discussed, such as the quality of remanufactured products and the motivation for remanufacturing. Although it is not possible to make generalizations, both cases were not motivated by ecological reasons, but are derived from specific market niches.

Green manufacturing: uma análise da produção científica e de tendências para o futuro

This paper presents an analysis of the international scientific publications in the green manufacturing area. We used the Web of Science database to identify 239 articles published between 1991 and 2013. The articles involved 589 authors from 36 countries, 246 institutions, and 142 journals/conferences. We found that 51.4% of the articles were published within the last five years. Among the countries involved, the most prolific were the United States and China. The most prolific journal was the Journal of Cleaner Production with 19 articles. Most of the authors, 85.7%, were one-time authors in the field. The highest yield was 11 articles by one author, and the most cited author received 368 citations. We concluded that the green manufacturing area has increased its relevance in recent years by focusing on theoretical and empirical-theoretical studies.

Análise sobre os conceitos e práticas de Gestão por Processos: revisão sistemática e bibliometria

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a teoria sobre Gestao por Processos de Negocio (BPM - Business Process Management). Para isso foi realizada uma revisao bibliografica sistematica e foram utilizadas tecnicas de analise de publicacoes, citacoes e de bibliometria. Os resultados mostram a multidisciplinaridade de BPM, como as diferentes areas de pesquisa compreendem o tema e como praticam essa abordagem. Dentre os periodicos relevantes para o tema, destacaram-se o Business Process Managament Journal, Knowlegde and Process Managemente Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. Dentre as abordagens de aplicacao foi possivel verificar que existem tres tipos adotados pelo estudo e ao todo foram identificadas oito praticas de BPM. As redes de bibliometria mostraram a existencia de agrupamentos bibliometricos que pouco interagem, e a relacao de BPM com as abordagens de gestao da qualidade e reengenharia. Apesar do aumento de publicacoes na area, o que mostra a relevância do tema, as publicacoes tendem a seguir escolas distintas e que ainda atuam de forma isolada na area de BPM.

Product Development Process Modeling: State of the Art and Classification

Process modeling is a set of activities to be followed to create one or more models of a process for a certain purpose. Some modeling methods are more suitable for a given purpose than others, an essential fact to remember when choosing a modeling method. Some literature reviews about product development process modeling and their purposes are available on the literature; however, none of them intend to deplete the subject. Therefore, this research aims to provide a state of the art about product development process modeling methods and propose a detailed and comprehensive classification of them based on their purposes. To this end, a systematic literature review is conducted, followed by the elaboration of a matrix that relates modeling methods to their purposes. The resulting matrix can serve as a starting point for the elaboration of a framework for modeling method selection.

LCA Application: The Case of the Sugar Cane Bagasse Electricity Generation in Brazil

This paper aims to quantify the main environmental impact potentials of the sugar cane bagasse energy generation in Brazil. To do so, it was employed the Life Cycle Assessment technique based on primary and secondary data from three previous studies that encompass electricity generation, transmission and distribution. The major impact potentials identified that should be the decision makers’ focus are the photochemical ozone, human toxicity via soil and nutrient enrichment ones. These impact potentials are caused mainly by the current sugar cane harvesting techniques, namely the straw burning and the chemicals application prior harvesting.

Improving Environmental Performance of Products by Integrating Ecodesign Methods and Tools into a Reference Model for New Product Development

New product development (NPD) is a critical process to improve a company’s competitiveness. As environmental impacts generated throughout the product lifecycle are significantly determined during the early phase of its development, NPD plays a crucial role in enhancing the environmental performance of new products. Ecodesign may be defined as the systematic introduction of environmental concerns during product development. Despite the fact that several opportunities for competitive advantage have been associated to ecodesign the implementation of this concept has not reached companies worldwide mainly due to the gap between eco-oriented and product-oriented research. Thus both points of view must come together in order to achieve ecodesign benefits. This paper aims at proposing a systematic approach to do it by introducing some selected ecodesign methods and tools into the early phases of a reference model for NPD. The expected result is a set of structured activities that can successfully combine ecological and business perspectives. This paper presents some preliminary results on the field of sustainable product development (SPD) conducted by the authors.

Environmental and Operational Analysis of Ecodesign Methods Based on QFD and FMEA

In 1990s began a scattering of methods and tools aimed at the environmental suitability of products whose application is performed at certain stages of development. However, many of these published methods do not incorporate important environmental issues, often resulting in inefficient product development from the standpoint of ecodesign. This study aims to propose environmental and operational criteria for ecodesign methods, especially that based on QFD and FMEA (which are numerous), and analyze these methods. In order to achieve this goal, it was carried out a questionnaire application with experts that allowed us to identify characteristics that these methods must meet from the environmental and operational point of view.

How can Cleaner Production practices contribute to meet ISO 14001 requirements? Critical analysis from a survey with industrial companies

The companies’ needs to adopt changes in their way of production to maximize the environmental performance required by their stakeholders, and at the same time, to maximize their economic and market performance, have made them seek for environmental strategies and certifications. In this sense, the Cleaner Production and the Environmental Management System based on ISO 14001 have been, respectively, presented, since the main objective of this research is to identify and analyze Cleaner Production contributions to comply with ISO 14001 requirements. For such, a survey research has been carried out in Brazilian industrial companies certified by ISO 14001. We have identified the main performance factors by leading practices and variables of Cleaner Production that contribute to the compliance with the standard requirements by companies. Thus, it has been noted that Cleaner Production is an important strategy for the preparation of companies for certification as well as for improving their environmental performance.