Dominique Millet

A comparative study of ideation mechanisms used in eco-innovation tools

Today the challenges of sustainable development require new products, services or uses to be developed within the framework of an eco-innovation process integrating environmental and societal approaches. Creating such offers can be sometimes based upon using eco-innovation tools that focus on the idea generation phase and ideation mechanisms that allow stakeholders to redefine problems and develop new eco-creative concepts. This paper is focused on the comparison of the ideation mechanisms during the idea generation phase of eco-innovative concepts, called the eco-ideation phase. For this, it describes a set of academic and industrial studies taking into account the different ideation mechanisms. The tests compare an adapted creativity tool with existing eco-innovation tools regarding their performances during eco-ideation phases. In a second step, additional case studies are performed with the adapted creativity tool for eco-innovation, to assess whether this performance is maintained in various contexts and with various participants (in knowledge and skills). The results showed that the use of appropriate ideation mechanisms ensures a constant rate of idea generation throughout the eco-ideation session and a wide variety of ideas generated.

Design for remanufacturing: What performances can be expected?

The objective of this report is to supply a state of the art of remanufacturing in eco-design methods reverse supply chain management. These states of the art show that available methods of eco-design fail to take sufficient account of the remanufacturing potentialities because of the difficulty to consider products with multiple life cycles. They also show that RSC management and eco-design methods are rarely considered simultaneously. A case study on an espresso machine is conducted highlighting various dimensions of the remanufacturing problem. This paper points out the necessity for designers to have method to develop new concept of remanufacturable systems.

Conditions of emergence of OEM's reverse supply chains

Although academic research and some industrial experiences show that a reverse supply chain (RSC) based on remanufacturing offers the possibility to transform the constraint of environmental regulations on product recovery into an opportunity for value creation, few companies have managed to set up their own RSCs. Five research propositions on the condition of emergence of RSCs follow from a literature review and are applied to a case study from a global player in the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) industry. The findings support the importance of an integrated approach for the design and implementation of a RSC. This integrated approach responds to the traditional questions of OEMs, ‘Why’ set up a RSC?; ‘What’ main conditions must be taken into account in the three segments of a RSC (procurement, production, and distribution)?; and ‘How’ can these conditions be satisfied?

Exploitation scenarios in industrial system LCA

PurposeThis paper considers the variabilities that exist in the exploitation of a complex industrial system. Our scenario-based LCA model ensures the reliability of results in situations where the system life cycle is very uncertain, where there is substantial lack of data, and/or where time and resources available are limited. It is also an effective tool to generate exploitation recommendations for clients.MethodsExisting quantitative uncertainty methods in LCA require a huge amount of accurate data. These data are rarely available in simplified and upstream LCA for complex industrial systems. A scenario-based approach is the best compromise between acceptable quality of results and resources required. However, such methods have not yet been proposed to improve the environmental knowledge of the system in the case of exploitation scenarios. The method proposed here considers a limited number of scenarios (three or four) that are defined using the Stanford Research Institute matrix. Using results from past projects, relevant parts of the system are listed, and expert knowledge and parameters are associated with these parts and quantified. A classical LCA process then provides the results for the different scenarios.Results and discussionThe method was applied to an Alstom Grid AC/DC conversion substation for the primary aluminum industry. A previous study had limited scope, as the life cycle was poorly understood. Relevant parts were, thus, clearly identified as follows: spare parts program, transport failures, preventive and corrective maintenance, updates and revampings, lifetime modulation, and end-of-life. Four scenarios were considered as follows: best case, worst case, baseline (expected future), and a highly different alternative. Results show the pertinence of considering several exploitation scenarios when the life cycle is not predictable, as the environmental impacts may vary widely from one case to another. A sensitivity analysis also shows that some relevant parts such as updates and revampings will need to be carefully considered in futures studies.ConclusionsThe consideration of three exploitation scenarios (best case, baseline, and worst case) appears to be extremely pertinent when considering simplified LCA of industrial systems with high uncertainties and limited time and resources. This model is also very useful to generate good practice and recommendations towards clients, thus initiating a dialog centered on eco-design and continuous improvement.

A Simplified Model to Include Dynamic Product‐User Interaction in the Eco‐Design Process

For many modern products, the use phase is intensive and poses a serious environmental impact because of the energy and resources consumed. This could be resolved by optimizing the products environmental impact by improving the understanding of the users’ relationship with it. In this work, we propose a model that can be used to include the use phase and the eco�?oriented strategies in the environmental impact assessment of a product. This model takes into account the changing nature of the interactions between the user and the product over time. An indicator designated mitigation rate is introduced to help model this change. It acknowledges the loss in performance of eco�?oriented strategies over time. This work presents the methodology to understand, model, and select among different eco�?oriented strategies with different time frames. A case study is also presented, where four alternative models considering different eco�?oriented strategies are shown and compared.

Modifying module boundaries to design remanufacturable products: the modular grouping explorer tool

A major challenge of the current decade is rationalising the consumption of all our material and energy resources to encourage a sustainable economy. One of the solutions for achieving these objectives is remanufacturing; however, this end-of-life option has to be optimised. End-of-life solutions currently proposed in the literature aim to identify the best end-of-life option for the architecture of given products; they may also use an algorithm to optimise the disassembly sequence or group components according to end-of-life options. None of these methods explicitly proposes a total redefinition of the architecture, adapting this to sustainable ends of life by increasing the proportion of remanufacturable and recyclable modules. The method proposed in this paper makes it possible to identify remanufacturable and recyclable modules using criteria of cost and environmental impact; the method groups together remanufacturable and recyclable modules using criteria of reliability and obsolescence, and redefines the perimeters of such modules. This approach is tested on a case study (expresso machine); the study highlights the advantages of such an approach (the exhaustive exploration of product architectures while redefining module frontiers) as well as its limitations.

Managing the Complexity of Environmental Assessments of Complex Industrial Systems with a Lean 6 Sigma Approach

The integration of environmental concerns into the product design process has highlighted a new problem that arises when confronted with complex systems. Indeed environmental assessment methodologies like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) become in this case particularly heavy to implement. Considering aluminium electrolysis substations as a complex industrial system, we propose a new eco-design methodology based on a Lean Six Sigma approach. Including the environmental parameter as the fourth dimension of the Quality, Costs, Time triangle this methodology has the advantage to cover and systematize the entire eco-design process. It answers to most of the limits raised in our study and allows managing a part of the complexity that appears in particular during the goal and scope definition and the inventory phases of LCA. An application of aluminium electrolysis substations is mentioned.

Constraint based approach for the steady-state simulation of complex systems: Application to ship control

When the steady states are largely predominant with respect to transitional phases, steady-state simulation seems sufficient to predict the behavior of a complex system. Over the past 20 years, different modeling languages and dedicated tools have been developed to improve steady state simulation. In this paper, focus is made on steady-state simulation for system control and design. A model combining an emission sub-model with a ship propulsion sub-model was implemented in a constraint programming (CP) approach. It will help to determine the efficiency (i.e. the ability to model and solve the problem) and complexity of implementation (i.e. difficulties encountered during the implementation) of this approach. First, requirements for the steady-state simulation of complex systems are defined. Then, CP approach is shown to be able to answer these issues through experiments. This approach is then compared to one of the main simulation languages: Modelica. Although the two approaches (i.e Modelica and CP) are able to reverse models, the study shows that the use of Modelica principles for steady-state simulation involves some crippling limitations, such as the non-management of under/over-constrained systems, or inequalities. This study also shows that the constraint programming approach permits to meet some needs for steady-state simulation not yet covered by current approaches.

Proposition for an adapted management process to evolve from an unsupervised Life Cycle Assessment of complex industrial systems towards an eco-designing organisation

The integration of environmental concerns into the product design process is not trivial when dealing with complex industrial systems. Actually, environmental assessment methodologies like Life Cycle Assessments reach, in this case, methodological and organisational limits. More generally, the complexity inherent in the design process may put off eco-design initiatives from a lack of organisational management, methods and tools. In this article, we propose a project management methodology to facilitate the integration of eco-design into the design process of complex industrial systems. This methodology is based on continuous improvement and a Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) process. It is then structured around precise team definition, precise milestones, deliverables and phases. A first stage ensures a reliable environmental assessment of the full system and the identification of environmental improvement projects. A second stage allows the independent execution of the most promising improvement projects. A first application is proposed on the Alstom Grid AC/DC (alternative current/direct current) conversion substations for the aluminium industry. A Life Cycle Assessment has been performed with limited resources and has provided rich findings and promising perspectives. It shows in particular that the best environmental configuration of such a complex industrial system depends on external parameters like the implantation site.

Modular Grouping Exploration to design Remanufacturable Products

One of the challenges of this decade is to rationalize the consumption of global resources while increasing economic activity. Remanufacturing is an option to this challenge; however this end of life strategy must be optimized. The information collected from a franking machine manufacturer, which has set up a refurbishment activity of its machines, has allowed us to qualify remanufacturing as a home-made process in many cases. This paper focuses on aspects of product Architecture. The purpose of the approach proposed in this paper is to reorganize the classical architectures towards modular architectures allowing a much more industrialized remanufacturing.