Nozomu Mishima

A Basic Study on the Effectiveness of Counterplans to Promote Take-back of Mobile Phones

In Japan, the next targets of recycling can be small sized home appliances. It is said that those products may contain considerable amount of rare metals and rare earths. Although social experiments to discuss a new legislation are ongoing, the results suggested the collection rate will be very low without counterplans to promote take-back. The paper discusses counterplans to enhance take-back. It also estimates customers’ acceptances of the plans, based on a questionnaire. By comparing the tendencies, the paper tries to evaluate the effectiveness of the plans. Finally, it proposes a strategic way to increase material recovery from mobile phones.

Service Shares for Microfactory to Ensure Industrial Product-Service Systems

Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS²) are promising approaches to realize different customer requirements. The built-up Microfactory is a result of a cooperation of Japanese research institutes and will be focused in this paper. The paper identifies two categories of relevant service shares for the Microfactory. The general service shares for Microfactory cover basic requirements. These distinguish general service shares form complex service shares to fulfill customer specific requirements. Examples for both categories of service shares for Microfactory, are presented. Finally different scenarios can be described under consideration of specific selection of general and complex service shares to fulfill customer requirements.

Combined Design of a Compact Production System and Services for Sustainability

The authors former research group developed a desktop-size and distributed production system named Micorfactory. Microfactory consisted of 5 compact machines and was capable to fabricate small parts with sufficient accuracies. Since its introduction 13 years ago, various machines to fulfill the different tasks covered by the Microfactory have been developed. However, promotion of systematic innovation of the services utilizing micorfactory concept has been insufficient. The paper first identifies potential services that can be combined with the Micorfactory, considering potential advantages of the microfactory-like compact production system. Although these business models with conventional manufacturing systems are not unique, the service can be distinguished in case of microfactories regarding its on-demand and on-site characteristics. It also enhances the sustainability of the manufacturing industries. To clarify the advantage of these combinations of compact systems with services, the paper shows an example. Finally, the paper concludes that services combined with micorfactories are the promising areas to enhance sustainability of production.

Evaluation of Resource Efficiency of Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Recently, resource efficiency is one of the high concerns in industrialized and developing countries. High resource efficiency is considered to be key of sustainable production. This paper proposes an index to evaluate resource efficiency of a small-sized electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). The index has value of the product based on the functionality, product reusability, and component reusability, as the numerator. And it has the total amount of material consumption measured by TMR (total material requirement) minus recoverable environmental impact as the denominator. The paper carries out practical measurement of the material compositions of different models of smartphones. Then, it investigates the functional data in order to calculate actual resource efficiency value. Through this effort, the paper indicates the effectiveness of the proposed index and clarifies criteria of resource-efficient products.

Concept Proposal and Feasibility Study of Remote Recycling: Separation Characteristics and Cost-Profit Analysis

Management of used electronics is an emerging problem in all over the world. In order to utilize the valuable metals contained in used electronic equipment, efficient system for recycling is necessary. The authors have proposed a concept of “remote recycling” which is to carry out separation of valuable metals by teleoperation. As the first step of the feasibility study, rough crushing and visual separation of particles were carried out. By measuring compositions of the particles, it was shown that only by rough crushing and handpicking, the percentages of metals were much higher than printed circuit board (PCB) itself. The experimental results showed that remote recycling is technically feasible. The study also tried some cost-profit analysis based on the prices of metals contained in the selected particles and showed economical feasibility of the concept. Finally, the study concluded that remote recycling will be a totally new and promising concept which is suitable for handling used small-sized electronics.

Analysis of Disassembly Characteristics and PSS Proposal by Component Reuse of Mobile Phones

In Japan, the annual number of used smartphones is rapidly increasing. Such used smartphones often outflow to overseas, and domestic material recycling system will be endangered, if smartphones become dominant in the recycling market. Component reuse (remanufacturing) is a hopeful way to extract larger value from used products. In focusing on component reuse, the paper carries out disassembly experiments to know the bottlenecks of disassembly. The paper proposed design improvement plans and also proposed conceptual PSS (product service system) ideas. It concluded that component reuse of used mobile phones can be a good way to bridge the gap between product reuse and material recycling.

A study on manufacturing services utilizing a compact production set-up

The Microfactory developed by AIST is the origin of modern compact and distributed production set-up, which ensure a flexible combination of different manufacturing tasks. Since its introduction 13 years ago, various machine tools to satisfy the different tasks covered by the Microfactory have been developed. However, practical business ideas utilizing Microfactory features are insufficient. The paper first briefly describes the design of the Microfatory. Then, identifies relevant services considering its flexible, on-site and safety properties. It can also enhance the energy and the resource efficiency of the manufacturing industries. In order to get ideas of manufacturing services, the paper analyzes the lifecycle phases of IPS2 with corresponding features. Finally, the paper concludes that manufacturing services featuring the Microfactory is one of the promising areas in future production.

A Study on an Evaluation Method of Eco-efficiency of a Diamond Coating Process

Since one of the most important goals of sustainable manufacturing is to obtain high eco-efficiency. One of the authors has proposed a new eco-efficiency type index called “total performance indicator (TPI).” In order to evaluate TPI of manufacturing processes, an evaluation method of manufacturing quality is indispensable. Diamond coatings to substrates are important manufacturing processes having wide varieties of applications. The developed coating process can be carried out by using compact and low cost set-up. In the paper, the authors use the new diamond coating process for a case study. Throughout the evaluation of the quality characteristics, costs and environmental impacts of the process, the paper tries to say that the new diamond coating process can be an eco-efficient method.

A Proposal on a Method for Multi-Criteria Decision-Making of Eco-Business Options

Eco-businesses that satisfy environmental consciousness and high quality of life simultaneously can be the keys to establish a sustainable society. However, since eco-businesses have at least 2 criteria, environmental and economical aspects, it is sometimes difficult to overcome the trade-offs and determine a proper business strategy. In this paper, a method proposed by the authors and named Total Performance Analysis (TPA) is applied to evaluate business options. Although there is a conflict between 2 well-known indexes, ‘eco-efficiency’ and ‘value per cost,’ the paper shows the newly proposed index can adjust the conflict through the case study. The paper tries to conclude that the TPA is a suitable method for decision-making of eco-business under multi-criteria, not only because it can evaluate environmental and economical aspects both, but also because it can model rise and fall of products’ values throughout life cycles. Such feature of the TPA is important to simulate the effects of business options properly combined with products.