Date of Award

1996

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering (MSMANFE)

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

First Advisor

Geoffery Boothroyd

Abstract

Government pressure, increased consumer awareness, and decreasing landfill space are affecting manufacturers. As product take-back becomes the norm, manufacturers will need tools to help them deal with end of life products.

Environmental policies are changing. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and other countries are forming partnership strategies with manufacturers, aiming for resource management and eco-development. "Green" products and product reclamation are important parts of these programs.

Designing for disassembly can be profitable, but needs planning. Tools exist for determining economically optimized and environmentally optimized disassembly sequences for end of life products. However, there is a lack of a system that balances between a financial and environmental optimization. Such a sequence would be useful should government regulations come into existence which would financially penalize manufacturers for the amount of environmental pollutants they release or for companies that want to be environmentally friendly while at the same time fiscally sound.

The goal of the present work was to create an improved disassembly sequence optimization procedure. This new procedure will maximize environmental and financial returns. Suggestions for a factor correlating environmental damage units and monetary units are discussed.

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