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In the Industry 4.0 era, cyber physical manufacturing systems (CPPS) has started to change activities of manufacturing system engineers into CPS based ones. In typical Japanese factories, manufacturing system engineers are always stationed at the shop floor and continuously improve manufacturing systems with workers. For supporting such engineers’ activities, we are developing the concept of ‘Digital Triplet’ as an extension of Digital Twin. Digital Triplet consists of intelligent activity world in addition to the cyber world and the physical world and supports manufacturing system engineers in developing engineering processes with the cyber and physical worlds. Based on this, we are developing an education program. In this paper, we first describe the concept of Digital Triplet. Next, after explaining the overview of the education program, we introduce a course in which trainees (mainly novice engineers) execute ‘Kaizen’ with a prototype CPS system of a learning factory.

There is a strong need to address climate change issues by mobilizing a variety of technologies, including renewable energy technologies. In this paper, we focus on photovoltaic (PV) technology because solar cells or PV panels are already popular in many countries, mainly incentivized by a feed-in tariff (FIT) program and low production cost. However, it is difficult to accurately predict future PV installation capacity for a region because of a variety of uncertainties, such as national energy policies and consumers’ lifestyles. Taking such uncertainties into account, this paper takes a scenario design approach to analyze future PV deployment, thereby helping to examine policy implications and offering appropriate actions. A case study of Japan’s PV deployment scenarios up to 2030 is presented here. Four distinct future situations are assumed, with particular focus on technological advancement and national share of nuclear energy. The results show that solar power generation in 2030 could account for 3.4%–7.4% of the national electricity demand.

We have proposed Local Oriented Manufacturing (LOMan) as a concept to encourage designers to focus on locality at manufacturing and use stages, especially in developing countries. We have also proposed Local Oriented Manufacturing Map (LOMmap) as a method of knowledge representation of influences from locality and requirements for a design object to mitigate the influences, in order to support design for LOMan. This paper illustrates a case study of the application of LOMmap for clarifying its advantages and issues. We here take a refrigerator in Vietnam as an example. First, we investigated a usage situation of refrigerators at ordinary houses in Vietnam. Second, we made a LOMmap from the investigation. Initial information on the product in LOMmap is made from a refrigerator for Japan. Then, we experimentally designed a new refrigerator with the LOMmap so as to satisfy the requirements for Vietnam that the LOMmap indicates. As a result, since LOMmap mainly focuses on the relationship between an existing product and the locality, the designed product tends to be a minor modification of the existing product. In order to solve this problem, we propose to utilize the information on differences of actions in daily life in different areas. Actions to achieve a task (e.g., cleaning a house) in daily life vary depending on different circumstances (e.g., house) in different areas, and this is a typical expression of the locality.

In response to diversified needs in the market, the manufacturing industry is required to provide more user-oriented products and services than ever. In order to satisfy such needs, much attention has been paid to personalization, which, in this paper, refers to the process of designing, manufacturing, and providing different products and services for each individual user. There are key enablers to foster personalization because of technological advancement. Since personalization is considered an approach to prolonging the value lifetime of a product and minimizing resource input, it should be further discussed in the field of lifecycle engineering. To realize personalization, a methodology to design such products is essential. We call such design as “Personalization design.” The goal of this research is to develop a theory for personalized design. In this paper, we propose the concept of personalization in the context of product and service design including a life cycle perspective. We firstly show examples of personalization and their characteristics as context, target phase and participation. This is followed by a presentation of the concept of personalization. Then, we show how the actual personalized design system was designed through a case study on designing equipment for rehabilitation hospital. In this case, participation of multi-stakeholder has a great influence on a design solution. Finally, we discuss the future direction of design research for personalization.

We are studying “Local Oriented Manufacturing” (LOMan) as an approach for achieving social sustainability. LOMan is the concept to focus on the locality of manufacturing and use stages in design and manufacturing. For example, the usage of energy saving technology in developed countries to products for developing countries may lead to a win-win situation. The objective of this research is to propose a design methodology for LOMan. As the first step, this paper clarifies the issues of the design methodology by executing a field survey and case studies. The case studies compare refrigerators and vacuum cleaners in Malaysia and those in Japan. Then, based on these results, this paper proposes a method of knowledge representation for supporting the LOMan design. The method represents situations and circumstances of the product life cycle, a product, and influence of the situation to the product design by using value chain, product information model, and checklist, respectively. The method represents requirements for the LOMan design by the relationship among these three items.

Combination of long product lifetime and recycling is effective for reducing material use. However, in the case of products that uses energy in their use phase, early replacement of old products with new energy efficient products may contribute to reduction of lifecycle CO 2 emission. In the previous studies, we proposed a formula to calculate optimum circulation period (OCP) of the products based on the improvement of energy efficiency. The formula was applied to the products produced in 1991-2000. This paper calculates the OCP of the latest products and analyzes the effect of rapid circulation of products. As a result, OCP and RCP effects are different from the previous studies, because characteristics of latest products are different from products of 1991-2000. Especially, OCP of Hybrid Electric Vehicles excesses three times than the normal product life span. Special case of rapid circulation between different type products, such as Gasoline Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles was effective for CO 2 emission reduction.

This paper proposes a computer-aided design method for semi-destructive disassembly with split lines. This method aims at extracting reusable, recyclable, or hazardous components more efficiently than manual disassembly with higher quality than shredding. The split line is a shape feature of a product that enables to destruct the product into desired shape, like pull tabs of cans. The proposed method aids a designer in adding proper split lines to extract target components. A case study showed that the semi-destructive disassembly sequence of an air conditioner with the split lines reduces the number of steps needed for extracting a target component.

An important process for the reuse and recycling of end of life products is their disassembly. In general, manual disassembly is a labor intensive and costly process. Especially, removing fasteners takes time and cost. For solving this problem, this paper proposes a design method for the partial dismantling of products with split-lines, which are added to the products at the design phase and enable to destruct the products along the line in order to extract target components. This method supports a designer in determining the location of split-lines by using the geometric model of the product. A case study shows that the dismantling of a LCD TV with split-lines reduces the number of manual operations needed for extracting target components.

In order to adapt to or overcome the difficulties Japan’s manufacturing industry is facing today, drawing normative future visions of sustainable manufacturing is required. The future is undeterminable, so the future visions cannot be fixed. Therefore, in order to draw visions of sustainable manufacturing of Japan, our research group has developed its Sustainable Manufacturing Scenario using the backcasting method. Here, a scenario is a set of stories detailing several future visions and transition paths toward them. Backcasting is a method of developing a scenario, one in which ideal future visions are developed, and then transition paths from the visions back to the present are drawn. To quantify and evaluate the future visions, we propose a model called SISA (Scenario-based Industrial Structure Analysis), which is based on Input-Output (I-O) tables. An I-O table quantitatively represents final consumption and transactions among industrial branches of a specific region in a specific period. In the SISA model, the I-O table representing future industry is given from the present I-O table, and several parameters reflect the hypotheses set in the scenario. Our research group has developed five different future visions of Japanese manufacturing industries. We set three future targets: GDP, employment, and CO2. The visions are quantified on the SISA model and investigated as to whether they achieve the future targets or not. Based on this analysis, we have concluded that drastic technological change is required to achieve the CO2target, and cooperation with service manufacturing is important if the employment target is to be met.

Life cycle design is a promising approach for introducing efficient resource circulation. In such design, there are difficulties in balancing demand and supply for resources throughout product life cycles. For the resource balance, it is important to design a product life cycle focusing on individual products and their parts, since they change their states diversely and flow along different circulation paths through their life cycles. This paper proposes a modelling method for the individual products and parts in addition to its design information. The design information is the nominal information of the product specified by designers. To achieve this, this paper defines three models; hierarchical structure model, life cycle flow model, and entity information model. Hierarchical structure model represents design information of a product. Life cycle flow model represents a network of processes included in product life cycles. Entity information model represents information of individual products and parts. The information indicates when each product and part flows along which circulation paths in which state. With this information, this method represents resource balance throughout product life cycles. Moreover, this study employs life cycle simulation technique to derive the entity information model from the hierarchical structure model and life cycle flow model. We demonstrate the proposed modelling method via its application to a smart phone in a case study.

To solve problems underlying design and manufacturing we often rely on methodologies of computational intelligence such as machine learning, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, fuzzy inference systems and smart optimization algorithms. In this Special Issue of the International Journal of Automation Technology, original articles are presented with reference to the engagement of intelligent computation in diverse application areas of design and manufacturing, including manufacturing process monitoring, manufacturing systems management, scheduling, design theory and methodology. The six research papers in this Special Issue propose the use of intelligent computation methodologies to deal with various topics related to manufacturing and design. In particular, the first three papers focus on manufacturing process monitoring with reference to different manufacturing technologies, including tool wear monitoring in drilling of composite materials, sensor monitoring in CNC turning and residual stress prediction in welding. Diverse intelligent approaches such as artificial neural networks and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems are proposed to support manufacturing process monitoring. The fourth paper deals with the manufacturing system level, proposing the employment of a solution algorithm combining metaheuristics and operation simulation for scheduling of production processes. The fifth paper aims at developing tools to guide the manufacturers to manage the technology investment and cost saving target for customer satisfaction based on the application of internet of things. The last paper proposes a methodology to support the introduction of customer requirements in product and service design via a decision support system which exploits artificial intelligence algorithms (machine learning) based on inductive inference, allowing knowledge related to product/service to be mapped, structured and managed to design the service and product semantic model. The editors deeply appreciate all the authors and anonymous reviewers for their effort and excellent work to make this Special Issue unique. We hope that future research on intelligent computation in manufacturing and design will advance manufacturing technology and systems as well as design methodologies.

Differences in legislation and markets for recycled materials result in the national implementation of distinct end-of-life treatment strategies. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the boundary conditions in Belgium and Japan that cause the adoption of diverse treatment strategies for the rapidly increasing number of end-of-life flat screen TVs. In addition, both treatment strategies are evaluated from an ecological and economic perspective and opportunities for improvement are identified. © 2013 CIRP.

Developing a reliable forecasting process is a crucial step for optimization of the overall planning process of product remanufacturing. This study examined the effectiveness of demand forecasting in remanufacturing by time series analysis (Holt-Winters model), product lifetime model (Weibull distribution), and incorporation of the two methods. To verify the effectiveness, the actual data of the time series of the sales of remanufactured alternators of an independent remanufacturer was used. For the forecasting over a year, the results provided average errors of 35.3% for Holt-Winters model, 42.2% for Weibull distribution, and 29.3% for the incorporated model. The results indicate the forecasting accuracy can improve by appropriately incorporating different methods. The results, implications, and future steps are discussed.

Due to the rapid expansion of information and communication technology (ICT) usage, the telecommunications industry is faced with a challenge to promote green ICT toward achieving a low-carbon society. One critical obstacle in planning long-term strategies for green ICT is the uncertainty of various external factors, such as consumers’ lifestyle and technological advancement. To tackle this issue, this paper employs a scenario planning method to analyze electricity consumption in the telecommunications industry, where both changes in various external factors and energy-saving measures are assumed. We propose a model to estimate future electricity consumption of the telecommunications industry using a statistical approach. In a case study, we describe four scenarios that differ in the diffusion of ICT and the technological advancement of ICT equipment in order to analyze the electricity consumption in Japan’s telecommunications industry to 2030. The results reveal that the electricity consumption in 2030 becomes 0.7–1.6-times larger than the 2012 level (10.7 TWh/year). It is also shown that the most effective measures to reduce the electricity consumption include improving the energy efficiency of IP (Internet Protocol) communication equipment and mobile communication equipment.

Growing numbers of promising visions of the future and scenarios that may lead toward building sustainable societies are being developed. At the same time, advanced technologies and research seeds that could increase the likelihood of achieving such visions are also being rigorously conceived. Even so, we face challenges and barriers in achieving these visions due to large gaps between individual technology seeds and shared visions. In this paper we propose a “vision-meso-seeds” model as a practical framework for addressing sustainability transition and demonstrate meso level research whose primary aim is to design a matching of promising seeds at the micro level and societal visions at the macro level, facilitating an achievement of the set visions with quantified targets. In particular we highlight the importance of matching various strategies and measures derived from the top-down (vision-oriented) approach and bottom-up (seeds-oriented) approach in the meso level research. We argue that the meso level research shall constitute one of the emerging core fields in sustainability science and suggest that accumulation of knowledge through case studies be needed to enhance and verify theory, specific methods and approach necessary for advancing the meso level research in the context of sustainability science.

In product life cycle design, a designer should design both a product and its life cycle. Although CAD systems for product design are popular, there are no CAD systems for life cycle design. This paper proposes LC-CAD (Life Cycle-CAD) that represents a product and its life cycle in an integrated manner, manages consistency between these two models, and describes changes of a product along its life cycle ( e.g. , a component is shredded into fragments of metal in a recycling process). LC-CAD also evaluates environmental, economic, and other performance of designed life cycle using life cycle simulation.

Life cycle engineering (LCE) is a key concept for promoting environmentally sustainable practices among manufacturing firms. A major hurdle in the implementation of LCE is the lack of a systematic and strategic method to design or plan an entire product life cycle. To address this issue, this keynote provides a framework for life cycle development and proposes the concept of life cycle planning. This paper aims to provide explicit and systematic methodologies for life cycle planning by reviewing this research area. Practical cases that employ life cycle planning are also illustrated. Finally, some research directions are suggested.

Ecodesign plays one of the most important roles in manufacturing sectors towards a sustainable society. As a practical tool of ecodesign, manufactures often use checklists to support product design as well as to obtain eco-label certification. However, current checklists are insufficient due to undetermined effects of individual requirements in the checklists on environmental impact. This paper proposes a method for supporting ecodesign assessment by developing a weighted checklist, where potential environmental improvements in each requirement are derived based on the life cycle simulation. In the case study involving a digital duplicator, the proposed method successfully identified requirements that needed to be improved. When suggested improvements were applied, 8% of total CO2 emissions were estimated to be reduced.

Modular design is an important elemental technique in life cycle design. Modularity may increase maintainability, upgradability, and so on. Appropriate modular structure differs according to applied life cycle options; e.g., while the modular structure for recycling should be based on material kinds, the structure for upgrading should be based on functions to be obsolete. This paper proposes a modular design methodology that derives modular structures flexibly depending on applied life cycle options by utilizing the attributes of components and geometric model. The components are classified into some groups according to the similarity of attributes and the geometric information is employed to derive a geometrically feasible modular structure within the group. This paper also illustrates the prototype system that implements the proposed method and a case study of a printer.

Although modular design is a key technique for lifecycle design, effectiveness of modularity on environmental consciousness is not clear. This paper proposes an evaluation method of modular product from the viewpoint of resource efficiency. First, a product is modularized by applying our modularization method based on its lifecycle scenario. Second, the modular structure is evaluated by assuming that each module goes through preferable lifecycle paths (e.g., upgrading, reuse, and closed-loop recycling) designated by the scenario but unmodularized components go through unpreferable paths. This paper also illustrates a case study in order to discuss effectiveness of the proposed method.

Although the life cycle engineering aims at ‘sustainability’, its image is still unclear. While various scenarios have been proposed for this purpose, their rationality and assumptions are not clearly described because they are just documents referring some simulation results. For analyzing and composing the scenarios, this paper proposes the framework of ‘Sustainable Society Scenario (3S) Simulator’ and a methodology for structural representation of scenarios. This paper also demonstrates a prototype system and its structural representation of the IPCC scenario. The representation clarified the basic structure of this scenario and highlighted a set of assumptions as the base of this scenario.

Modular design is an important elemental technique in life cycle design for improving, e.g., maintainability, upgradability, reusability, and recyclability. Appropriate modular structure differs according to applied life cycle options; e.g., while the modular structure for recycling should be based on material kinds, the structure for upgrading should be based on functions to be obsolete. This paper proposes a method for determining modular structure by aggregating various attributes related to a product life cycle and evaluating geometric feasibility of modules. This paper also illustrates the prototype system that implements the proposed method and a case study of a printer.

While reuse is an effective lifecycle option in terms of reduction of environmental loads and value of reutilization, reuse has inherent difficulties. Our naive question is why component reuse of home appliances seems impossible while that of photocopiers succeeded. This paper clarifies an essential factor for successful reuse; that is, the balance between supply and demand of reusables, and proposes an index named ‘marginal reuse rate,’ which indicates upper limit of reusability. By using this index, reusability of several products is analyzed. The marginal reuse rate indicates that design of lifecycle, in addition to product design, is indispensable for successful reuse.

Extending product life is one of the hopeful approaches to reduce the environmental issue, which is one of the most critical issues of today. However, many products are thrown away because of obsolescence of functions and their performance. Therefore, we should design products to be functionally upgradable. Moreover, such upgradable products may create business chances at later stages of product life cycles. The objective of this research is to propose a design methodology for upgradability. This methodology employs a functional modeling scheme, FBS modeling, because upgrade design is a distinctive application of functional design that aims at maximizing functional flexibility with minimal structural changes after the product is manufactured. Here, the functional flexibility refers to an ability of a product to adapt its functions to changes of user needs. This paper proposes and models design processes and design operations in the upgrade design. Especially, the methodology supports finding out candidates of modifications of the function structure and configuration of a platform, which is common structure of a product among several generations, and upgrade modules. One of its central issues of upgrade design is treatment of future uncertainty. For this purpose, we propose two design strategies: delayed selection of components, and expanding and shrinking platform. A prototype system and a case study of upgrade design for a vacuum cleaner are also illustrated. The case study indicates that the system succeeded in systematically supporting a designer to execute the design methodology. Regarding the functional design, as an extension of FBS modeling, this paper proposes a method to relate abstract entity concepts in FBS modeling to concrete components through a quantitative behavior model and range calculation, in addition to deployment of FBS modeling for the design methodology.

Knowledge intensive engineering aims at flexible applications of a variety of product life cycle knowledge, such as design, manufacturing, operations, maintenance, and recycling. Many engineering domain theories are organized and embedded within CAD and CAE tools and engineering activities can be formalized as modeling operations to them. Since most of domain theories deal with the physical world and can be associated with physical concepts, a physical concept ontology can form a common ontology to integrate engineering models that are formed based on domain theories. This paper reports a physical ontology-based support system for knowledge intensive engineering called Knowledge Intensive Engineering Framework (KIEF) to integrate multiple engineering models and to allow more flexible use of them. First, the paper describes the physical ontology as the core of KIEF and an ontology-based reasoning system, called a pluggable metamodel mechanism, to integrate and maintain relationships among these models. The pluggable metamodel mechanism uses a metamodel that represents the designer's mental model about a design object as a concept network model. The designer builds and decomposes a functional hierarchy from functional specifications with an FBS (Function-Behavior-State) modeler. He/She then maps the functional hierarchy into a metamodel using physical features that are building blocks for conceptual design. Then, the pluggable metamodel mechanism enriches the information contained in the metamodel by using causal dependency knowledge about the physical world and by building and analyzing various engineering models. We demonstrate the power of KIEF by illustrating a design case performed on KIEF.

To achieve sustainability, resource consumption and waste generation must be drastically decreased. For societal acceptance, preservation of both quality of life and corporate profits are essential. One promising approach is to shift the source of value from the amount of product sold to the quality of services the product provides. This paper describes the need for redesigning recycling systems from a manufacturing perspective and then discusses the possibility of this "servicification" of products, describing our experience with prototype development. We discuss development of product prototypes and their business, using consumer facsimile machines as an example of "service-oriented products". Traditional thought presumes that only products comprising new materials and components are valuable. Consideration of a service-oriented product can serve as a stimulus to revise this mode of thought and to control delivery and quality of disposed products. This paper also provides a life cycle simulation of the developed service-oriented business. Simulation results indicate that service-oriented business can potentially reduce environmental impact while extending business opportunities from the viewpoint of whole product life cycles.

To experiment the feasibility of "flexible machines, " we build a cellular-type machine consisting of distributed autonomous intelligent units. However, it is difficult for a cellular-type machine to exhibit cooperstive behavior of many autonomous units. In this paper, we propose a method for cooperation of cellular-type machines with an example of a "Cellular Automatic Warehouse."

Environmentally conscious design support systems need to help multiple designers to clarify variety and complicated requirements over the product life cycle in early design stages. To build such an environmentally conscious design support framework, requirement-centered design information structure and requirement clarification process which is called the ReqC (RequirementCentered) model was proposed in the preliminary report. In this paper, the GLC (Green Life-Cycle) model based on the ReqC model has been developed for supporting multiple designers to understand their design discussion in which product requirements are considered over the product life cycle. The Green Browser system is implemented in Java and CORBA based on these models. The system has been applied to an actual design session during environmentally conscious design. An Interview to designers proved the system to be useful for them.

Environmental consciousness has been widely recognized as an indispensable requirement for product design. Requirements of the environmentally conscious product are more varied and complicated rather than those of a conventional product. In clarifying variety and complicated requirements, environmental consciousness has to be considered effectively in the early design stage. Systems that support environmentally conscious design, therefore, need to be based on models of clarification process of requirements by multiple designers over a product life cycle. The ReqC (Requirement-Centered) model for basic information structure and process of environmentally conscious design has been developed, which is based on observations and analysis of how designers make decisions about requirements during design meetings. This paper proposes the ReqC model, which consists of two submodels, i.e., the ReqDIS (Requirement-centered Design Information Structure) model for design information structure and the ReqCP (Requirement-Centered Process) model for convergent/divergent design process.