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2001
Conference Paper
Titel
Elimination of end-of-life cost through a standardised simultaneous design methodology for SME supply chains (ElectSME)
Abstract
Current and pending legislation in the EU and its member states as well as the environmental awareness of customers are forcing manufacturers to assume end-of-life (EOL) responsibility for their products. This is often done by forcing them to take back out-of-use products. This is not simply and EU issue, as even world-wide, more attention is being placed on the waste from technical products at EOL. The move towards forcing the producer to be responsible for the EOL impact of their products is a major concern for the whole manufacturing industry, as manufacturers are unsure how it will finance this responsibility, paricularly with regard to the cost of disposal and recycling. However, economical recycling can be the ultimate incentive for companies to support Circular Economies. Product design, intended to minimize recycling cost and generate EOL value, requires the simultaneous optimisation of the entire product, including the numerous components and modules from suppliers, which are mainly SMEs. First generation Design for Recycling (DFR) solutions, such as the TOPROCO software, show significant shortcomings. These deficiencies have resulted in a very low degree of adoption within manufacturing industry. ElectSME, a three year European Commission funded research project, has the mandate to identify and address these deficiencies. This paper summarized the findings and efforts of ElectSME. The project endeavours to demonstrate the potential economic benefit to manufacturing supply chains of properly designed products for EOL. A key objective of this project is to deliver a software tool that can be applied in the daily routine of a designer.