Using PLM for managing substance regulations and meeting recyclability targets

1. Using PLM for managing substance regulations and meeting recyclability targets Dr. Deba Dutta Professor of Mechanical Engineering Director, PLM Alliance University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2. Frequently in the news… “(EPA) officials … were moving to impose stricter requirements in the 1991 lead and copper regulations starting next year, because of problems with lead in drinking water in Washington, D.C.” - A move towards stricter lead monitoring The New York Times (8th Mar 2005) “Over 130,000 PCs are replaced every day in America alone, and only a tenth or so are recycled…” - Recycling old computers The Economist(27th Jan 2005)

3. Life cycle of a product Source: [White, et. al.] Journal of Cleaner Production

4. Presentation Overview • Emergence of product end-of-life related regulations • Trends and concerns for industry • The EOL research project • A systems approach within the PLM framework • Some initial results • Summary

5. Environmental concerns @ EOL Increased waste due to abandoned products • Hazardous/toxic substances • Five pounds of lead in every CRT monitor • 30mg of Hg in every fluorescent tube (4ft) • Halogenated flame retardants in plastics • Lost resources • Est. loss of resources from electrical equipment waste in Europe in 1988: • 2.4 million tonnes of ferrous metal • 1.2 million tonnes of plastic • 652,000 tonnes of copper Data from 12 Samsung recycling centers in Korea (www.samsung.com)

6. Environmental concerns @ EOL • Expensive recycling or disposal • Need for specialised processes • Variety of products – no economies of scale • High costs of safe disposal • Decreasing landfill space • Stringent legal requirements - Expensive to build safe landfills • Close-down of “unsafe” landfills • NIMBY (not in my back yard)

7. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) • Transfer of financial (sometimes operational) responsibility of EOL treatment to producers • Targets for recovery and recycling • Bans/Restrictions on the use of hazardous substances

8. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) • Laws and Regulations • Europe – ELV, WEEE, RoHS • USA – RCRA • Japan – SHARL, Waste Treatment Law • Taiwan – Resource Recycling and Reuse Act, Waste Disposal Act • Voluntary/Co-regulatory schemes • Australia & NZ - Product Stewardship For Oil Program, National Packaging Covenant • Canada – AB Fluorescent Bulb and Computer Recycling Program

9. EPR – What is at stake ? Big money! • Costs for compliance • American electronics industry estimates for WEEE compliance - $140 to $900 million • European estimates for compliance with ELV Directive - €20 to €150 per vehicle • Penalties for non-compliance • In December 2001, Dutch officials seized more than 1.3 million imported Playstations - excess cadmium in the console's cables

10. In Taiwan – What is at stake ? • Taiwan electronics industry • Annual exports to EU – US $8 billion • 30 thousand companies • 5% WEEE compliant • 3% RoHS compliant • Directives come into force in 2006 • Taiwan auto component suppliers • automotive ignition modules, alternator components, voltage regulators, rectifiers, and diodes, lamps, locks, switches • Supply to local industry, China, after-parts in Europe/US

11. EPR – trends by industry • Electronics/Home Appliances Industry • WEEE / RoHS directives in force • More and more products being regulated • Aerospace Industry • Military/defense exemptions for WEEE • Safe disposal requirements applicable • Cd /CrVI coatings, recycling of composites • Longer lifecycles – plan for future regulations

12. EPR – trends by industry • Automobile Industry • ELV includes bans on substances listed in RoHS • Allowances for certain uses of heavy metals • Existing regulations on recovery of batteries, tires • Consumer Packaged Goods • Targets for recovery and incineration of packaging waste • Targets for OEMs to reduce packaging waste

13. OEM responsibilities • Ensure compliance to material/substance bans and restrictions • Collect, Organise, and Report - materials and substance information • Supply information about dismantling product, isolation of hazardous substances, recycling, and safe disposal of components for each product configuration to ATFs

14. OEM responsibilities • Establish partnerships with authorised treatment facilities (ATFs) for managing treatment responsibility of their EOL products • Obtain “certificate of disposal” from the ATFs $ $ $ $ supplier OEM Retailer consumer Authorised treatment facility Material flow

15. Many difficulties faced by OEMs Unclear/ changing regulations Different limits in different countries Collect information from various vendors How to minimise delays/change costs ? How to ensure compliance during design ?

16. Many difficulties faced by Suppliers • Confusing regulations and restrictions • Different requirements for different OEMs • Different reporting requirements and formats • Design changes for changing regulations or requirements • Insufficient opportunity for feedback to OEM or optimisation of product

17. Stakeholders in the EOL activities

18. Stakeholders in the EOL activities

19. The EOL Project To develop a coherent strategy to suitably satisfy the disparate concerns of all the stakeholders with regards to waste generated by EOL products, in a sustained, continuous manner.

20. Requires a systems approach Regulatory cycle Development cycle Operations cycle

21. Regulatory Cycle Studies to find matl. flows in products & possibility of recovery/recycling Studies to determine harmful effects of individual substances Studies to find alternate matl. and recovery/recycling technology Development consistent regulations on use and recovery/recycling; and enforcement mechanisms

22. Development Cycle Design product configuration for compliance, env. performance and profitability Analysis of env. performance reports and profitability of EOL treatment operations Specifications for vendor parts, and instructions for ATFs Validation of compliance of parts/product and corrective measures

23. Operations Cycle Maintenance/updates of ATFs, physical processes, notification procedures Collection of substance information and reporting/documentation Reporting/documentation of treatment processes/costs/etc. Tracking of part replacement and config. changes in products (instances) Selection/execution of optimal EOL treatment plan

24. The EOL Problem • Complex and multi-faceted • Stakeholders in industry, government and society • Corporate image implications Point solutions will not suffice!

25. Product Lifecycle Management Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is an integrated business approach to manage the creation, dissemination and use of product information throughout the Extended Enterprise.

26. PLM - advantages • Integrates people, processes and information throughout the product lifecycle and across the extended enterprise • Includes tools for information sharing between formats, workflow management, validation, alerting, etc. • Envisages different functions (CAD/CRM/ERP/SCM) seamlessly working on a “single product definition”

27. EOL Project Research Proactive design for compliance with substance regulations • Regulatory cycle • Development cycle • Operations cycle Change evaluation process in ECM Joint detection & characterisation in CAD assembly models

28. Compliance with substance regulations • Steps currently undertaken by OEMs • Stringent and sweeping restrictions for all supplied parts • Usually direct transfer of restrictions applicable to product in proportion of the part weights • Material/substance content analysis and validation of compliance • Required reporting of detailed substance content by suppliers • Search for alternative materials • e.g. lead free paint, lead free solder

29. Compliance with substance regulations • Available tools in PLM • Third-party tracking of latest regulations and OEM policies • Organisation of collected information and compilation of required reports • Tracking of substance content in parts to check for compliance

30. Compliance with substance regulations • Inadequacy of current tools lead to … • Lost opportunity to optimise on the costs and quality of overall product • Uniform requirements on all supplied parts puts undue pressure on some components • Technical infeasibilities, when detected, may require changes to other components to ensure compliance • Changes late in the development cycle are expensive and increase time to market

31. Problem Statement • Given: • A conceptual product assembly configuration • Find: • Set of material specifications for each component(e.g. limit on lead content, reqd. recycled matl. content) • Such that: • Applicable regulations are satisfied • Functional requirements of product are satisfied • Cost and time for production is minimised • Quality/Performance of product is maximised

32. Phases of the design process • Conceptual Design • Embodiment Design / Preliminary Design • Detailed Design

33. Find relative importance of component performances by HOQ analysis Define possible alternative specifications for each component For each component, PLM system collects required performance information for every alternative from the stakeholders PLM system generates constraint equations for all applicable regulations from a knowledge base of regulations Generate and solve constrained optimization problem Proposed framework

34. Optimization problem formulation maximise s.t. where number of components in assembly number of alternative specifications for kth component performance rating of kth component if alternative l is chosen relative importance of kth component in assembly

35. Optimization problem formulation • Types of constraints • Single part constraints • e.g. Pb content in alloy, Hg contents in bulbs • Mating part constraints • incompatible materials – unequal thermal expansion, unequal wear/corrosion resistance • e.g. nylon nut <-> steel bolt • Constraints on groups of parts • e.g. total amount CrVI in chromium plated parts, Pb in piezoelectric components • Product level constraints • applied to product as a whole • e.g. recyclable content requirement, cost constraint

36. Preliminary results Valve carrying corrosive liquid Which parts should be Cr plated ? (limit 30mg per valve)

37. Find relative importance of component performances by HOQ analysis Define possible alternative specifications for each component For each component, PLM system collects required performance information for every alternative from the stakeholders PLM system generates constraint equations for all applicable regulations from a knowledge base of regulations Generate and solve constrained optimization problem Technical Challenges • Determination of applicable regulations • Estimation of weights and substance contents • Determination of constraints due to material incompatibility, etc. • Query/retrieval system with formulation of constraint equations • Determination of reqd. information • Query and retrieval system • Estimation of functional properties and costs for alternatives • Translation of properties to performance rating (that allows comparison) • Deciding reasonable risk (probability) to assign to constraints • Robust probabilistic optimisation

38. Ongoing work • Probabilistic programming to tackle uncertainty • component properties can be specified as ranges with probability distribution • designer can specify probability with which a constraint must be satisfied • allow designer to manage “risk” of violating the constraints or requirements

39. Design change  change management Efficient evaluation of impact of change in ECM

40. Efficient Change Evaluation in ECM • Issues • Comprehensive evaluation of effects of a proposed Engineering Change (EC) • is time consuming • needs input from various disciplines in the company • needs detailed production knowledge and experience • Approach • Dynamic creation of workflow for evaluation of change • Taxonomy of changes to predict possible effects • Prioritization of effects for evaluation based on past knowledge of similar ECs

41. Planning EOL treatment EOL treatment activities Joint detection and characterisation for planning EOL treatment strategy

42. Joint Detection Framework for planning EOL treatment strategy

43. Joint Detection – snap fits

44. Joint Detection – screw joints

45. Summary • EOL regulations are driven by public health and global environmental concerns … no turning back! • PLM is the only viable framework for a comprehensive EOL strategy for OEM and suppliers • This is just the beginning !

46. Thank you!