Linear Physical Programming Approach for Environmentally Friendly and Economical Material Selection

摘要

Material selection conducted at a product design phase for assembly products determines procurement/assembly/recycling costs and environmental loads at a manufacturing planning phase. To realize products with the lower costs and environmental loads, it needs alternative material selections for the product designers by evaluating both environmental and economical aspects. This selection has trade-off relationships, and is considered as a multi criteria decision making problem. As one of the effective methods to solve the multi criteria decision making problems, Linear Physical Programming (LPP), which can obtain a solution without prioritizing different objective functions, is adopted to the trade-off problems. This study proposes an environmentally friendly and economical material selection by using LPP in order to examine the effects on the procurement, assembly and recycling costs and environmental loads for next generation products. First, by using the 3D-CAD model, information such as material types, weights and assembly/disassembly tasks for each part is grasped to construct a bill of materials including the procurement/assembly/recycling costs and environmental loads. Second, the material selection is formulated in order to reduce the costs and environmental loads simultaneously by using LPP. Finally, a case study is conducted and discussed in terms of the procurement, assembly and recycling processes.