Economical green product design based on simplified computer-aided product structure variation

Environmental issues have become an imperative concern for most companies in relation to modern product development. Special procedures have to be taken during the product development process to comply with recent green directives. Product structure is recognized as a critical factor that provides effective means for reducing environmental impact in product end-of-life. However, most previous studies failed to leverage the vast latitude at the design stage due to the assumption of a fixed product structure. To overcome this deficiency, we propose a CAD-based approach, that allows automatic variation of 3D product structure by means of changing the combination of parts, selecting the assembly method, and rearranging the assembly sequence. A computing scheme uses Genetic Algorithm (GA) techniques to produce an optimal product structure from the design alternatives generated by the approach. This corresponds to lower assembly/disassembly costs, while complying with specified recycling and recovering rates. The scheme also chooses a smaller set of parts that needs to be disassembled and determines an economical disassembly process. Implemented in a commercial CAD system, the test results demonstrated the effectiveness of this scheme in green product design in a cost-effective manner. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.