A Closed-loop Manufacturing System focusing on Reuse of Components

Abstract

Environmentally conscious manufacturing has gained more and more interests in recent years. For achieving it, closed-loop manufacturing system where products are made from used products, parts and materials taken-back from market, as well as new ones, should be established. Focusing on factories, complicated fluctuations of amount, quality, and timing of these taken-back resources make effective planning and control of these factories very difficult. In this paper, a conceptual factory model of a closed-loop manufacturing system is designed considering material flow, with these various kinds of fluctuations. It also illustrates a prototype factory model that has developed for aiming at handling these fluctuations

Full text

2C-1-3F
A
Closed-loop
Manufacturing
System
focusing
on
Reuse
of
Components
Shinsuke
Kondoh
Yoshihito
Nishikiori
Yasushi
Umeda
National
Institute
ofAdvanced
Tokyo
Metropolitan
University
Osaka
University
Industrial
Science
and
umeda@mech.engosaka-u.ac.jp
Technology
(AIST)
kondou-shinsuke@aist.go.jp
Abstract
materials
and
shifting
bottlenecks
and
high
inventory
level
of
a
manufacturing
system
[2-6].
To
solve
these
Environmentally
conscious
manufacturing
has
problems,
this
paper
proposes
the
prototype
factory
gained
more
and
more
interests
in
recent
years.
For
model
that
can
handle
these
fluctuations,
and
illustrates
achieving
it,
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
where
the
miniature
factory
model
of
a
closed-loop
products
are
made
from
used
products,
parts
and
manufacturing
system.
materials
taken-back
from
market,
as
well
as
new
ones,
should
be
established.
Focusing
on
factories,
complicated
Collection
Si
M
arket
push
nature-d
fluctuations
of
amount,
quality,
and
timing
of
these
taken-
back
resources
make
effective
planning
and
control
of
Ld,n
lcataonn
Is
tl
these
factories
very
difficult.
In
this
paper,
we
have
Pr
uct
designed
a
conceptual
factory
model
of
a
closed-loop
Dia
n
Ins
etlon
manufacturing
system
considering
material
flow,
with
these
various
kinds
of
fluctuations.
We
also
illustrate
a
R
i
X
_
ll
l
l
prototype
factory
model
we
have
developedfor
aiming
at
Dia^eb
.a
In
ctlOn
_
handling
these
fluctu
ationsR
ir
Pr
odcin
Key
words:
closed-loop
manufacturing
system,
fluctuated
return
ra
i
M
r
i
flow
ofproducts,
prototype
model,
inverse
manufacturing,
reuse
Recovery
Die
Dlosal
ansl
Materiai
process
1.
Introduction
process
.
Imbalance
between
supply
and
demand
Environmental
issues
become
more
serious
recently,
Figure
1.
Simplification
of
material
flow
in
a
and
transition
from
current
mass
production
and
mass
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
consumption
society
to
sustainable
society
is
eagerly
required.
To
realize
this,
the
concept
called
"Inverse
2.
Closed-loop
manufacturing
system
Manufacturing"
[1]
is
proposed.
Inverse
Manufacturing
reconsiders
current
mass
production
economy
and
aims
at
A
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
is
the
minimizing
energy
and
material
consumnption
throughout
manufacturing
system
that
reutilizes
modules,
whole
product
life
cycles,
while
profits
of
companies
and
components
and
materials
of
post-use
products
in
their
quality
of
life
of
consumers
are
maintained.
From
the
production
processes
so
as
to
minimize
environmental
viewpoint
of
Inverse
Manufacturing,
it
is
necessary
that
impact
of
products
as
well
as
their
manufacturing
cost.
manufacturers
reutilize
post-use
products
in
their
Figure
1
illustrates
a
simplification
of
material
flow
production
processes,
and
the
effective
management
and
within
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
system.
Post-use
control
of
the
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
products
are
collected
from
the
market,
repaired,
including
recovery
processes
such
as
remanufacturing,
disassembled
into
parts
suitable
for
reuse,
or
scrapped
to
component
reuse,
recycling
as
well
as
conventional
recover
materials
and
energy
associated
with
their
quality,
manufacturing
processes
become
more
and
more
amount
and
other
intrinsic
qualities.
In
general,
smaller
important.
loops
are
considered
preferable
given
that
they
are
However,
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
is
associated
with
reduced
environmental
loads
(i.e.,
repair
faced
with
a
greater
degree
of
uncertainty
and
complexity
is
preferable
to
recycling
of
materials)
[1].
than
traditional
manufacturing
system
due
to
high
Closed-loop
manufacturing
systems
have
higher
fluctuation
of
the
quality,
amount,
and
return
timing
of
degree
of
difficulties
than
existing
"open-loop"
post-use
products,
that
may
cause
stochastic
routing
of
manufacturing
systems
in
the
following
aspects.
1-4244-0081-3/05/$20.00
C2005
IEEE.
453

Collecting
from
market
PC
-p
Shipping
to
market
Products,
modules,
components
.
.~
~ ~ ~
~~~~~~~E
:
Procsess
_
_
~~~~~~~Product
level
Material
flow
her
compoe
3
M~~~~ompone
level
Figure
2.
Process
flow
of
PCs
in
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
(partial)
(1)
Complicated
fluctuation
of
amount,
quality,
and
(1)
Robustness
against
high
fluctuation
of
load
in
timiing
of
taken-back
products
recovery.
processes
Since
the
uses
of
products
in
the
market
vary
(2)
Flexibility
for
sorting
and
storing
of
a
large
according
to
the
different
conditions
of
the
market
variety
of
items
(i.e.,
products,
modules,
enviromnment,
fluctuations
in
quality
inevitably
increase.
components,
and
materials)
associated
with
This
may
lead
to
stochastic
routings
and
increased
lead
highly
fluctuated
return
flow
of
products.
times
of
recovered
components
because
their
quality
and
(3)
Flexibility
for
handling
complicated
routing
in
a
conditions
are
unknown
until
such
time
as
they
are
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
inspected.
This
variety
of
use
is
also
responsible
for
fluctuations
in
the
amount
of
products
disposed
and
3.1
Basic
approach
lifetime
of
used
products
is
very
complicated.
Basic
approach
to
solve
these
problems
is
described
as
follows.
(2)
Balancing
returns
with
demands
Due
to
the
push
nature
associated
with
the
disposal
3.1.1
Universal
manufacturing/remanufacturing
cells
of
products,
a
mrismatch
of
quality,
amount,
and
timning
for
disassembly
levels
of
products
between
supply
(i.e.
recycling
of
products
for
reuse)
and
In
order
to
handle
high
fluctuation
of
load
in
demand
(i.e.
the
pull
nature
of
the
producer's
recovery
processes,
we
adopt
universal
manufacturing
requirements
depending
upon
market
demiands)
is
also
and
remanufacturing
cells
to
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
inevitable,
and
this
mlay
cause
excessive
amount
and
large
system.
Fig.
2
depicts
a
simplification
of
partial
process
variety
of
inventory.
Highly
flexible
sorting,
routing,
and
flow
of
personal
computers
(PC)
in
a
closed-loop
storing
of
items
is
indispensable
for
inventory
control
in
a
mianufacturing
system.
The
manufacturing
and
closed-loop
manufacturing
system.
remanufacturing
processes
of
PCs
have
recursive
structure.
Post-use
PCs
collected
from
the
market
are
sent
In
short,
effective
planning
and
control
of
a
closed-
to
inspection
process
at
first.
PCs
with
suitable
quality
for
loop
manufacturing
system,
maintaining
a
balance
reuse
are
cleaned,
inspected
and
shipped
as
between
forward
and
reverse
flows,
is
difficult
given
remanufactured
PCs.
Others
are
disassembled
into
problems
associated
with
a
significant
uncertainty
in
modules:
printed
wired
board
(PWB)
and
chassis,
sent
to
product
return
flows,
inspection
process
of
modules.
PWBs
with
suitable
quality
for
reuse
are
sent
to
assembly
process
of
PCs
after
3.
Conceptual
design
of
a
closed-loop
cleaning
and
inspection.
Others
are
disassembled
into
manufacturing
system
components:
CPUs
and
other
components,
sent
to
inspection
process
of
components,
etc.
In
order
to
solve
the
problems
discussed
in
section
2,
the
factory
with
following
features
should
be
established.
454

Manufacturing/remanufacturing
Manufacturing/remanufacturing
cell
group
for
a
product
cell
group
for
a
product
~~
a
#
~~~~~~
'
P:
~~~~Manufacturing/remanufacturing
cell
for
products
~
LIv
.~ag,
IL
i~
~
~$~r.
J~J~
M:
Manufacturing/remanufacturing
w~~..
*~~~~~4Y$~~t
~~~
U~~a1n
~~~
cell
for
modules
gI~~~b~ff~
mkfluh~~~ftOW~~flf
o.h
C:
Manufacturing/remanufacturing
cell
for
components
Figure
3.
Conceptual
model
of
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
Note
that
the
groups
of
processes
enclosed
by
red
mianufacturing
system,
multiple
types
of
material
line,
blue
line,
and
green
line
in
Fig.
2
have
the
same
handling
system
should
be
imnplemented.
process
flows.
Each
of
them
can
be
assigned
to
a
universal
manufacturing
and
remanufacturing
cell,
which
(1)
Material
handing
system
within
a
manufacturing
and
can
execute
all
the
manufacturing
and
remanufacturing
remanufacturing
cell
requires
low
flexibility
in
tasks
(i.e.,
assembly,
disassembly,
inspection,
and
routing
with
intermediate
transportation
capacity
(i.e.,
cleaning
etc.)
by
itself,
so
as
to
reduce
the
influence
of
frequent
and
short-distance
transporation
among
fluctuated
material
flows
(associated
with
retumn
processes).
products)
on
load
of
each
facility.
A
universal
(2)
Material
handling
system
among
the
cells
that
form
manufacfturing
and
remanufacturing
cell
is
shared
with
all
the
same
group
in
a
shop
floor
requires
intermediate
the
items
belonging
to
the
same
disassembly
level
(i.e.,
flexibility
in
routing
with
high
transportation
products
level,
modules
level,
and
components
level
etc.),
capacity
(i.e.,
frequent
and
intermnediate-distance
and
this
makes
it
possible
to
respond
the
various
transportation
among
cells).
fluctuations
in
volume,
quality,
and
product
variety,
by
(3)
Material
handling
system
between
each
cell
in
a
shop
adding
or
removing
corresponding
cells
to
the
factory.
.floor
and a
warehouse
floor
requires
high
flexibility
in
routing,
sorting
and
storing
with
low
transportation
3.1.2
A
multi-floors
layout
and
a
freely
accessible
capacity
(i.e.,
less
frequent
and
small
volume
global
buffer
transportation).
In
order
to
achieve
highly
flexible
sorting
and
storing
of
large
variety
of
items,
a
multi-floors
layout
is
3.2
Conceptual
design
of
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
adopted.
A
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
contains
system
multiple
floors,
shop
floor
and
warehouse
floor.
Warehouse
floor
can
be
accessed
from
all
the
cells
in
Fig.3
shows
the
simplified
conceptual
model
of
a
a
shop
floor
so
as
to
function
as
global
buffer
of
a
closed-
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
we
have
proposed.
loop
manufacturing
system,
which
balances
the
demands
Three
types
of
universal
manufacturing/remanufacturing
and
returns
of
recovered
materials,
cells
corresponding
to
three
different
disassembly
levels
(i.e.,
product
level,
module
level,
and
component
level)
3.1.3
Flexible
material
handling
system
form
two
groups
of
cells.
Each
group
is
dedicated
to
Related
to
the
sorting
and
storing
of
a
large
variety
manufacturing/remanufacturing
of
a
product.
All
cells
of
items
and
complicated
material
flows
in
a
closed-loop
have
equipment
for
identification,
inspection,
455

assembly/disassembly
and
cleaning
corresponding
their
flexibility.
Elevators
are
employed
for
transportation
disassembly
levels
as
shown
in
Fig.
4.
They
are
directly
between
cells
and
warehouse
floor,
which
requires
high
connected
to
their
sub-component
level
cells
(e.g.,
a
flexibility
with
relatively
low
transportation
capacity.
A
product
level
cell
is
connected
with
module
level
cells),
warehouse
floor
consists
of
multiple
storage
and
an
and
all
of
the
cells
are
indirectly
connected
each
other
via
Automatic
Guided
Vehicle
(AGV),
which
can
realize
the
warehouse
floor.
flexible
sorting
and
storing
of
a
large
variety
of
items
as
Taken-back
products
are
sent
to
product
cells,
global
buffer
balancing
demand
and
supply
of
materials
identified
and
inspected
at
first.
If
their
condition
is
retrieved
from
post-use
products.
A
personal
computer
is
suitable
for
direct
reuse,
they
are
cleaned
and
shipped.
assigned
to
each
cell
for
controlling
all
the
belonging
Otherwise,
they
are
disassembled
into
sub
components
equipment
so
that
the
entire
system
can
be
semi-
and
sent
to
their
corresponding
cells.
Receiving
materials
automatically
controlled.
from
an
upper
disassembly
level
cell,
sub
component
Realization
of
each
mechanism
of
the
prototype
level
cells
identify
and
inspect
them
and
determine
which
miniature
is
not
necessarily
optimal,
because
it
is
limited
materials
to
reuse
or
disassemble.
Materials
in
good
to
simple
rolling
and
sliding
mechanism
of
LEGO
conditions
are
cleaned
and
sent
back
to
an
upper
level
cell,
MlIDSTORMS`rm
system
(e.g.,
belt
conveyers
are
not
others
are
disassembled
into
sub
components
and
sent
to
optimal
for
intermediate-flexible
transportation
among
their
corresponding
cells,
recursively.
cells).
However,
the
feasibility
of
the
design
concept
of
In
case
of
insufficient
capacity
of
a
cell
group
for
a
the
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
is
confirmed
by
the
product
due
to
highly
fluctuated
processing
time
of
development
of
the
miniature
factory
model.
recovery
process
or
variation
of
product
structure,
idle
cells
in
other
cell
groups
can
be
utilized
by
transferring
_
materials
via
warehouse
floor.
Global
Bufe
r
Cell
for
Modules
Cell
for
Products
To/From
rom
Figure
5.
Prototype
miniature
of
a
closed-loop
other
cells
_
_b
o
ther
cellsmanufacturing
system
Figure
4.
Manufacturing/remanufacturing
cell
Disassembly
4.
Prototype
Miniature
Hardware
of
a
en
Closed-loop
Manufacturing
System
ldentifleatln
Fig.5
and
6
show
a
prototype
miniature
factory
of
a
closed
loop
manufacturing
system
and
its
manufacturing
and
remanufacturing
cell
we
have
designed
and
built,
respectively.
The
prototype
miniature
is
developed
by
LEGO
MINDSTORMS.
system.
Four
manufacturing
and
remanufacturing
cells
form
two
cell
groups
for
Elevator
and
turntable
ToMrom
other
units
products.
Each
cell
group
consists
of
a
product
level
cell
Figure
6.
Close-up
view
of
a
manufacturing
and
and
a
module
level
cell.
Each
cell
equipped
with
remanufacturing
cell
manipulator
for
assembly
and
disassembly,
wind
turbine
for
cleaning,
and
light
sensor
for
inspection,
in
addition
5.
Conclusion
with
a
turntable
and
elevator
unit.
A
turntable
is
employed
for
transportation
of
materials
within
cells,
This
paper
discusses
fundamental
problems
for
which
requires
intermediate
transportation
capacity
with
realizing
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
systems
low
flexibility.
Belt
conveyers
are
employed
for
maintaining
material
balance
of
forward
and
reverse
transportation
of
items
among
cells
in
a
shop
floor,
which
flows,
proposes
and
illustrates
conceptual
design
of
a
requires
high
transportation
capacity
with
intermediate
closed-loop
manufacturing
system
by
developing
its
456

prototype
miniature
hardware.
The
design
and
159-178,
1997.
development
of
miniature
hardware
reveals
hardware
[2]
M.
Fleischmann,
J.
M.
Bloemhof-Ruwaard,
R.
Dekker,
E.
requirements
for
realizing
a
closed-loop
manufacturing
Laan,
J.
van
Nunen,
and
L.
N.
Van
Wassenhove:
with
maintaining
material
balance
between
forward
and
"Quantitative
models
for
reverse
logistics:
a
review,"
return
flows
of
a
products.
European
Journal
of
Operational
Research,
103,
No.1,
Future
works
are
summarized
as
follows,c
pp.-17,
1997.
Evalutureiwork
andvereisummationzed
prototye
f
ofllows,d
[3]
V.
D.
R.
Guide
Jr.,
V.
Jauaraman,
and
R.
Srivastava:
(1)
Evaluation
and
venification
of
prototype
of
a
closed-
Production
planning
and
control
for
remanufacturing:
a
loop
manufacturing
system
from
various
state-of-the-art
survey,
Robotics
and
Computor-Integrated
perfonnance
measures
by
computational
simulation,
Manufacturing,
No.15,
pp.221-230,
1999
(2)
Development
of
more
practical
prototype
of
a
closed-
[4]
Van
der
Laanm
E.A.
and
M.
Salmon:
Production
planning
loop
manufacturing
system
so
as
to
determine
and
inventory
control
with
remanufacturing
and
disposal;
adequate
mechanical
structure
of
manufacturing
and
European
J.
of
Operation
Research
102
(11997)
264-278
remanufacturing
cells,
material
handling
systems,
[5]
Clegg
A.
Williams
W,
Uzoy
R.:
Production
planning
for
and
overall
layout
of
the
entire
system.
companies
with
remanufacturing
capabilities,
Proc.
of
1995
Int.
Symp.
On
Electronics
and
Environment,
Orlando
FL,
IEEE,
1995,
186-191
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[6]
V.
D.
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"A
Manufacturing
Paradigm
Toward
the
21st
16:551-568
Century,"
Integrated
Computer
Aided
Engineering,
4,
pp.
457