Abstract

As a result of many environmental problems associated with industrial activities and manufacturing applications, several production strategies have been evaluated to reduce the magnitude of ecological impacts. Through remanufacturing, the physical form of the product is retained along with its economic value, offering a viable option to address actual ecological problems that result from production practices. One of the instruments used to evaluate process performance and product generation is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, to date, all software packages used to conduct LCA have failed to incorporate remanufacturing as a production alternative. The EPA's TRACI software package utilized in this research describes the product lifecycle in only four stages: raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, use/reuse/maintenance, and recycle/waste management. An evaluation is performed to assess the potential benefits and liabilities of incorporating the remanufacturing cycle into the production system and evaluating the importance of doing so over a range of potentially remanufacturable products. Furthermore, a case study is conducted to demonstrate that remanufacturing may represent a useful strategy for reducing the magnitude of environmental impacts related to the production of durable manufactured products. The study found that remanufacturing can reduce the amount of contributors and environmental stressors that may lead to ecological impacts. The ecological categories- 1) ozone depletion, 2) acidification, 3)ecotoxicity, 4)eutrophication, 5) global warming, 6) human health cancer, 7) human health non-cancer, 8) human health criteria, 9) photochemical smog, 10) fossil fuel use and 11) water use- evaluated by the software tool constitute the conclusion parameters to determine whether or not remanufacturing accounts for sustainability. LCA results show benefits in nine of the categories analyzed, suggesting that remanufacturing comprises a superior choice in environmental terms.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Remanufacturing; Manufacturing industries--Environmental aspects--Data processing; Production management--Environmental aspects--Data processing

Publication Date

2-1-2005

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Industrial and Systems Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Taylor, James

Advisor/Committee Member

Thorn, Brian

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: TS183.8 .M37 2005

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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