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It cannot be denied that environmental consciousness is becoming important. Ironically, legislation is probably the most satisfactory driver for pushing manufacturers to take environmental concerns into design considerations. In fact, the European Union introduced a new law (directive 2005/32/EC) for regulating the environmental consequences of all energy-using products (EuPs) in August 2007, the scope of which covers all products that rely on energy sources in any form for operation. Design alternatives are required in the product development stage so that environmental concerns can be considered as a decision parameter. In complying with the directive, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to draw conclusions and to compare the performance of alternatives. In this connection, a case study is carried out to assess the environmental impact of a personal electronic product through LCA, subject to the scope of the stated directive. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (i) to report the case in relation to the directive; (ii) to summarise the results of the LCA accordingly; and (iii) to suggest a new conceptual design and to compare the LCA of this new design with the original design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reverse logistics has become more and more important to the automobile industry, owing to various reasons including unavoidable product recalls, legislative policy regarding environmental and sustainable issues, etc. In fact, the need for recovery of returned vehicles has been receiving more attention than ever before due to growing environmental concerns. Ironically, not many automobile manufacturers have a satisfactory reverse logistics system for recovering and reusing returned vehicles. This is partly because the effort devoted to this area is not very systematically investigated. In this connection, this paper aims at investigating the reverse logistics activities of the automobile industry, and to provide a framework for those activities. Firstly, the drivers for reverse logistics in this industry are revisited. Key components which are valuable and feasible for reuse or remanufacture are then identified. Based on this investigation, a framework of reverse logistics for the automobile industry is proposed. This is based on several evaluation factors (i.e. value of reversed products, legislation perspective and cost issues). Implementation issues and managerial implications are also summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The performance of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) largely depends on how the control system can control the flow of entities in the system. The control system takes control decisions based on the information provided as an input to the decision-making process. Therefore, it is important that the decision-making process and information systems operate in a synchronised manner with respect to the FMS characteristics. This can also be referred to as a Decision-Information-Synchronisation (DIS) operating zone implemented in the control system. To study the DIS in the present research, three types of visibility for decision-makers in FMS shop-floor control have been identified: (1) no local visibility, (2) physical local visibility and (3) physical and information local visibility of decision-maker/operator. These alternative visibilities and automation levels of decision and information system provide the hybrid environments of FMSs control. The current paper presents an approach to identify the DIS operating zone of FMS with suitable visibility of decision-maker and automation level. Simulation results show that under non-real-time control (low automation level in decision and information system) with physical local visibility, the FMS system performs comparable with the real-time control (high automation level in decision and information system) when routing flexibility levels are presented. Under the current global competitive environment, this study helps industrial managers determine a suitable level of visibility and automation in planning an FMS control system in order to obtain the desired performance at the lower cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As supply chains continue to replace individual companies as the management arena for value-adding from the beginning of the twenty first century, understanding the supply chain management practices in a globalisation context becomes increasingly important. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model, which was developed by the experts and practitioners of the Supply Chain Council, is a major framework for supply chain planning that features supply chain management practices and business process reengineering. Despite being an integrative guide with many merits, it only provides a 'top-down' approach that requires the comparative analyses of post- and pro-performance indices as a basis of business process modification. This study discusses the limitations of current SCOR analysis and provides a mapping technique—Causes/Effects, the SCOR Standard, and Mutual Solution (CESM)—for gap mapping, problem prioritisation, and business process modification in a supply chain setting. As such, it is one of the early empirical studies combining BPR and SCM disciplines. The research results can facilitate the implementation processes of multinational supply chain projects by identifying the gaps and linking them to the channel entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]