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An upgradable product is a product in which the valuable life is extended by exchanging or adding components. An upgradable product is both environmentally and economically advantageous compared with products requiring replacement because its functions can be improved by adding only a few components. Therefore, the design and sale of upgradable products represent effective methods for attaining a sustainable society. Previous studies of upgradable product design methods have assumed that products have a modular architecture, in which all components are functionally independent. However, actual products have both integral architectures and modular architectures. Achieving high-performance products through component optimization is easier with an integral architecture than with a modular architecture. However, the integral architecture makes it difficult to disassemble and replace individual components. It is difficult to achieve high levels of performance in products with modular architecture, but it is easy to disassemble and replace components. Therefore, upgradable product design must determine the most appropriate product architecture. Hence, this paper focuses on the product architecture of upgradable products and proposes a decision support method that yields the appropriate combination of product architecture and upgrade cycle. In addition, the authors propose evaluation models for the environmental load, cost, and customer dissatisfaction, as well as a comprehensive evaluation index based on these models. The overall model, which gives the evaluation index, considers the differences in the evaluated values resulting from differences in the product architecture and the number of upgrades. The proposed method was applied to a motherboard module design problem for a laptop computer. The results of this case study confirm that the proposed method successfully supports the designer during upgradable product design by deriving the most suitable combination from a set of product architectures and upgrade cycle candidates.

In order to cope with the issue of depletion of natural resources, expectations for economical designs of the closed-loop supply chains of products that include remanufacturing in their lifecycle have recently significantly grown. However, since disassembly of a product to remanufacture it is costly due to high labor costs, the lifecycle option of remanufacturing an end of life product by disassembly and reassembly needs to be established environmentally as well as economically. In this study, we propose a remanufacturing option selection method that takes recovery rates and profits into account. First, a bill of materials of a product is prepared to create data for remanufacturing. Next, its remanufacturing option selection is formulated by using the 0-1 integer programming. Lastly, the proposed remanufacturing option selection method is verified by analyzing the sensitivities of the recovery rates and selling prices of the remanufactured products using the ϵ constraint method. The proposed method that takes remanufacturing into account has demonstrated a generating larger profits than a conventional method maintaining high recovery rates at the same levels in a case study.

Herein, we have confirmed the importance of formulating product proposals and product-development processes equipped to cope effectively with uncertainty in the early design stage. The objective of this study was to derive the target performance and design priority order taking into account uncertainties in system design. Following the concept of set-based design, the approach adopted was to secure a set of solutions as design space that satisfy the target variables demands, dividing the design space into several clusters and evaluating each of the clusters, then gradually narrowing the cluster as the design progresses, and finally extracting the solution space that is desirable. Priority order of design was developed based on the strategy of increasing the degree of freedom of the subsequent process. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified using the model of a plug-in hybrid vehicle. From the results, we confirmed the existence of a trade-off between design and target variables preference and development risk, that it is possible to determine the extent to which the solution space can be narrowed, that the shape of the solution space determines the design priorities, and we were able to derive a desirable design priority order according to the target performance.

Waste reduction for assembly products is essential for Circular Economy in not only European Unions but also all over the world. It is also known that recycling contributes to the waste reduction. In order to build the recycling process in a product lifecycle effectively and efficiently, a process integration should be required among manufacturing planning, modularity design and multivariate process validation. This study proposes a process integration concept for the waste reduction among the manufacturing planning, modularization and validation.

The depletion of natural resources and global warming have increased in severity globally. In the industrial field, assembly products, such as electronic products, should be disassembled for recycling and reuse to deal with these problems. Reuse and recycling can contribute to reducing GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions and less depletion of natural resources since GHG emissions for virgin material production can be saved using reused components and recycled materials. However, each component of selling revenue and material-based GHG emissions depends on the country because of the different energy mixes of electrical power. Moreover, each collected component embedded in End-of-Life (EOL) products needs to be selected as a life cycle option based on its remaining life. The purpose of this study is to decide life cycle options such as reuse, recycling, and disposal of each component environmentally-friendly and economically in Korea and Japanese cases for computers. Firstly, selecting the life cycle option for each component was formulated by 0–1 integer programming with ε constraints. Next, GHG emissions, profits, and costs in Korea and Japan were estimated and analyzed for each component. Finally, Korean and Japanese cases were analyzed to obtain an economic value in the same material-based GHG saving rate with each component’s life cycle option selection by comparing each EOL product data. In the experiments, GHG recovery efficiency was higher in Japan 43 [g/Yen] than one in Korea 28 [g/Yen]. Therefore, it was better to retrieve and reutilize the components in Korea. However, if the maximum GHG recovery efficiency is desired, Japan is a better option.

A contribution for environment protection is the conceptual design of eco-friendly products, considering information of main product life cycle phases: Development, manufacturing, usage. Base of operations is product generation A, where the development is closed and the manufacturing/usage phase is ongoing. The designer of the subsequently product generation B has different possibilities to consider eco-friendly aspects and resource saving, e.g. incorporate Carry-Over- Parts, parts for reuse, upgradeable components or parts for refurbishing. The challenge for the designer is the decision complexity: He needs a lot of eco-related information of product generation A on component-level, e.g. CO 2 -emission, disassembly procedures, reliability information. This paper shows a concept, how to make eco- and sustainability-related decisions within the conceptual design phase of a subsequently product generation. The decision concept is explained by an automotive engineering example.

This study proposes an upgradable product design method that falls under the category of “environmentally conscious” product design methods. The method enhances the product’s performance by exchanging or adding only a few of its components. In addition, the proposed method reduces the usage as well as wastage of resources by preventing the disposal of the product itself. This study primarily focuses on manufacturer profit, which was presented as an ill-argued topic in a previous study on upgradable product design methods that potentially provide enhanced sales strategies for upgradable products with an underlying consideration of company sustainability. Moreover, the proposed method in this study assesses how design information uncertainties associated with future prediction (as a ranged value) apply to the concept of set-based design to ultimately obtain ranged sets of design solutions and sales strategies that satisfactorily meet profit, environmental, and functional requirements. Finally, the proposed method obtains ranged design solutions that can realize low environmental loads, low product price, and a highly profitable upgradable product via exclusive application to a multifunctional laser printer scenario. The results of this study indicate the effectiveness of such an upgradable product design method as a vital approach in building a sustainable society.

Design upgradability aims to replace only those components that devalue the product over time. Therefore, it enhances product value and avoids whole product replacement, thereby realizing a sustainable society. This paper proposes a method for upgradability design that meets the required future product performance criteria and enhances their functions. This is done while lowering the price and environmental load and increasing the profitability for manufacturers throughout the product lifecycle.

An upgrade product design method is one of the efficient design methods for reducing environmental loads caused by mass production, consumption, and disposal. This method seeks to design a product that can adapt to future required performance and functions via component upgrade by exchanging components in the early phase of design. Because considerations of future product performance and functions include uncertain design information, an accurate prediction is very difficult. Therefore, this study defines uncertain design information as ranged sets, and applies a preference set-based design method that can correspondingly obtain ranged sets of design solutions. In previous studies, proposed methods were focused on product performance enhancement without quantitative consideration of environmental loads. Hence, this study proposes an upgrade product design method that can address the enhancement of product performance, while concurrently reducing production cost and environmental load, which is herein strictly defined as the amount of CO2 emission. Finally, our proposed upgrade product design method is applied to a laptop PC design problem to demonstrate its utility.

A sustainable society requires changes in the traditional paradigm of mass production and consumption. Products such as personal computers and smartphones are discarded even though they are fully functional. This paper proposes a design method for product upgradability which satisfies various different customer demands to increase the product value and extend the value lifespan by exchanging components closely related to its deterioration in value. In addition, this paper also proposes a method that can specify future product performances, effective upgradable product components, and the side effects of upgrade on other product components. Finally, this paper discusses the applicability of our proposed design method by considering a vacuum cleaner and various different customer demands.