Knowledge Modeling for Eco-design

Abstract

The present major concern on sustainable development is at the beginning of a growing interest on product recyclability. More and more strict norms and regulations will be prescribed to companies in order to increase the level of recyclability of industrial products. Usually described in natural language, these norms can be difficult to interpret for the product designer. There will also be an increasing need in tools to verify the compliance of a product with given norms and standards. A prototype of such a system is described in this article: the information to be added to the product model is first specified. It is then shown how the knowledge contained in standards and norms in textual form can be translated into constraints which can be propagated through the product structure in order to identify the inconsistencies between the present design and a given norm. An example of the literature is used to illustrate the suggested methodology and the results of its application through a software prototype.

Environmentally conscious manufacturing and product recovery (ECMPRO): A review of the state of the art

“…Masanet and Horvath (2007) develop an analytical framework to quantify the economic and environmental benefits of DFR practices for plastic computer enclosures during the design process. Houe and Grabot (2007) develop a prototype system for the conversion of the recyclability norms in textual form into constraints which can be propagated through the product structure in order to identify the inconsistencies between the present design and a given norm.…”

Matrix-based quality tools for concept generation in eco-design

“…a network node contains attribute values). For example, Houe and Grabot (2007) have translated eco-design standards into constraints and use constraint propagation techniques to analyze the compatibility of products to these standards. Comparatively, as the matrix-based approach is simpler and sufficient, it is used in the methodological development of this article.…”

Ontology-based system for supporting manufacturing sustainability

“…A system that takes into account standards and laws for sustainability can be found in (Houe et al, 2007). Authors stress the need for better interpreting environmental standards and laws.…”