Proposal of a modular design method based on life cycle scenario and geometric information

In order to minimize environmental loads and costs during a whole life cycle of a product, adequate life cycle design as well as product design is indispensable. In life cycle design, the anticipated life cycle of a product can be clarified by describing a life cycle scenario. Modular design is an important elemental technique to link life cycle design to appropriate product architecture, and improves, e. g., maintainability, upgradability, reusability, and recyclability by unifying components applicable to the same life cycle scenario. This paper proposes a modular design method based on various attributes related to a product life cycle scenario ; e. g., while the modular structure for recycling is based on material kinds, the structure for reuse is based on lifetime of components. Furthermore, we define an evaluation index for evaluating derived modular structure from the viewpoint of resource efficiency. This paper also illustrates the prototype system that implements the proposed method and a case study of an ink-jet printer.