Module Professors: Prof Andrew YC Nee and A/Prof SK Ong
The masters level module ME5611 on Sustainable Product Design and Manufacturing has been offered since 2007. This module embraces the various elements of the sustainability issues of product design and manufacturing.
The concepts are reinforced with a 12-week term project where students are required to identify a real industrial product and carry out a detailed analysis of the impact of the product on the various environmental issues.
In this module, students have to look into an existing product, disassemble the product t analyze the design, manufacturing, logistic, and end-of-life strategies of this product, and propose design and manufacturing improvements to reduce the carbon footprint of this product in all life cycle stages of this product.
The topics covered in this modules are:
- Introduction to sustainable product design and manufacturing
- Legislation, industrial ecosystems, various ecology tools
- ISO 14000 – International Environment Standard; 14001, 14004, 14010, 14011, 14012, 14040, 14041, 14042, 14043
- Environmentally conscious design and manufacturing – design for assembly and disassembly, design for recycling, design for environment, life cycle inventory, life cycle assessment
- Environmental cost analysis and business strategy
- Eco-labeling schemes
- Environmental attributes of manufacturing processes and energy issues – casting, plastic processing, machining, forming, joining, etc.
- Environmental decision support systems
- Marketability issues of environmentally friendly products
- Integrated model for sustainable product design
- Summary, case studies, and future directions
Updated March 2022, Prof S K Ong