Abstract
Designing sustainable systems that take into account production factors, processes, and/or products is becoming more and more important. It is therefore the focus of research projects such as the Federal Cluster of Excellence EXC 1075 “MERGE Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures”, which strives for resource-efficient lightweight construction and especially the design of hybrid structures. To support this challenging task, the Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) approach is recommended. However, a sustainable design requires an economic or rather management orientation of the engineering activities, which is underrepresented in the LCE concept. Therefore, it is proposed to extend the LCE to a Life Cycle Engineering and Management (LCEM) concept. Since both concepts are relatively new, only a few cases of application are available. Therefore, this paper describes and analyzes cases – especially on the basis of MERGE research objects –, to which LCE and LCEM are applied, identifies potentials and challenges, and derives consequences for further research activities. This highlights the relevance of LCE and LCEM for research projects, especially regarding the transformation of an invention into a successful innovation.
Highlights
The quest for sustainability is gaining more and more importance both in the economy as well as in society – the trend towards sustainable solutions is exemplified by the pursuit of resource efficiency in general, lightweight construction, and in particular the design of hybrid structures researched in the Federal Cluster of Excellence EXC 1075 “MERGE Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures”
Despite the inclusion of economic evaluations in the above definition of LCE, a review of the literature showed that the management perspective is not strongly represented in LCE approaches [3]: This motivates the extension of LCE to a Life Cycle Engineering and Management (LCEM) concept
It seems debatable whether these cases are “about LCE”; for sake of completeness and due to the potential contribution of process chain assessments to a life cycle-related evaluation, they are included here
Summary
The quest for sustainability is gaining more and more importance both in the economy as well as in society – the trend towards sustainable solutions is exemplified by the pursuit of resource efficiency in general, lightweight construction, and in particular the design of hybrid structures (processes, products, and composite materials) researched in the Federal Cluster of Excellence EXC 1075 “MERGE Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures”. LCE is defined as “engineering activities which include: the application of technological and scientific principles to the design and manufacture of products with the goal of protecting the environment and conserving resources, while encouraging economic progress, keeping in mind the need for sustainability, and at the same time optimizing the product life cycle and minimizing pollution and waste” [2] Due to these characteristics, LCE is a very promising approach for the design of sustainable systems – consisting of production factors, processes, and/or products – and especially for the design of hybrid structures. Despite the inclusion of economic evaluations in the above definition of LCE, a review of the literature showed that the management perspective is not strongly represented in LCE approaches [3]: This motivates the extension of LCE to a Life Cycle Engineering and Management (LCEM) concept
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