A quantitative method for sustainable product development

A quantitative measure-based method for the design and evaluation of sustainable products is proposed. The method uses multi-criteria in product design to meet sustainable requirements from qualitative criteria to quantitative metrics. The method integrates quality function deployment concepts with the life cycle assessment to establish a quantitative method for sustainable product development. It considers both customer needs and sustainable requirements by mapping these needs into design details using the axiomatic design and benchmarking methods. The method is applied in the wheelchair design. Four popular wheelchairs in the market are selected as benchmarks and are rated based on customer needs and sustainable criteria. The design matrix identifies the relationship of functional requirements and design parameters of the wheelchair. Compared to the best benchmark product, the proposed wheelchair can reduce costs by 13.8%, environment footprints 18.55%, mass 4.5%, and components 2.2%.

IEC 62059 Standards' Application in Reliability Prediction and Verification of Smart Meters

This article introduces the current situation of the smart then describes the relationship of meter reliability characteristics meter＇s reliability and the failure mechanisms at first, and combined with its Bathtub Curve. It also introduces both the feasible failure tree model for meter lifecycle prediction based on actual experiences and meter reliability prediction methodology by SN 29500 norms based on this model. This article also brings forward that it is necessary that the ＂Learning Factor＂ shall be adopted in meter reliability prediction for new materials, new process, and customized parts by referring to GJB/Z299C. Thereafter, this article also tries to apply IEC 62059 and JB/T 50070 to introduce the feasible method for the lifecycle prediction result verification by accelerated lifecycle test. Furthermore, the article also explores ways to increase the firmware reliability in smart meter.

ISO 14040 Compliance of Life Cycle Inventory Compilation Methods

This article provides a comparison of several Life Cycle Assessment methodologies and their conformity to the ISO 14001 Standards. The study found that all methods surveyed meet the basic requirements of ISO 14001 in regards to evaluating the environmental impact with integrated hybrid method most satisfying the requirements.

Role of supply chain management in target costing

Standard costing is used as a control for product costing. But with life cycle becoming shorter, costing should be done at the design and development stage of a product. This is achieved through target costing.The implementation of target costing and target pricing is done with the ultimate purpose of cost reduction, cost understanding, continuous improvement, competitiveness, early purchasing and supplier involvement, and improved design and accountability by manufacturers. The study explores the participation of the purchasing and supply chain management＇s role in target costing and target pricing process. Supply management plays an active role in monitoring the ongoing cost and performance of suppliers during the early stages of product development. Implementation of target costing and target pricing in various organizations are also explored. Leading Japanese manufacturers have used target costing and target pricing systems to their advantage and the paper also examines the adaptation of the Western companies to these proactive cost management techniques to improve their product development processes.

Design of maximizing homogeneous and heterogeneous clustered sensor network lifetime

Aimed at the problem of unbalanced energy existed in sensor networks, the clustered method is employed to enhance the efficient utilization of limited energy resources of the deployed sensor nodes. In this paper, we describe the network lifetime as a function of the communication and data aggregation energy consumption and analyze the lifetime of different transmission schemes in the homogeneous and heterogeneous sensor networks. The analysis carried out in this paper can provide the guidelines for network deployment and protocol design in the future applications.

Estimating the Service Lives of Building Products in Use

Reliable service life data of building products are of great importance when completing environmental LCA （life cycle assessment） reviews, for LCC （life cycle costing） and for maintenance planning tasks. A research project was set up to answer the following research questions： （1） what are reliable service life data of current used building products; and （2） how can generic data about the service lives of building products be tailored to specific project circumstances using the ＂factor method＂ described in the ISO （International Standard Organization） 15686 Series： ＂Buildings and Constructed Assets-Service-Life Planning＂. Experts of industry organisations for building materials and products made a final judgement of the new established reference service lives. Reference service lives of building products may show a large unknown bandwidth around the average. That will make the bandwidth of estimated service lives, taking the project situation of building components into account, very big. Experts have raised objections to the use the factor method for deriving mathematically a bandwidth of estimated service lives of a building product from the reference service life of the product. A practical analytical application of the factor method has been made by describing all factors and underlying criteria and a reference situation.

The Flexible Housing： Criteria and Strategies for Implementation of the Flexibility

The design of housing systems is today challenged by a highly uncertain context, dominated by the rapid development of functional and technological obsolescence in inherited housing models. If flexibility is the ability of a system to be easily modified and to respond to changes in the environment timely and conveniently, it can be considered as the antidote to obsolescence or the characteristic of the system that guarantees slippage over time. Our paper focuses on the concept of flexibility as a fundamental prerequisite for residential building in order to extend its life cycle design, through strategies and constructive solutions that ensure both the convertibility of the space in response to changing usage and the use of building materials that encourage the reversibility and the long-term easy maintenance of the technological choices that have been implemented. Flexibility is examined both from a conceptual point of view, so as to obtain a clear and logical definition that is distinct from related terms, as well as from a practical point of view, by finding ways to incorporate this requirement into the designing of housing.

Carbon Footprint Analysis for Baby Strollers

The increasing awareness of climate change has led organizations to demand a standard procedure to measure and communicate greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions linked to their products or services.The publicly available specification PAS 2050 has been developed in response to broad community and industry desire for a consistent method-carbon footprint for assessing the life cycle GHG emissions of goods and services.Specifically,this paper illustrates the implementation of carbon footprint for a baby stroller in accordance with PAS 2050.A fial value of 321 kg per one stroller including package was calculated.Moreover,the study led to identify raw materials production of the stroller as the main source of GHS emissions where efforts need to focus for emission reduction opportunities.This case study is hoped to be a starting point for organizations to benefit from the increasing application of carbon footprint assessment.

Financial Modeling of Accounting Costs Acquisition of Arms

In case of restrictive defense budget financing, efficient and effective use of funds is now more than ever becoming a crucial question in functioning of the Ministry of Defense and Serbian Armed Forces （MoD and SAF）. Any investment in acquisition of arms and military equipment （AME） due to financial significance does not allow mistakes in decision making. Qualitative analysis of cost of assets through the entire programmed lifecycle is a complex multi-disciplinary and multi-criteria problem whose solving requires application of the model multi-criteria optimization. In our operational practice thus far, solving the said problems there wasn＇t enough the model multi-criteria optimization so the optimal results were lacking. In this paper investment process of AME in the MoD and SAF was analyzed, from the point of cost treatment in the process, its flaws have been pointed out and a more comprehensive - integrated approach has been suggested.

Developmental Programming of Ethical Consciousness： Impact on B ioscience Ethics Education and Learning

Personal ethics are strongly influenced by emotions, particularly secondary emotions, because these emotions expand ethical reasoning and development as the child matures. A well-developed consciousness profoundly influences a person＇s actions and conduct when solving problems of what is thought, or taught to be, right or wrong Compelling neurological evidence supports the claim that children begin to develop enduring ethical standards at an early age and that these standards are largely based on the experiences of early childhood. Essentially, the innate sense of ethics requires nurturing during infancy before it can be cognitively understood and practiced in maturity. In biological terms, the development of neural networks that regulate emotional growth, and subsequently, the capacity for ethical discrimination, depends on the infant＇s early social environment. Thus, the toddler＇s early epigenetic experiences enhance, or impede, its innate still dormant genetic potential. Importantly, personal character development and ethical discrimination begins long before the child＇s formal educational years. As a consequence, early learning has to discover ways of conserving adaptive thinking which can be applied to the choices that may confront future generations. Early ethics education, including accurate access to scientific, medical, and technological knowledge, is thus critical. Future generations will increasingly require education from a global perspective when making major ethical decisions in areas, such as nuclear technology, disposal of wastes, preservation of biodiversity, global warming, and unregulated human population growth. As long as our culture continues to reflect advances in science and technology, there is an obligation to make science education overlap with crucial periods in the advancement of ethical consciousness. Significantly, when considering the human capacity for excess at times of conflict, it is incumbent on the scientific community to integrate research-based knowledge with wide-ranging learning and problem-solving skills. Bioscience ethics, the established interface bridging applied science and applied bioethics, can assist in this process of integration. To become fully responsible adults, we must share our extraordinary cognitive talents and respect life on earth in all its rich diversity. In biological terms, human uniqueness resides primarily in our brains with its products being co-operation in family and ancestral units, long education, sophisticated language and culture, and importantly, ethical consciousness-all attributes held in trust by knowledge and wisdom for future generations.

An effective fault prediction model developed using an extreme learning machine with various kernel methods

System analysts often use software fault prediction models to identify fault-prone modules during the design phase of the software development life cycle. The models help predict faulty modules based on the software metrics that are input to the models. In this study, we consider 20 types of metrics to develop a model using an extreme learning machine associated with various kernel methods. We evaluate the effectiveness of the mode using a proposed framework based on the cost and efficiency in the testing phases. The evaluation process is carried out by considering case studies for 30 object-oriented software systems. Experimental results demonstrate that the application of a fault prediction model is suitable for projects with the percentage of faulty classes below a certain threshold, which depends on the efficiency of fault identification(low: 47.28%; median: 39.24%; high: 25.72%). We consider nine feature selection techniques to remove the irrelevant metrics and to select the best set of source code metrics for fault prediction.