Abstract
Traditionally, industries followed a linear process of resources consumption: taking raw materials from nature, transforming them into products, and selling them to consumers (who discarded them when they were no longer useful). Nowadays, due to the sustainable development concerns, there is an increasing awareness on the society for reuse, repair, recycling, and remanufacturing to avoid resource depletion and achieve waste reduction. Following this idea, with the aim to train students and practitioners in lean manufacturing and circular economy concepts and tools, a learning process organized in three sequential phases was developed, starting with the manufacture of a toy car (25 kg and over 100 pieces) using a traditional push system, then reengineering the process to implement pull system and lean manufacturing concepts, and finally, considering a circular economy pull system through the reuse and recycling of parts and components. In this way, the importance of reducing waste in manufacturing and the reduction in the use of raw materials by considering the 3Rs is highlighted.
TopBackground
This section presents a brief literature review related to the topics explored in this chapter, namely the University-Industry collaboration, the circular economy, and the learning factories.
Key Terms in this Chapter
3Rs/9Rs: In circular economy it stands for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Nowadays, the concept has been extended by adding more R-words to reach 9R covering the whole life cycle of a product from the initial design: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover.
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle: It is a management method used for the continuous improvement of products and processes. It consists of four phases: Plan (definition of the goals and processes required to achieve them), Do (implementation of the processes), Check (review of the results compared to the proposed goals), and Act (improvement of the processes if necessary). This cycle can be repeated indefinitely and is also known as the Deming cycle.
Waste (Muda in Japanese): Is anything that does not add value to the product or service and for which the consumer is not willing to pay. According to the Toyota production system, 7 types of waste have traditionally been identified: Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Over Processing, and Defects, but nowadays one or two more are usually added: Resistance to Change and Inaction.
Learning by Doing: It is a methodology based on the idea that students perform actions and learn by observing their results. It is based on Edgar Dale's concept of the learning cone where against the 10% of concepts that are retained when heard, up to 90% are retained when people practice them.
Lifelong Learning: Refers to continuous learning throughout a person's life. It is nowadays considered necessary given the need for continuous updating due to the enormous amount of information and changes that occur.
University-Industry Collaboration: Is the relationship that exists between universities and industry to promote the exchange of knowledge and technology. It can take different forms, but the most important are collaboration and research agreements, talks and conferences and student internships.
Learning Factory: Is a laboratory that simulates a simplified factory where participants learn different concepts using the same tools as in a real factory. Its main characteristic is the active learning of the participants doing tasks in a similar way as they do in a real workplace and the modularity to adapt to the learning process.
Lean Manufacturing: (Also known as lean production) is a production system whose main objective is to reduce lead times by eliminating waste and facilitating the flow of materials within the production system, thus improving quality and response times to customers.
VUCA Environment: VUCA is an acronym, first used in 1987 by the U.S. Army War College to describe the more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world that has emerged since the end of the Cold War. This concept has been extended to business and education as a result of the evolution of technology and the continuous changes in which we live.
Circular Economy: An economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continuous use of resources. It uses “R” to define the different activities that can be done with a product at the end of its useful life: reuse, repair, refurbishment, recovery, remanufacturing and recycling to make a closed loop system, and minimise the use of resources and the creation of waste. Even adding more “R's” in the design phase: rethink and reduce.