New, innovative economic systems are needed to decouple resource consumption from prosperity. In this lecture, students learn about the relevance of such systems of circular value creation. The main focus is on implementation by means of a so-called circular factory, which should enable a new life cycle for used products. Ideally, this is done today by upgrading the used product to the product generation currently in production. This shows the complex field of tension in which the topics of this course are embedded. The freedom of product development is restricted by the constraint of product upgrades and new paradigms of product design are needed. The planning and control of products in the circular factory, including the associated logistics concepts, is complicated by the used condition of the returns. This must be measured and evaluated in order to enable a functional statement and the estimation of the remaining useful life (RUL) of the reprocessed product in a new life cycle. Not least, it requires appropriate (robotic) automation concepts for the disassembly of used products and their reprocessing, which must be specifically designed in high-wage countries in order to operate and establish the overall process economically.

The content of the course addresses and deals with the specific problems and solutions that arise in the realization of circular factories. The following topics are addressed in chronological order:

•  An overview of the circular economy in general and different strategies to reduce the consumption of natural resources (R-strategies)
•  Comprehensive overview of remanufacturing and presentation of challenges and solutions in the planning and control of disassembly and remanufacturing systems
•  Guidelines and constraints in the design, development and validation of sustainable products
•  Fundamentals of metrological assessment and evaluation of returning used products in the circular factory to enable a new life cycle
•  Methods for data-driven learning from human disassembly to enable automated robot-based automation
•  Processing technology solutions for the reprocessing of used products
•  Intralogistics and handling of recyclable products

The lecture is complemented by practical items. Real-life industrial problems are presented and discussed in order to reinforce students' understanding of the relevance of the theoretical content and to enable a thorough practical orientation.

Lernziele:

The students…

•  Can name dimensions of circularity and circular economy methods (e.g., repair, refurbish, recycle) and describe them in detail.
•  Can describe challenges in planning and control circular factories, including remanufacturing networks and disassembly systems.
•  Able to apply guidelines for designing circular products.
•  Distinguish data acquisition techniques for metrologically assessing returned products and apply uncertainty-driven product modeling in circular production systems.
•  Have methodical knowledge on learning from human observation and disassembly automatization and apply this knowledge to new problem cases.
•  Can describe reprocessing methods, including reconditioning and material characterization.
•  Understand the challenges in intralogistics for circular products.

After completing this course, students are able to understand the challenges of establishing a circular economy. They are also able to evaluate possible solutions and assess them in relation to these challenges. In particular, students are ultimately able to understand circular production in a circular factory holistically and to relate it to existing concepts in industrial practice.

Arbeitsaufwand:

Präsenzzeit: 62 Stunden
Selbststudium: 178 Stunden

Medien:
Skript zur Veranstaltung wird über (https://ilias.studium.kit.edu/) bereitgestellt.

Media:
Lecture notes will be provided in Ilias (https://ilias.studium.kit.edu/).