Browsing by Author "Okorie, Okechukwu"

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    A decision-making framework for the implementation of remanufacturing in rechargeable energy storage system in hybrid and electric vehicles
    (Elsevier, 2018-07-25) Okorie, Okechukwu; Turner, Christopher J.; Salonitis, Konstantinos; Charnley, Fiona; Moreno, Mariale; Tiwari, Ashutosh; Hutabarat, Windo
    As data from manufacturing and digital intelligence become a pervasive feature of our economy, it becomes increasingly important to leverage on this data in the creation of new forms of value. Within emerging concepts such as Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and the Internet of Things (IoT), understanding decision-making and stakeholders’ interaction is important in optimising manufacturing and post-manufacturing processes. Of interest is the post-manufacturing phase for the Rechargeable Energy Storage system, (RESS), a battery system embedded in hybrid and electric automobiles. This research develops a decision-making framework for the RESS component, employing data-driven remanufacturing as the circular approach for implementation. Findings highlight useful manufacturing data employed in remanufacturing for the RESS technology. This study concludes by giving recommendations on how decisions made by stakeholders and their interaction can inform manufacturers on design for remanufacturing.
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    Digitisation and the circular economy: A review of current research and future trends
    (MDPI, 2018-11-01) Okorie, Okechukwu; Salonitis, Konstantinos; Charnley, Fiona; Moreno, Moreno; Turner, Christopher J.; Tiwari, Ashutosh
    Since it first appeared in literature in the early nineties, the Circular Economy (CE) has grown in significance amongst academic, policymaking, and industry groups. The latest developments in the CE field have included the interrogation of CE as a paradigm, and its relationship with sustainability and other concepts, including iterative definitions. Research has also identified a significant opportunity to apply circular approaches to our rapidly changing industrial system, including manufacturing processes and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) which, with data, is enabling the latest advances in digital technologies (DT). Research which fuses these two areas has not been extensively explored. This is the first paper to provide a synergistic and integrative CE-DT framework which offers directions for policymakers and guidance for future research through a review of the integrated fields of CE and I4.0. To achieve this, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR; n = 174) of the empirical literature related to digital technologies, I4.0, and circular approaches is conducted. The SLR is based on peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and early 2018. This paper also summarizes the current trends in CE research related to manufacturing. The findings confirm that while CE research has been on the increase, research on digital technologies to enable a CE is still relatively untouched. While the “interdisciplinarity” of CE research is well-known, the findings reveal that a substantial percentage is engineering-focused. The paper concludes by proposing a synergistic and integrative CE-DT framework for future research developed from the gaps in the current research landscape.
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    Environmental impact assessment of different strategies for the remanufacturing of user electronics
    (MDPI, 2022-03-24) Mann, Angad; Saxena, Prateek; Almanei, Mohammed; Okorie, Okechukwu; Salonitis, Konstantinos
    Over the years, the innovation and development of electrical and electronic equipment have been on a steep rise. Millions of electronics are being sold or discarded every year in the form of waste. Sustainable IT (Green IT or Circular Computing) is one of the most environment-friendly methods of reusing discarded or waste user electronics. The remanufacturing of a computer refers to the disassembly, repair, and upgrade of the original computer to give it a new life, along with a warranty that is as good as a new product. The goal of this work includes studying and assessing the total environmental impact of refurbishing a computer using life cycle assessment (LCA) integrated with discrete event simulation (DES), to compare two business models: (1) a case of centralized remanufacturing where the plants are in the Middle East, which is the hub for receiving waste electronics and distributing remanufactured goods; (2) a case of decentralized remanufacturing where the plants are situated in each continent for over a range of computer models. The environmental assessment was conducted using the openLCA software in combination with the WITNESS Horizon software for the DES. The results show that decentralized remanufacturing is a much more environmentally friendly option for the remanufacturing of computers, and the decentralized remanufacturing operation has a better throughput as well as efficiency, as compared to the centralized remanufacturing operation. The centralized remanufacturing scenario has a climate change impact of 1035.19 kg of CO2-Eq, as compared to the decentralized remanufacturing scenario with an impact of 816.12 kg of CO2-Eq. In terms of the impact on the marine life, decentralized remanufacturing was found to have 0.28 kg of N-Eq impact, as compared to centralized remanufacturing (0.22 kg of N-Eq). However, this does not give us a complete picture, as the environmental impact of the computer in its previous life remains unknown. Multi life cycle assessment is the assessment process that can be used to get a clearer picture of the ecological footprint of the computer during its multiple life cycles.
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    Manufacturing data for the implementation of data-driven remanufacturing for the rechargeable energy storage system in electric vehicles
    (Springer, 2019-02-28) Okorie, Okechukwu; Salonitis, Konstantinos; Charnley, Fiona; Moreno, Maria; Turner, Christopher J.; Tiwari, Ashutosh
    Manufacturing industries are experiencing a data-driven paradigm shift that is changing how technical operations are run and changing present business models. Leveraging on manufacturing data from industries and digital intelligence platforms have become important in creating new forms of value. While extending the life of a product through the circular economy 3 R’s of reuse, re-manufacturing and recycling remains a technical and resource challenge for practitioners, optimizing the increasing forms and volumes of data presents a complementary and necessary challenge to the circular economy. This research aims to explore how the manufacturing data can inform remanufacturing parameters for implementing remanufacturing on the Rechargeable Energy Storage System.
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    Manufacturing in the time of COVID-19: an assessment of barriers and enablers
    (IEEE, 2020-07-27) Okorie, Okechukwu; Subramoniam, Ramesh; Charnley, Fiona; Widdifield, David; Patsavellas, John; Salonitis, Konstantinos
    Pandemics and other forms of epidemic outbreaks are a unique case of manufacturing risk typified by high uncertainty, increasing propagation and long-term disruption to manufacturers, supply chain actors as well as the end-users and consumers. For manufacturing the COVID-19 disruption scope has been largely two-fold; an endogenous disruption of manufacturing processes and systems as well as extreme shifts in demand and supply caused by exogenous supply chain disruption. Existing literature on disruptions in manufacturing suggests that pandemics are qualitatively different from typical disruptions. There is no literature available to manufacturing practitioners that identify the barriers and enablers of manufacturing resilience, especially with regards to pivoting of the manufacturing sector in response to a pandemic. This study draws on an extensive survey collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents were employees of manufacturing firms in all regions of the world who had engaged in manufacturing during the pandemic or had opted out from manufacturing due to various identified reasons. By collating their responses, we offer to practitioners and policymakers an analysis for identifying a best-practice framework for pivoting successfully as a response to major manufacturing disruptions.
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    Simulation to enable a data-driven circular economy
    (MDPI, 2019-06-19) Charnley, Fiona; Tiwari, Divya; Hutabarat, Windo; Moreno, Mariale; Okorie, Okechukwu; Tiwari, Ashutosh
    This paper presents an investigation on how simulation informed by the latest advances in digital technologies such as the 4th Industrial Revolution (I4.0) and the Internet of Things (IoT) can provide digital intelligence to accelerate the implementation of more circular approaches in UK manufacturing. Through this research, a remanufacturing process was mapped and simulated using discrete event simulation (DES) to depict the decision-making process at the shop-floor level of a remanufacturing facility. To understand the challenge of using data in remanufacturing, a series of interviews were conducted finding that there was a significant variability in the condition of the returned product. To address this gap, the concept of certainty of product quality (CPQ) was developed and tested through a system dynamics (SD) and DES model to better understand the effects of CPQ on products awaiting remanufacture, including inspection, cleaning and disassembly times. The wider application of CPQ could be used to forecast remanufacturing and production processes, resulting in reduced costs by using an automatised process for inspection, thus allowing more detailed distinction between “go” or “no go” for remanufacture. Within the context of a circular economy, CPQ could be replicated to assess interventions in the product lifecycle, and therefore the identification of the optimal CE strategy and the time of intervention for the current life of a product—that is, when to upgrade, refurbish, remanufacture or recycle. The novelty of this research lies in investigating the application of simulation through the lens of a restorative circular economic model focusing on product life extension and its suitability at a particular point in a product’s life cycle.
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    A systems dynamics enabled real-time efficiency for fuel cell data-driven remanufacturing
    (MDPI, 2018-11-06) Okorie, Okechukwu; Salonitis, Konstantinos; Charnley, Fiona; Turner, Christopher J.
    Remanufacturing is a viable option to extend the useful life of an end-of-use product or its parts, ensuring sustainable competitive advantages under the current global economic climate. Challenges typical to remanufacturing still persist, despite its many benefits. According to the European Remanufacturing Network, a key challenge is the lack of accurate, timely and consistent product knowledge as highlighted in a 2015 survey of 188 European remanufacturers. With more data being produced by electric and hybrid vehicles, this adds to the information complexity challenge already experienced in remanufacturing. Therefore, it is difficult to implement real-time and accurate remanufacturing for the shop floor; there are no papers that focus on this within an electric and hybrid vehicle environment. To address this problem, this paper attempts to: (1) identify the required parameters/variables needed for fuel cell remanufacturing by means of interviews; (2) rank the variables by Pareto analysis; (3) develop a casual loop diagram for the identified parameters/variables to visualise their impact on remanufacturing; and (4) model a simple stock and flow diagram to simulate and understand data and information-driven schemes in remanufacturing.
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    A triple bottom line examination of product cannibalisation and remanufacturing: a review and research agenda
    (Elsevier, 2021-02-10) Okorie, Okechukwu; Obi, Martins; Russell, Jennifer; Charnley, Fiona; Salonitis, Konstantinos
    Increased momentum in support of a Circular Economy (CE) has motivated the exploration of alternative production and value-retention processes that allow for the decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth. Remanufacturing, a key value retention process, can enable significant economic, environmental and social (also known as triple-bottom line) advantages. Given their competitive value proposition, remanufactured products are often blamed by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for cannibalising the sale of newly manufactured products. Thus, remanufacturing is often viewed as high-risk, and potentially even a threat to conventional manufacturing activities by many OEMs, often triggering both active and passive countermeasures to protect market share. In many cases, such actions lead to reduced access to cores for remanufactures; they can also work against the uptake of remanufacturing activities that are essential for transitioning to a CE. To achieve a CE, remanufacturing activities must be scaled; however, without a clear understanding of the relationship between remanufacturing and product cannibalisation, OEMs may continue to avoid and/or interfere in remanufacturing systems. Further, in alignment with systems-thinking for CE, we posit that broadly-considered integration of CE dimensions is critical but lacking within the literature. To this end, this systematic review paper aims to clarify and organize the existing scientific literature about product cannibalisation and remanufacturing. We examine these contributions through an expanded Triple Bottom Line lens that aligns with the recognized dimensions of CE: social, environmental, economic, management, policy, and technology. A comprehensive content assessment revealed a predominant economic lens to the research, with statistical analysis, game theory, and numerical experiments as the primary methodologies employed. In addition, opportunities to more comprehensively explore social, policy, management, and technology perspectives as they relate to product cannibalisation and remanufacturing were identified. We develop and apply a new framework for considering product cannibalisation and price competition in the broader context of sustainability and the transition to CE. Finally, in addition to identifying a comprehensive range of stakeholders that need to be engaged, we recommend a future research agenda that explores the specific challenges, interactions, and relationships between product cannibalisation, remanufacturing, and the six dimensions of CE.