Cradle to Cradle Sustainability Concept for Technology Education Senior Capstone Projects

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1 Cradle to Cradle Sustainability Concept for Technology Education Senior Capstone Projects Mr. George E. Comber, Mr. Kerry N. Tobin Weber State University/ Weber State University Abstract The Engineering Technology (ET) Department in the The College of Applied Science and Technology (COAST) at Weber State University (WSU), like many other ABET accredited institutions, has implemented a Senior Capstone Project (SCP). A newer approach to the ET Department at WSU is an implementation of a cradle to cradle sustainability concept program that utilizes the integration of several disciplines including Manufacturing, Design, Mechanical, and Electronic Engineering Technologies. The first cradle scenario begins with a survey of the industrial importance of design, processes and materials. This concept guides the student through a series of progressive course that lead into the success of the industrial project. This type of scenario would be considered a cradle to grave, the grave being the conclusion of the project. We have strived to create a new beginning at the end of the project, the second cradle. This new cradle of the capstone is a collaboration element with an industrial partner that benefits all parties involved. Graduates will be recognized as having mastered both theory and application of the body of knowledge to our industrial partners. In turn the ET department gains a strong partnership with industry, while our capstone partners also gain respect of the students being career ready to meet the strong demands of a world market of collaboration. Introduction COAST is known to be a non-traditional school with an older student base (34 years average age) having a high industrial knowledge. WSU is also considered a commuter institution with over 90% of the students with employment. Part of being an effective instructor in a nontraditional teaching institution such as WSU involves understanding how adults learns best. Compared to children and teens, adults have special needs and requirements as learners. Despite the apparent truth, adult learning is a relatively new area of study (Knowles, 1980). Our vision for undergraduate education for a non-tradition programs such as Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MFET) at WSU are based off of concepts of Malcom Knowles, a leading pioneer of adult education. Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. Their teachers must actively involve adult participants in the learning process and serve as facilitators for them. Specifically, they must get participants' perspectives about what topics to cover and let them work on projects that reflect their interests. They should allow the participants to assume responsibility for presentations and group leadership. They have to be sure to act as facilitators, guiding participants to their own knowledge rather than supplying them

2 with facts. Finally, they must show participants how the class will help them reach their goals (e.g., via a personal goals sheet). The students begin their studies by taking a basic Introduction to Engineering course, along with their general education core courses. They will then begin to narrow-down their focus to include a survey of manufacturing processes with labs which subjects includes: pre-professional seminar, geometric dimensioning & tolerancing and 3-Dimensional graphics (3-D), machining principles, materials & processes, metal forming/casting/welding, applied fluid power, plastics & composites, tool design, and process automation. SPC allows the adult student to be facilitators and assume these leadership responsibilities. The SCP is a comprehensive two-semester course that pinnacles the student body of Figure 1: The hour glass represents the students beginning with a broad concept learning during ENG 1000 (pre-professional seminar). Focusing to a narrow study during their discipline core. Then using/displaying a broad understanding during the SCP (capstone). knowledge they have gained through university course work and as well as industrial employment. In the SCP course, students, working in collaborative teams, tackle specific design challenges presented by industry, government, and non-profit organizations. Each team is selected through a rigorous process matching several educational disciplines, current employment, work ethics and personal knowledge to meet their assigned design challenge. The collaborative teams are made up from the following multi-disciplines areas which may include Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MFET), Welding, Plastics and Composites, Design Engineering Technology (DET), Electronics Engineering Technologies (EET) and Electrical Engineering (EE). The sponsoring organization provides each team with a project, expertise, funding and job opportunities (internships and full time employment). In return, each team presents a conceptualized solution, 3D model and working drawings to the sponsor s problem. Once the design is approved they are required to construct, and present a working product or prototype. At the conclusion of the second semester the sponsoring organization takes control and liability of the product/prototype. The Engineering Technology Department at WSU has started by adding a sustainability/accountability approach to design and manufacturing to the SCP. One of the methodologies used has been a Cradle-to-Cradle approach. During a Cradle-to-Cradle approach, the students provide an accountability of sustainably in the design and production of the prototype.

3 Distributed Sustainability When one first thinks of Cradle-to-Cradle in a manufactured product, achieving sustainability and an eco-friendly product from concept design to final deposal of the product comes to mind. What does a capstone team mean when they create eco-friendly products? There s a big difference between making small changes to a product, and then marketing it as green, and creating truly sustainable offerings. The word sustainable may best be defined as a product capable of being continued with no net long-term effect on the environment. In this form, sustainable takes the form of Cradle-to-Cradle, for any product. This has been understood as the key in all aspects of a sustainable life cycle of production. There are many well-known methodologies that have been based around the concept of sustainability. Some of the common methodologies are: Cradle-to-Gate Cradle-to-Market Cradle-to-Grave Cradle-to-Cradle Green Washing methodology used to hide abuses to the environment Some questions that may be asked are; should a manufacturing engineering capstone project have a social responsibility of sustainability for the whole life of their product, or only through the manufacturing stage done at the university? Should the environmental responsibility be passed onto the sponsoring organization, to do what they will with the product through its life cycle and disposal stage as long as the design and manufacturing was sustained? Ultimately the market and or regulation will drive the response to these questions (Carter & Comber, 2009). In a truly efficient scenario a manufacturer SCP would only need to focus on their product while it is in their control. Sustainable aspects of the product after it leaves the control of the SCP would be the responsibility of the user. Market pressure would demand that the manufacturer supply products that the user could operate in a sustainable way. Ultimately, this would drive Cradle-to-Cradle methodologies in the long term. In the near term it s reasonable to expect that intelligent consumers, (e.g. sponsoring organization), of products will be motivated not only by the sustainability of the manufacture process used in the SCP but by the sustainable use of the product through the life cycle. An example of a Cradle-to-Cradle approach in a SCP was the sustainable Aqua-Life Aquaponic System for the sponsoring organization Horimasa International Co.,Inc ( Working in collaboration with Vegi Lab, a division of Horimosa, and quoted in the Aqua-Life SCP final documentation project executive summary, WSU was commissioned to design and construct an aquaponic system that is reasonably attractive and new in appearance judged by market standards. The Horimasa Company of Japan reached an agreement with the Aqua-Life SCP team to Design and build an aquaponic system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish) combined with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. Materials used in the construction of

4 the aforesaid aquaponic system shall be reasonably accessible based on the markets of China, United States, or Japan. This project was focused around a sustainability and an eco-friendly product. The SCP team took a Cradle-to-Cradle approach in the design and manufacturing of the prototype. The one methodology that has interest in our sponsoring organization (e.g. Haromasa) is the concept of Cradle-to-Cradle. Cradle-to-Cradle is the look at a product in its full life cycle assessment from the manufacturing stage (cradle1) through the use-phase, the disposal phase and finally to the reversion and recycle materials (cradle2). Cradle-to-Cradle represents a global concept of sustainability as a finished industrial product reverting back to the product type from which it came. In this case, a home aquaponics system being delivered to a customer will go through its full service life, discarded into the recycle bin, scrapped into individual components, recycled back into the manufacture environment (full circle). The recycle material would consist of material such as the stainless steel, cooper wiring, acrylic (PMMA) plastic and the bio-material matrix (BMM). Achieving Cradle-to-Cradle sustainability for commercial products is clearly in the best interest of society in general and as a result is socially responsible. This also provides for the most efficient and cost effective use of materials. Achieving Cradle-to-Cradle sustainability could provide a competitive advantage. Another issue is the view of senior project student in a manufacturing phase. In a multi-discipline project, several of the discipline (e.g. EE, ME, EET, DET and even MFET) are often far removed from the vision of a Figure 2 SCP Aqua-Life Aquaponic System (Vegi Lab, life cycle of the product they have designed. In many cases the students don t know where raw material comes from, only that they have order it. They become more concerned when it going to be received, if it becomes in short supply or is in some way defective. They have limited visibility of the product cycle before and after their roles in that cycle. The students do have great pride in their work, knowing that the product is manufactured correctly to specifications, and will be happy if they have the correct equipment to produce the product. Their view of the manufacturing world seems to be narrow and focused on the work in front of them. If a university wants a sustainable product, then sustainability needs to be accomplished within the scope of the project. The understanding would need to be covered during the discipline core and SCP portion of their curricula. One of the problems with implementation of the concepts of Cradle-to-Cradle in the SCP is deciding where to start. Students struggle with this: for example if their product design is inherently unsustainable, should effort be directed there? Is it worthwhile for a student to invest

5 in sustainable production of an unsustainable product? There are many case studies that focus on design changes to allow sustainable production. In commercial corporations the problem is more complex. Design changes require rigorous review and testing. In some cases the change could require re-certification, such as in aircraft. The high cost of change keeps all but the best business cases from moving forward. For a senior project, this could represent a complete redesign and failure of their SCP semester. That said, the unsustainable production of a sustainable design is not sustainable either. Development of the methods of sustainability for production is an essential precursor to sustainable designs. Simply put, every step along the way must be sustainable for the entire process to be sustainable. Using distributed sustainability could be a process used in any SCP. The Axiom in distributed sustainability states: In a sustainable system, every atom in the system is neither leaving nor entering. Corollary 1) the system is driven by renewable energy sources. Corollary 2) the sustainability of any subsystem can be measured by the elemental balance of that subsystem. Corollary 3) A subsystem becomes sustainable when it has a mass balance of zero. Corollary 4) the downstream process/user shall control all aspects of what an upstream process sends. Corollary 5) Essential material flow shall not be restricted. In a sustainable manufacturing phase, one must close the internal loops and balance the inputs with the outputs, such that there is only added value and the elimination of all waste (Carter & Comber, 2009). This concept is fundamentally easy. SCP can account for sustainability with this simple model. Sustainability is accomplished when mass balance is achieved in a manufacturing cell. There are a couple of goals associated with distributed sustainability: 1) account for all material that passes through the cell and 2) drive waste and recycle (scrap) to zero. Essentially, sustainability is achieved by a manufacturing process when that process achieves material use efficiency of 100%. In addition to being environmentally responsible it is clearly of substantial economic advantage. Moreover, this approach is fully compatible with Lean methodologies. The Distributed Sustainability methodology works with each manufacturing process individually within the production of the derivable product to the end user, in this case the sumptank in the aqua-life system. An example of an individual process would be producing the tank out of acrylic sheet, cutting the acrylic pieces on a CNC router, and then binder the pieces together to produce the tank in a manufacturing cell. Each manufacturing process becomes a customer that is receiving some form of material. In this case of binder (Weld-on) and the acrylic the material would be an X1 amount (pints) of binder and the X2 lbs of acrylic. This material is accounted within its cell. The material is processed to produce an export e.g. Sump-tank, fish tank, grow bed, sump, grow lights, finished assembly, or any other completed process within manufacturing.

6 Equation 1 Export + Waste + Recycle = 100 % material that entered the cell In the ideal sustainable state, the process would make the export 100% of the received material, thus no waste or recycled material. However, prior to obtaining the ideal state there will be some loses to be accounted. These loses are any material that has not been delivered to the customer. For example the acrylic machined chips produced in the routing operation or the binder that been spilled or even mixed but not used. To be sustainable, the process must then account for every atom [element] within the manufacturing process. Equation 1 above shows that all material must equal 100%. Accounting for every atom represents the process is sustainable. There are two process by-product streams that can be taken if the export does not contain 100% of the atoms [elements]. These two byproducts streams are waste and recycle. The waste stream becomes a very important metric in the sustainability equation. Waste is defined as: Any material that enters the system that does not leave as product or as revert. In this definition, material that is currently described as recycle would be classified as waste. Identifying, understanding, and tracking waste is an important first step in developing the accountability necessary to achieve sustainability. This does not mean that having waste in the process is not sustainable. Sustainability needs to be represented by accountability. Figure 3 Export and recycle stream in a manufacturing cell

7 The recycle stream is also important (Figure 3). For sustainability, some or all recycled material does not return to the cell in a usable form. We must add the term: revert; material that leaves the process to be returned to the process in a usable form. The percentage of raw material input to the process that is from recycle can be counted as revert if the process returns material to the primary producer for recycle. Within the example of the sump-tank, we started with the sheet of acrylic (X1) and a pint of binder (X2). The acrylic designed pieces were nested for the least amount of waste in a CAM software and the CNC router cut out assembly pieces (X1export). The chips produced and leftover material not big enough to be used in a later operation are counted as a % of scrap/waste (X1scrap). The amount of binder that adhere the acrylic assembly pieces together is consider as export (X2export) and the unused binder is considered wasted or un-recyclable spillage (X2scrap). In Equation 1 the export will most likely be less than 100% due to the by-products streams of waste and recycle. This concept of export being less than 100% can lead the students in understanding green washing. Equation 1 example (X1export) + (X1scrap) + (X2export) + (X2scrap) 100% The topic of green washing needs to be briefly reviewed. There are some who claim Zero = 30% in the by-product streams. They define zero waste as being achieved when their waste stream is reduced to 30% of the current level. There can be no accounting tricks or redefinitions to achieve sustainability. In practice, sustainability is a journey like LEAN. Understanding and developing tools to account for performance relative to the ideal state allows for the development of performance metrics. Clearly, the goal must be Zero = 0, but in reality there will be accountable waste in the scrap and spill streams. As we approach the goal, waste will be minimized as will production costs. Costs will become lower as a higher level of sustainability is achieved (Carter & Comber, 2009). Another example of approaching sustainability is where some SCP students produced sheet metal parts for projects that are punched out on a turret punch press. At the first attempt to produce the parts, the students laid-out the parts on a 4 x 8 sheet of sheet metal. They produced 48 parts at 68% utilization with considerable waste. By using a nesting program, they were able to modify the layout to produce 10 more parts for a total of 82% utilization with considerably less waste. (See figure 4)

8 Figure 4 This concept brings sustainability back to the hands of the SCP students. Sustainability will not be accomplished at conferences. It will be accomplished by the hands of people who make the things that others consume. Each manufacturing process in the SCP can be managed with these simple goals and tools. The student can focus on their part of product sustainability. The SCP discipline only needs to focus on the narrow scope of their manufacturing cell. By accounting for and reducing scrap and waste, a manufacturing process can be considered sustained. When all of the processes or manufacturing cells become sustained, then the finished product as a sum can also be considered sustained. In conclusion: the SCP students at Weber State are changing the way they look at their projects with respect to how sustainable they are. After graduation, they will be better prepared to meet the challenges for sustainability in their respective industrial environments. References: Carter, M. D., & Comber, G. E. (2009). Distributed Sustanabilty, an axiomatic approach. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal. Knowles, M. S. (1980). The Modern Practice of Adult Education: Form Pedigogy to Andragogy. Cambridge: The Adult Education Company.

9 Biography: Kerry N. Tobin - Associate Professor, Weber State University ktobin@weber.edu Weber State University 1447 Edvalson St., Dept 1802 Ogden UT, Mr. Tobin is an Associate Professor at Weber State University, Ogden Utah. He has a B.S. from Weber State University and M.S. from the Brigham Young University. He specializes in Manufacturing Engineering and focuses in manufacturing process, machining, fluid power and welding. George E. Comber, P.E. - Professor, Weber State University gcomber@weber.edu Weber State University 1447 Edvalson St., Dept 1802 Ogden UT, Mr. Comber is a Professor at Weber State University, Ogden Utah. He has a B.S. and M.S. from the Brigham Young University. He specializes in Manufacturing Engineering and focuses in the instructional areas of CAD/CAM and plastic engineering technologies.