Sub-Project WG VPE

Derivation and development of process-oriented methods and concepts for life cycle wide assessment and evaluation of the energy and resource demand of mobile working machines

The focus in the work of the workgroup VPE is put on the holistic, ecological Evaluation of alternative concepts. Therefore product and process models of the existing as well as of the optimized machine are created. Furthermore, methods for computer aided effects assessment of the optimization will be developed. Concluding, using these methods, the optimizations will be analyzed and evaluated over the whole life cycle of the machine regarding to eco-efficiency.

The overall system concept is presented in the following picture:

Project Objective

Objective of the sub-project is the support of the development respectively the optimization of the mobile working machine through a conceptual attempt for expansion of the product life cycle management. This concept extends the product model as well as the process model by a technical-economical attention to the ecological parameters and allows therewith an aggregated evaluation of energy and resource efficiency of the product over the product life cycle.

Approach

The expansion, mentioned above, takes place in several steps. First of all a model of the mobile working machine has to be developed, in order to evaluate the existing product in the context of its life cycle and considering the chosen ecological efficiency criteria. The use of this model is essential for the evaluation of the environmental effects and for the identification of ecological potentials. Crucial in this step is the integration of the model and its methodology in the processes of the life cycle management. The integrated concept allows a multidimensional, interdisciplinary and planed ahead over all life cycle phases, optimized and environmentally correct product design.

Core Competences

The Institute for Virtual Product Engineering (VPE) at the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau is lead since 2004 by Professor Martin Eigner. The institute researches in the filed of virtual product engineering and have extensive experiences in the development of methods and concepts for optimization of all phases of the product engineering process.

Under the core competences of the institute VPE comes the development of product and process models, which are used as a basis of a product oriented implementation of the product life cycle management (PLM). The optimization of processes with consideration of existing IT solutions for supporting the cooperation between engineers, as well as their integration in the IT system landscape of the enterprise, are integral parts of the research and industrial projects. The research within all competence fields of the institute is characterized by its high application orientation. A close dialog between science and praxis is always realized. Alongside with the core scientific work the institute offers consulting and further services. That gives enterprises the possibility to use the latest scientific knowledge for solution of industrial problems.