ECO-INNOVERA: SMC-EXCEL (Enhancing Sustainability by Mass Customization for European Consumer Electronics)

• Forschungsstelle: BAFU
• Projektnummer: UTF 469.25.13
• Projekttitel Englisch: ECO-INNOVERA: SMC-EXCEL (Enhancing Sustainability by Mass Customization for European Consumer Electronics)

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

system innovation, TV-industry,sustainable mass customization, guidelines, policy recommandations

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

Today, the consumer electronics industry is a typical example of mass production. This model raises numerous environmental issues throughout the entire product life cycle. The increasing demand and a lack of resource efficient design of the appliances and processes lead to increased use of raw material as well as hazardous materials. The beneficial impacts of new technologies are often offset by rebound-effects that result from increased consumer demands and inefficient usage patterns during the products usephase. Fast developments in peripheral technologies cause decreasing product lifetimes. As a result of the short product life cycles, an increased use of raw material and limited recycling and re-use opportunities are generating larger resource consumption and more waste in the value chain. In addition, off-shore production leads to tremendous transportation emissions. Previous research has suggested a number of environmental benefits along all phases of the product life cycle which may results from shifting from a forecast-based mass production system onto an on-demand, mass customization based business model. The shift towards mass customization requires a profound system innovation along the entire knowledge and supply chain and has not yet taken place in the consumer electronics industries. Mass customization has been regarded by the European Commission as one of the main value drivers of the European economy. The present project strives to provide a system innovation enhancing the ecological sustainability in the field of consumer electronics, focusing on TV sets. It is planned to provide guidelines and policy recommendations, tested in two industry pilots demonstrators, to enhance the eco-sustainability of TV sets by shifting from the current mass production of products with short technology cycles ("gadgetization") towards a mass customization of TV sets meeting individual users' demands.

 

The present project is part of the European ECO-INNOVERA research program. The following institutions/organisations are partners in the consortium engaged in this program:

Research Institution	Country	Funding organisation
RWTH Aachen University Technology & Innovation Management Group	Germany	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
e-hoch-3 Hora-Hermenau-Tazir GbR	Germany	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Vestel Elektronik Sanayi ve Ticaret AS	Turkey	Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK)
University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland Institute of Systems and Technologies for Sustain-able Production (SUPSI)	Switzerland	Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
GAVIA SA	Switzerland	Federal Office for the Environment FOEN"

 

The present contract constricts on the part of the SUPSI and GAVIA SA, funded by the FOEN.

Ergebnisse gemäss Vertrag (Französisch)

1.       Données qui décrivent l'état actuel des business-modèles, des marchés, des exigences des acteurs externes et des facteurs critiques de succès de GAVIA SA.

2     Données qui décrivent le design des éléments pour un business-modèle durable de customisation de masse. (Jalon 1).

3     Données qui décrivent les résultats des essais d'implémentation du modèle de customisation de masse chez GAVIA SA.

4     Un catalogue de recommandations pour l'élaboration de politiques faisant la promotion de modèle de customisation de masse. (Jalon 2).

5     Au moins un Workshop a été organisé et les résultats ont été diffusés auprès d'un public large. (Jalon 3).

6     Rédaction d’un rapport final présentant les résultats des points 1 à 5.

7     Eléments de textes et illustrations ou photos pour l’impression d’un fact-sheet à l’adresse du public.

8     Présentation des résultats lors d’un colloque scientifique à l’OFEV (avec présentation Power-point).

Projektziele (Englisch)

 

1.     Aims of the project

The project aims at a full system innovation by remodelling the complete value chain of the TV industry towards a sustainable business model driven by mass customization. Piloting activities are started at VESTEL and GAVIA for testing and assessing the sustainable mass customization based business model, hereby especially also measuring consumer acceptance and market adoption, to derivate guidelines, policy recommendations and business model blueprints for implementation in TV industry on an European level.

 

2.     Aims of this project for SUPSI and GAVIA SA

The first aim is to contribute the development of the mass customization business model, taking into account the consequences of mass customization introduction on the configuration and management of the supply chain and of the network of service providers.

The other aim is that a real demonstrator for piloting activities of the new mass custom-ization business model in the TV sector is successfully introduced at GAVIA SA.

Beschreibung der Resultate (Englisch)

SMC-Excel project strived to develop, evaluate, and pilot a system innovation enhancing the ecological sustainability in the field of consumer electronics (CE), primarily focusing on television sets (TVs). The project provides guidelines and policy recommendations, to enhance the eco-sustainability of TVs by shifting its value chain from the current mass production of products with short technology cycles (“gadgetization”) towards a mass customization (MC) of TVs meeting individual users’ demands. In sharp contrast to other consumer industries, manufacturers of CE and TVs in particular have not yet followed this business paradigm. Because lack of system integration and assessment hinder the adoption of MC more than singular technological constraints, SMC-Excel aimed at a full system innovation by assessing changes along the value chain of the TV industry. The following 7 Sustainable Mass Customization core patterns for more sustainable business model were described: “Sustainable solution space development”, “Sustainable configuration”, “Recyclable and upgradable products”, “Produce only what you sell”, “Sustainable usage”, “Additional services”, and “Product stewardship”. The developed concepts and methodologies were validated in 2 pilots, one involving a consumer electronics manufacturer and the other a SME dealing with reverse logistics and recycling processes. The assessment of the potential environmental benefits is done using a complete Life Cycle Approach (LCA) and addresses among others: awareness raising through co-creation, circularity through services, less waste through build-to-order, environmental impact enhancement by modularity and reuse.

Umsetzung und Anwendungen (Englisch)

Key barriers for the implementation of MC and environmental shortcomings of the current mass production Business Models (BM) are identified through a detailed AS-IS analysis. TV supply chain environmental hotspots were identified, “production” and “use” phases have the main environmental impact. Capabilities for MC and environmental guidelines were outlined as a basis for the development of new BM patterns for SMC. The concepts were applied in two industrial pilots. The width of a sustainable solution space was defined with wholesalers and Vestel experts. A new environmental assessment methodology for MC was developed to easily assess the environmental impact of each choice about hardware, software and service configuration. A web based product configurator was created to analyze how co-creation can enhance consumer awareness and foster sustainable consumption. Services enlarging the product lifetime and enabling resource recovery have been integrated in the configurator to pave the way towards customizable Product Service Systems. Aurum Gavia explored possibilities to improve the end-of-life of an MC based supply chain and explored new BM based on reuse. Policy recommendations for different stakeholders and guidelines for managing TV sets value chain were derived and categorized.

Weiteres Vorgehen (Englisch)

The obtained results and the developed approach are currently being further validated and refined. The evidences collected during SMC-Excel activities demonstrate how the developed approaches can simultaneously enhance economic and environmental performances. Circular economy business models and the systemic approach towards a more sustainable consumption and more effective and efficient closed-loop supply chains will be further explored by the involved partners both acting together and pursuing independent research and commercial activities. For instance, some of the Swiss and German partners will prepare together a project proposal for the following incoming H2020 call “Raw materials policy support actions for the circular economy” (CE-SC5-08-2018-2019-2020).

From an industrial point of view, the closed-loop Supply Chain pilot activities are undertaking the ramp-up phase and are going to be extended to other markets and network of partners. Specifically Aurum Gavia is starting collaboration in Dominican Republic and Israel to combine consumer electronics and electric material reuse and recycling; similar exploratory activities are also undertaken in Albania.

Publikationen / Ergebnisse (Englisch)

In total the consortium published more than 20 articles, the Swiss partners participated to the following already published or accepted articles and are planning to further disseminate the project results with additional publications in the following months.

Peer-reviewed journals

Hora M., Hankammer, S., Canetta, L., Kaygin Sel, S., Gomez, S., & Gahrens, S., (2016). Designing Business Models for Sustainable Mass Customization: A Framework Proposal, International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 7 (4), 143-152.

Hankammer, S., Hora, M., Canetta, L., & Sel, S. K. (2016). User-Interface Design for Individualization Services to Enhance Sustainable Consumption and Production. Procedia CIRP, 47, 448-453.

Conference proceedings

Canetta, L., Fontana, A., Foletti, M., Tschanen, M., (2018): Sustainability assessment of various circular economy scenarios in the consumer electronics sector, IEEE Proceedings of the Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE), 2018 International ICE Conference (accepted)

Hänsch, A.Z., Hora, M., Fontana, A., Hankammer, S., Canetta, L., Gomez, S., (2017): “A preparatory approach to Environmental Assessment for sustainable mass customization”, 9^th World Mass Customization & Personalization Conference, Aachen, Germany.

Hankammer, S., Weber A.M., Canetta, L., Kaygin Sel, S., Hora, M., (2017): “A Sustainability Based Optimization Model for Starting Solutions in Toolkits for Mass Customization”, IEEE Proceedings of the Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE), 2017 International ICE Conference.

Hora M., Hankammer, S., Canetta, L., Kaygin Sel, S., Gomez, S., Gahrens, S., (2016): “A framework for the development of sustainable mass customization business models”, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe, Novi Sad, Serbia, 118-125.