Sustainability Dashboard for Remanufacturing Decision Scoring

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Solution Overview

Problem

Companies face challenges in tracking and measuring sustainability metrics effectively to achieve their environmental impact reduction goals, particularly in industrial automation and remanufacturing, which hinders informed decision-making and progress reporting.

Innovation Solution

A sustainability dashboard and data integration platform that provides a centralized system for collecting and analyzing sustainability data, enabling the calculation of predicted sustainability scores for remediation actions and generating graphical representations for decision-making, thereby supporting industrial automation sustainability reporting.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If companies acquire new machinery instead of remanufacturing or repairing, then equipment reliability is improved, but environmental impact and carbon emissions increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveequipment reliabilityVSAvoidcarbon emissions
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system promotes remanufacturing and repair by recovering value from existing equipment rather than discarding it. The sustainability dashboard tracks and reports on remanufacturing activities, demonstrating that recovered equipment can meet reliability requirements while reducing environmental impact compared to acquiring new machinery.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #34Discarding and recovering

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the decision-making parameters by introducing sustainability metrics and predicted sustainability scores alongside traditional reliability considerations. This allows companies to evaluate equipment decisions based on both reliability and environmental impact parameters.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Measurement precision

If companies implement comprehensive sustainability tracking and measurement systems, then sustainability reporting capability is improved, but system complexity and data integration requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesustainability metrics trackingVSAvoiddata integration platform complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The sustainability dashboard acts as an intermediary layer that sits between multiple data sources (ERP, maintenance management systems, remanufacturing systems) and the decision-making process. It consolidates and standardizes data from various sources, presenting unified sustainability metrics without requiring complex direct integrations between all underlying systems.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms by providing predicted sustainability scores and actionable insights that feed back into decision-making processes. This enables continuous improvement of sustainability performance while managing system complexity through iterative optimization rather than requiring perfect initial complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Object-generated harmful factors

If companies prioritize remanufacturing and repair over new machinery acquisition, then carbon emissions are reduced, but equipment availability and productivity may be affected

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecarbon emissionsVSAvoidequipment availability
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-generated harmful factorsVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary analysis by calculating predicted sustainability scores and evaluating multiple remediation options before equipment decisions are made. This allows companies to plan remanufacturing or repair activities in advance, scheduling them to minimize impact on productivity and equipment availability while achieving emission reduction goals.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides dynamic decision support by evaluating multiple remediation actions and their predicted sustainability scores in real-time. This enables flexible, adaptive decision-making that can optimize for both emission reduction and productivity based on current operational conditions, equipment status, and business priorities.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP4361925A1Industrial automation remanufacturing and repair sustainability reporting/dashboard
Publication Date: 2024.05.01 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION TECH INC
  • EP4361925A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4361925A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4361925A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods for providing industrial automation sustainability reporting. One method includes receiving sustainability data for an industrial device included in an industrial system. The method also includes determining, based on the sustainability data, a predicted sustainability score for each of a plurality of remediation actions as a set of predicted sustainability scores. The method also includes generating and transmitting a graphical representation of the set of predicted sustainability scores for display.