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K. Martinsen et al.
21.5 Discussions, Conclusions and Further Work
The CLTE maturity assessment tool is a semi-quantitative tool for mapping a
company and to point at possible improvements. The case company is measuring
and storing large quantities of data along product development and manufacturing
phases. To transfer the data and extract information useful across the lifecycle is
currently difficult, though, especially the feedback loops. For example, currently
data from statistical process control are stored, but to translate these charts to generic
process capabilities and make it easy accessible and usable for the product designers
and tolerance definition is still not straight forward.
The extended CLTE with a review on how CLTE or similar approaches might play
role to achieve a circular economy with prolonged product lifetime, increased reuse
and remanufacturing is still a vision for future manufacturing system. The central
aspect of this paper is to raise the awareness of the importance of tolerance engineering processes. In order to start to take a more holistic and systemic view where the
potentials for product prolongation and several loops of reuse and remanufacturing
of components could play a role in tolerance optimisation. Further work would see
longitudinal results from industries using the tool with measured improvements, as
well as making a simulation model for the Extended CLTE with a Circular Economy
perspective in order to understand its effects and environmental impacts.
Alternative model using agent based modelling (ABM)
CLD can give us a good visual image of what affects what, helping us with understanding how the complex circular manufacturing system works. Then, it will be very
useful if this can help a stakeholder (e.g. producer) when they have to make critical
decisions. But one essential issue here is that, since the system involves various stakeholders (depending on the case—they could be OEMs, component suppliers, service
providers, consumers,…), the value of each decision is critically dependent on how
other stakeholders behave, and their behaviours themselves would be affecting each
other in a complex manner. One stakeholder can’t really manipulate (or, even fully
understand) other stakeholders’ strategies. By employing an Agent based Modelling
(ABM) approach, we can model these stakeholders as agents, and treat the abovementioned complexity as emergent phenomena. By combining ABM with CLD, it
would be possible to see which variables of CLD belong to (= can be controlled
by/are directly defined by) which agent, and which variables and links should be
considered to have high uncertainty.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the case study company KA. The work was based
on activities within the INMAN project funded by the Intpart program contract number 275156 and
the SFI Manufacturing, funded by the Norwegian Research Council contract number 237900.
K. Martinsen et al.
21.5 Discussions, Conclusions and Further Work
The CLTE maturity assessment tool is a semi-quantitative tool for mapping a
company and to point at possible improvements. The case company is measuring
and storing large quantities of data along product development and manufacturing
phases. To transfer the data and extract information useful across the lifecycle is
currently difficult, though, especially the feedback loops. For example, currently
data from statistical process control are stored, but to translate these charts to generic
process capabilities and make it easy accessible and usable for the product designers
and tolerance definition is still not straight forward.
The extended CLTE with a review on how CLTE or similar approaches might play
role to achieve a circular economy with prolonged product lifetime, increased reuse
and remanufacturing is still a vision for future manufacturing system. The central
aspect of this paper is to raise the awareness of the importance of tolerance engineering processes. In order to start to take a more holistic and systemic view where the
potentials for product prolongation and several loops of reuse and remanufacturing
of components could play a role in tolerance optimisation. Further work would see
longitudinal results from industries using the tool with measured improvements, as
well as making a simulation model for the Extended CLTE with a Circular Economy
perspective in order to understand its effects and environmental impacts.
Alternative model using agent based modelling (ABM)
CLD can give us a good visual image of what affects what, helping us with understanding how the complex circular manufacturing system works. Then, it will be very
useful if this can help a stakeholder (e.g. producer) when they have to make critical
decisions. But one essential issue here is that, since the system involves various stakeholders (depending on the case—they could be OEMs, component suppliers, service
providers, consumers,…), the value of each decision is critically dependent on how
other stakeholders behave, and their behaviours themselves would be affecting each
other in a complex manner. One stakeholder can’t really manipulate (or, even fully
understand) other stakeholders’ strategies. By employing an Agent based Modelling
(ABM) approach, we can model these stakeholders as agents, and treat the abovementioned complexity as emergent phenomena. By combining ABM with CLD, it
would be possible to see which variables of CLD belong to (= can be controlled
by/are directly defined by) which agent, and which variables and links should be
considered to have high uncertainty.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the case study company KA. The work was based
on activities within the INMAN project funded by the Intpart program contract number 275156 and
the SFI Manufacturing, funded by the Norwegian Research Council contract number 237900.