Title: Sustainable engineering management: end-of-life vehicles with recovery in mind

Authors: G.M. Acaccia, R.C. Michelini, N. Qualich

Addresses: PMARlab – Laboratorio di Progettazione e Misure per l'Automazione e la Robotica, DIMEC – Dipartimento di Meccanica e Costruzione delle Macchine, Universita di Genova, Via all'Opera Pia 15A, 16145 Genova, Italy. ' PMARlab – Laboratorio di Progettazione e Misure per l'Automazione e la Robotica, DIMEC – Dipartimento di Meccanica e Costruzione delle Macchine, Universita di Genova, Via all'Opera Pia 15A, 16145 Genova, Italy. ' PMARlab – Laboratorio di Progettazione e Misure per l'Automazione e la Robotica, DIMEC – Dipartimento di Meccanica e Costruzione delle Macchine, Universita di Genova, Via all'Opera Pia 15A, 16145 Genova, Italy

Abstract: Growth sustainability requires to lower pollution and raw materials consumption. The paper deals with car end-of-life recovery (reuse, recycle) regulation as new business issue, and outlines modelling and simulation paths, to assess problems in reverse logistics for items collection and process data management. The backward flow (from exhausted items, to useful provisions) is fostered to lower the resort to raw materials, transformed into pollution and waste. The ecologic prospects conflict with the economic return on investment, and appropriate regulations ought to be enacted, to balance the backward flow incumbents, by mandatory supply chain prescriptions.

Keywords: reverse logistics; waste regulation; automotive recovery; reuse; recycling targets; decision support; discrete event simulation; sustainability; sustainable development; engineering management: end-of-life vehicles; EOL; modelling; process data management; supply chain management; SCM; EU environmental policy; European Union; automobile industry.

DOI: 10.1504/WRSTSD.2007.013578

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, 2007 Vol.4 No.2/3, pp.105 - 125

Published online: 08 May 2007 *

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