Title: Determination of redesign proposals to optimise end-of-life treatment of electrical and electronic equipment

Authors: Anastasia Katsamaki; Nikolaos Bilalis

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania Crete, Greece ' Department of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania Crete, Greece

Abstract: The purpose of this work is to present a series of actions that aim to minimise negative environmental consequences of end-of-life (EOL) treatment of wastes of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). To achieve this, the proposed methodology includes search in product redesign interventions and selection of the optimal EOL treatment process based on product characteristics. The process to handle the analysis performed is based on lean thinking (LT) principles. The proposed methodology is an effort to form a simple frame of analysis able to be adjusted in any case of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). In the end, current results of an application that is still in process are presented concerning the EOL treatment of an oil distribution transformer. These preliminary results seem to be quite satisfactory. However, it appears that improvement actions need to take place in the future mainly concerning data selection and evaluation.

Keywords: electrical and electronic equipment waste; WEEE; end-of-life treatment; lean thinking; EOL products; environmental impact; product redesign; oil distribution transformers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2012.052675

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2012 Vol.6 No.2, pp.161 - 177

Received: 03 Oct 2011
Accepted: 31 Oct 2012
Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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