Management of Technological Innovation: Hierarchical Decision-Making in Life-Cycle Processing and Planning for Computer and Electronic Products

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Proposal# 9421194 University of California at Berkeley The recent trend of more stringent government legislation and growing consumerism for "green" product features have driven manufactures to consider a proactive approach towards minimizing the environmental impact of their products and processes. Computer and electronics manufactures have been leading this paradigm shift through efforts in solvent substitution and selections of packaging materials. However, these efforts have occurred largely through uncoordinated local efforts, with only limited transformation into corporate wide environmental strategies. This proposal presents an multi-disciplinary, integrated analysis of hierarchical decision-making for the manufacture of computer and electronics products. A key issue in this analysis is the development of process, product planning and firm level metrics for measuring environmental performance. At the process level, analytical models will be developed to evaluate trade-off between effluents, energy utilization, production rate and quality for metal forming, interjection molding, board assembly, chassis assembly, disassembly and regrind operations. The process models and metrics can be combined to evaluate alternative manufacturing / recycling paths, as well as changes in material selection and geometric features. Finally, using engineering data, the development of overall organizational metrics for environmental performance will be explored. The proposed research will also examine the impact of vertical integration and influence on vendor environmental performance in decentralized manufacturing and recycling. The analytical modeling will be complemented by field studies at production sites of our industrial partners, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hughes Aircraft Company, as well as sites of their manufacturing and recycling vendors. Deployment of research will occur through both on-site case studies of industrial products and creation of curriculum material in the College of Engi neering, Haas School of Business Administration and the School of Public Health.