Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering

Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering

The Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing & Life Cycle Engineering provides a wide range of core competencies in the fields of Sustainability in Production and Life Cycle Engineering. We developed the concept of Total Life Cycle Management which serves as framework for our research and education activities which take place in close cooperation with industry.

The chair is part of the Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology and we are embedded in the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Due to the global scope and complexity of our research areas, international cooperation is an essential issue for us. As a major cornerstone of that we form the Joint German-Australian Research Group “Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering together with the Life Cycle Engineering and Management Research Group of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann

Langer Kamp 19b

+49 531 391 - 7149

c.herrmann(at)tu-braunschweig.de

Research

The Sustainable Manufacturing Research Group develops methods, digital tools and technologies for the planning and operation of sustainable manufacturing systems and factories. Thereby, all relevant subsystems of factories (production machines and process chains, technical building services and building shell) and their embedment in the urban context are considered in an integrated manner.

Cyber-physical production systems – standing for the dynamic connection of the physical world with digital (cyber) models - build the methodological framework of the research group. This involves metering strategies and models serving different applications on all levels of production (“from machine to factory roof”) as well as innovative visualisation concepts for employees.

Technical products are complex systems that affect the environment through the use of energy and raw materials as well as through the generation of emissions. Solutions towards achieving a sustainable development demand a life cycle-oriented approach. The aim is to minimize costs and optimize revenues as well as minimize risks and environmental impacts throughout the entire product life cycle (from cradle idea to gate).

The Life Cycle Engineering department is focused in the evaluation of the sustainability implications of products and process on a life cycle perspective. In this regard, we aim at developing computational tools that enable a comprehensive quantification and analysis of potential sustainability issues brought by the emergence of new technologies and its attached technology change.

By applying system analysis methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) along with modern computational and analytical approaches such as visual analytics, the LCE department aims at efficiently disclosing insights from large and complex product systems to support relevant stakeholders such as manufacturers, policy makers and consumers during decision making processes.

The system of systems engineering research group focuses on the development of methods and tools for the systematic analysis, evaluation and design of complex system structures as well as the related subsystems. Products, machines and systems are increasingly intelligent and connected with their environment. As a result, previously independent, distributed and developing constituent subsystems are combined to the more complex systems of systems. They combine the capabilities and resources of the subsystems and through intelligent collaboration offer more functionality than the sum of the individual systems (emergent behavior). An example of such a system of systems is the mobility system, which is increasingly connected to other systems such as the energy system or the communication system, e.g. through electric mobility and sharing concepts.

For companies, the trend towards system of systems offers the opportunity to develop new data based business models by generating and evaluating comprehensive data volumes. At the same time, competition is increasingly shifting from individual products to product systems to the complex systems of systems. In order to make use of the potentials of the intelligent networking of systems and to avoid systemic inefficiencies through problem shifts beyond the system boundaries, suitable methods and tools are required. The fields of research are amongst others the data-driven engineering of novel business models, product service systems, new mobility systems, as well as innovative forms of cooperation between companies in the sense of an industrial symbiosis.

A list of the current research projects of the Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering.