This grant provides funding for investigating the technical and economic viability of sensor embedded products geared towards cut down the product repair/service costs, ratchet up the recovery of end-of-life products, and curtail the product disposal rate.
The project plans to achieve the following objectives: (1) develop effective sensor-data processing methods for monitoring the condition of important computer components such as hard drive, motherboard, and power supply units; (2) perform experiments to collect test data; and use statistical methods to characterize remaining life estimates, failure predictions, and false alarms; (3) build a discrete simulation model to represent repair/service and EOL processing operations; validate the simulation models and their results through experimental data inputs from industrial partners; (4) perform cost-benefit analysis; evaluate benefits to companies and consumers; and assess the improvements product recovery and reuse because of sensor-embedded products. The project focuses primarily on desktop computers as test beds to demonstrate the proposed approach; however the outcomes of the research are equally applicable to a wide variety of electronic consumer products such as printers, copiers, home/office networking devices, automotive electronics, and medical electronics.
The project contributions offer valuable benefits to both consumers and companies. To consumers it brings comfort by (1) guarding against surprise and catastrophic product failures; (2) reducing repair/service costs; and (3) eliminating periodic preventive maintenance visits. To companies it provides a means to (1) gain better understanding of customer needs and patterns of product usage; (2) identify the frequent/common product failure modes; and (3) minimize end-of-life product processing costs. Ultimately, the outcomes of the project will help environment by extending the period of product usage and reducing the amount of end-of-life products being diverted to the dump yards.
