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The purpose of this paper is to provide an environmental‐oriented material selection methodology with two distinct features: it uses a computer‐aided material selector coupled with environmental auditing; and it provides a quantitative analysis of environmental impact of selected material.

A two‐phase computer‐aided procedure that considers material properties, manufacturing constraints, and design and economic requirements is introduced with the objective of finding the material with least negative environmental impact. The procedure is illustrated for an industrial component.

The implementation of the proposed procedure resulted in screening of three feasible materials from a database of 2,900 materials, among which cast aluminum exhibits savings in energy consumption and CO₂ emission. This result shows the effectiveness of using a systematic computer‐aided method for a speedy selection of material and generating quantitative data to measure the environmental performances and assess the product life cycle.

Although the use of digital databases and material selectors can increase the searching speed and efficiency, the user's knowledge is still needed to achieve the maximum benefits.

Consideration of eco‐sustainability factors in product development may require handling an overwhelming amount of data and performing a good many calculations. The literature review also indicates the difficulty of incorporating quantitative data into environmental and life cycle assessments of a product. As a first step to overcome such challenges, the paper presents a practicalcomputer‐aided procedure that can assist product mangers or designers in quickly and efficiently incorporating environmental and sustainability considerations into their business decision making.

In spite of having a number of general‐purpose algorithms for solving plant layout problems, facility planners may still face a challenging task to adjust these algorithms to handle special, but not uncommon, layout problems. The purpose of this study is to propose a new method for addressing the impact of overhead space utilization on a plant layout solution.

A new method for adjusting material flow under a mixed floor and overhead material handling condition is incorporated in an existing plant layout procedure. A case study involving the layout improvement in a lawn mower engine assembly facility is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The analysis of solutions for the case study shows that the layout generated by the proposed modified material flow approach is a more economical solution. The case also shows, when it is important to optimize the use of space, the overhead space should be considered as part of any methodology for designing a good layout.

The proposed modified material flow approach can be applied to any facility where the use of overhead space for material handling is justifiable by limited floor space and/or by high cost of land. The proposed method can be applied to small to medium size problems with minimal computational effort. However, as the size of facility grows, the manual calculation becomes more time consuming and potentially erratic.

This paper should be useful to both researchers and practitioners who deal with overhead space utilization in designing facility layouts.

Multitasking machining (MTM) systems have become increasingly sophisticated and expensive capital equipment. The lack of practical guidelines for selection of these machines can lead to significant undesirable machine attributes, application mismatch, and longer return on investment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight to numerous features and configurations of MTM systems and to present several application‐based selection guidelines.

A taxonomy of MTM systems is developed based on the number of axes of motions, tooling and spindle systems. Practical guidelines for general and advance features are presented with special regard to multi‐axis and multi‐spindle features.

MTM systems are capable of meeting several production goals such as cycle time reduction, minimizing non‐value added times and concurrent processing of multiple parts. However, they possess inherent programming challenges due to their complex configuration and simultaneous machining functions.

The diversity of system configurations demand a decision support system, such as a rule‐based expert system to capture the many variations of MTM systems.

This paper should be useful to decision makers in industry or academia who are involved in selection of MTM systems.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective of computer‐aided material and process selection (MPS) software tools for product development purpose and present a practical approach for manufacturers and other decision makers involved in MPS.

A multi‐criteria deductive approach for MPS is applied to a case study by taking into account the technical performances and environmental constraints. A resource‐based cost modeling is also deployed to examine the implication of selected material and process on overall product cost.

The paper demonstrates the capabilities and shortcoming of existing computerized MPS software tools in assisting product managers and designers for handling the growing volume of material/process data.

Applying computer‐aided MPS approach to complex shape products with multiple features is not a straightforward task and requires further development in existing MPS software tools.

Computer‐aided MPS systems can assist decision makers in solving many material/process selection problems by following a systematic process.

Given today's rapid technological changes, it is important for decision makers to understand the capabilities of computer‐aided MPS software tools in handling a growing volume of data. Very limited research has been done to explore the capabilities and limitations of existing material/process selectors. It is the first in the literature that demonstrates the application of multi‐criteria deductive approach in MPS using a software tool.