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Engineering design & manufacturing

We have expertise in the areas of advanced manufacturing, supply chain management, manufacturing management, green manufacturing, robotics, intelligent control and engineering design. Researchers have a strategic focus on applying novel and innovative solutions to improving sustainability and enhancing productivity.  

Research is multidisciplinary and collaborative, covering not only engineering but also areas such as social dimensions, consumer behaviour, economic modelling and government policies and their impacts on productivity and sustainability.

Sustainability:
In the area of sustainability, researchers focus on developing tools and techniques to enable companies to consider sustainability during the design and modelling stages.

Work in this area involves the consideration of environmental issues during the product life cycle from product design to disposal and includes:

  • whole of life analysis for product costing
  • sustainability risk assessment,
  • optimization of assembly sequence planning,
  • design for assembly and disassembly,
  • an integrated framework for design for recyclability, and
  • modelling and optimization in design for product upgradability.

Productivity:
In the area of productivity, researchers focuses on the development and applications of automation technologies (robotics and machine vision), simulation and decision support systems for process improvements, design for assembly, and applications of artificial techniques (genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and neural networks) within the manufacturing plant and within the wider context of distributed manufacturing enterprises (e.g. location-allocation and dynamic scheduling problems) to address the area of supply chain management. Researchers also work in close collaboration with the Mawson Institute.

For further information please contact Peter Majewski

Key projects

Key Barbara Hardy Institute projects within this research capability include:

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