Enhancing economic and environmental sustainability benefits across the design and manufacturing of medical devices: A case study of Ankle Foot Orthosis

Amin Mirkouei, Bishal Silwal, Lawrence Ramiscal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Government and societal interests in additive manufacturing have increased scrutiny on process analysis, cross-cutting sustainability, and integrated decision-making methods to address commercialization and sustainability challenges. One of the key challenges is the absence of standardized metrics to assess design parameters and manufacturing practices. The primary objective of this research is to create a knowledge-based multi-criteria decision-making framework for enhancing sustainability across the design and fabrication of medical devices. The motivation behind this study lies in the inherent limitations of the existing methods. The proposed framework herein improves the traditional approaches by integrating extensive sharing of information and feedback among all design and manufacturing steps, and consequently coupling the economic and environmental sustainability dimensions. The framework includes sets of qualitative (e.g., data processing and design analysis) and quantitative (e.g., build time and energy use analyses) methods to assess transforming the raw material into optimal and sustainable final products. As an application of this study, optimal and sustainable approaches for the developing and competitive market of Orthotic and Prosthetic, particularly Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO), is examined. Decision makers, such as managers and manufacturers, will benefit from the integrated methods in the proposed framework. The results indicate the framework offers a promising approach to address existing sustainability challenges in the AFO industry.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication22nd Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 11th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Electronic)9780791858165
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017
EventASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2017 - Cleveland, United States
Duration: Aug 6 2017Aug 9 2017

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference
Volume4

Other

OtherASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCleveland
Period8/6/178/9/17

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Modeling and Simulation

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