In Japan where engineer's labor costs are high, "Sound Mechanisms" that require the shortest amount of time from design to completion are considered as short delivery time and low cost LCA.

(1) Number of Mechanical Elements and Mechanisms

When mechanisms comprised of combinations of mechanical elements are classified into 1. Tools, 2. Equipment, 3. Manual Jigs, 4. Automation Machinery, the number of comprising elements are defined as the table shown below. The Tools for instance, a hex wrench would be 1 element, a manual swaging jig would have several tens of elements (number of parts). For transportation mechanisms, an automobile = 10⁴ order, an aircraft = 10⁵ order, and a rocket would have 106 order of mechanical elements.

(2) Number of Mechanical Elements and Mechanism Performance (Cost and Reliability)

Some mechanical elements are gathered to constitute subsystem-like mechanism elements (i.e. ball bearings), and these subsystems are gathered to make up the mechanisms.

Some mechanical elements are gathered to constitute subsystem-like mechanism elements (i.e. ball bearings), and these subsystems are gathered to make up the mechanisms.

	1.	Decrease the number of mechanical elements used.
	2.	Utilization of Units (Units are: Standardized mechanisms made of combinations of mechanical elements.

Machine's reliability improves with less troubles and maintenance requirements decreases with less mechanical elements used. And utilizing the standardized mechanism units reduces costs and shortens delivery times.

A representative example for this is personal computers. Discrete devices have been integrated into one LSI device, and HDDs and mother boards have been standardized where an individual can purchase the components and assemble a computer.

In LCA mechanism planning, utilization of standardized mechanism elements results in simplified structures and improves the soundness of mechanisms.