Systematic Lifecycle Design for Sustainable Product Development

摘要

Sustainable product development (SPD) requires that product designs achieve minimal or zero environmental impacts, in addition to satisfying the traditional design criteria, such as product functionality, quality, features, costs, and time to market. Environmental evaluations must, therefore, be incorporated into the design stage. In this research, a product design process model is proposed that includes three design requirements, two design tasks, and three comprehensive assessment streams. The functional requirement is derived from the customers' needs, reflecting the product's functional purpose; the environmental requirement reflects society's need for protecting natural resources and the environment; and, the economic requirement ensures the company's basic business goals. Accordingly, SPD aims to simultaneously carry out the two tasks of designing products' physical and lifecycle structures. In the assessment phase of product design, three assessment streams, including lifecycle quality (LCQ) analysis, lifecycle assessment (LCA) and lifecycle cost (LCC), are conducted with respect to the functional, environmental, and economic evaluations. A process-based analysis concept is proposed for the analysis of LCQ, LCA, and LCC evaluations. A simplified LCA is used for the environmental evaluations. Detailed assessment techniques are also developed for effective design evaluations. A case study example is provided to illustrate the methods and models.