Obtaining sustainable production from the product design analysis

Published Date
Journal of Cleaner Production
15 December 2016, Vol.139:706–716, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.078

• Author 

• E. Lacasa ^,
• J.L. Santolaya
• A. Biedermann

• Design and Manufacturing Engineering Department, EINA, University of Zaragoza, C/ María de Luna 3, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain

Received 11 May 2016. Revised 30 July 2016. Accepted 17 August 2016. Available online 20 August 2016. 

Abstract

Sustainability has become a requirement for competitive companies, which increasingly make conscious decisions with regard to the impact caused by the development of their products. To be sustainable, product design should contemplate a triple bottom line in which environmental protection, social expectations and distribution of profits should be considered. In this work, a product development methodology that brings together traditional design criteria such as operative principles or mode of use and sustainability requirements is proposed. Three phases denominated respectively, production inventory, sustainability assessment and product redesign are carried out to its implementation.

The material flows exchanged by the industrial installation throughout the production process are analyzed according to a life cycle assessment approach. A set of engineering metrics and indicators are selected to assess each sustainability aspect. Environmental impact is evaluated by means of both, the global warming indicator and the aggregated and particularly useful for designers, EI99 indicator. Economic dimension is addressed through the calculus of the net operating profit of the company. Finally, the social aspects associated to the stakeholder category of company workers are evaluated by the working hours and hourly wage. Environmental improvement strategies based mainly on the selection of low impact materials and the reduction of materials are applied in the product redesign process.

Sustainable product development methodology is used to obtain an improved design of two different products, a solar tracker and an isothermal container. In both cases, a lower environmental impact and higher company benefit are achieved. In addition, an improvement of the social indicators is obtained in the case of the isothermal container. At the same time, the selected indicators are considered suitable to quantitatively assess each sustainability dimension, analyze and compare results.

Keywords

Sustainability indicators

Product design

Life cycle assessment

Material flows

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