Sustainable product design using CAD: a case study in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation

Sustainability is gaining importance in contemporary manufacturing organisations. Modern design engineers need approaches for creating environmentally friendly products. In this context, this paper reports a case study carried out in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation. A component of the rotary switch has been modelled using computer-aided design. Then, the sustainability analysis has been carried out for determining the environmental impact. The environmental impact has been measured in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and air/water impacts. The handle design has been modified to minimise the environmental impact. The results of this case study indicate that appropriate modifications in design could lead to the development of sustainable design with minimal environmental impact.     

Integration of DFE and DFMA for the sustainable development of an automotive component

The recent developments in manufacturing organizations recognize sustainability as an important value addition for survival in the competitive scenario. The design engineers are in search of approaches for creating environmental conscious products. The purpose of this paper is to report a research carried out for ensuring sustainable product design by the integration of Design for Environment (DFE) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) methodologies. In this context, this paper reports a case study carried out in an automotive component. The candidate product is the charge alternator pulley. The existing pulley has been created using Computer Aided Design. Then sustainability analysis was conducted on the existing component for determining environmental impact. This is followed by the engineering analysis of the component using ANSYS. Then conceptual design changes were developed in the proposed product using DFMA concept. Then the environmental impact has been evaluated in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and air/water impacts on proposed product. It has been found that the optimized pulley design possesses minimal environmental impact. The result of the case study indicated that the integration of DFE and DFMA concept could initiate new developments in sustainable designs with minimal impact to the environment and it also reduces the product cost.     

Sustainable design of sprocket using CAD and Design Optimisation

The contemporary manufacturing organisations recognise sustainability as a vital concept for survival in the competitive scenario. The modern design engineers are in need of approaches for creating environmentally friendlier products. In this context, this project reports a case study carried out in an Indian sprocket manufacturing organisation. The existing sprocket has been created using Computer Aided Design (CAD). Then, the sustainability analysis has been performed for determining the environmental impact. This is followed by the optimisation of sprocket design using Design Optimisation. The environmental impact has been measured in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and air/water impacts. It has been found that the optimised sprocket design possess minimal environmental impact. The results of the case study indicated that CAD and Design Optimisation could lead to the development of sustainable design with minimal impact to the environment.     

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’, products. But do these strategies help in developing such products, and how to assess their ‘sustainability’? Based on a review of the objectives in nature-inspired design, we argue that assessing environmental sustainability is not straightforward. Whereas both Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle build on the perspective of ‘achieving sustainability’, current life-cycle assessment-based tools are geared towards reducing current impacts. As a consequence, existing tools are insufficiently equipped for the purpose of the assessment: they do not cover some of the main results that nature-inspired design is set out to accomplish. To be able to include these results, we propose two new constituents to current life-cycle-based product assessment: assessing against conditions of sustainability and assessing ‘achievement’, the extent to which these conditions of sustainability have been achieved. Furthermore, the product context needs to be included for assessing beneficial impacts. This article discusses how these constituents can contribute to an assessment tool that enables designers and engineers to assess the development of environmentally sustainable solutions.     

The ethics in balancing control and freedom when engineering solutions for sustainable behaviour

Research suggests that to allow for sustainable development, consumption patterns must be changed. Individual behaviour is central to society's impact on the environment. However, due to the complexity of environmental issues, much of the political debate and technology development is inaccessible to consumers and based on the values, interpretations and priorities of experts. User‐centred, user‐involved and participatory processes are fundamental in design disciplines such as interaction design and participatory design. Research into the possibilities for cross‐pollination of design for sustainability and user‐centred design has distinguished several strategies for design‐led behavioural change. The strategies differ with regard to the levels of control and responsibility that users are left with, ranging from empowerment through information about consequences of behaviour to blocking behaviour or forcing sustainable practices upon individuals. By considering technological behaviour‐steering strategies in the light of science and technology studies and theory on technological mediation, the paper addresses the ethical issues that arise and discusses how designers can contribute to more sustainable consumption patterns without compromising quality of life, individual freedom and democratic rights.     

A hybrid approach for environmental impact evaluation of design options

The strengthened environmental regulatory requirements and general awareness of the need for environmental conservation worldwide, design for environment has become a key design criterion in new product development processes. Due to their resources-consuming attribute and the prerequisite expert knowledge in environmental sciences for the impacts interpretations, the existing forms of product-oriented environmental impact assessment methods are impractical to be adopted by product designers in small-and-medium enterprises. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a generally accepted quantitative approach to assess a product’s environmental impact. However, a full LCA study often requires a considerable amount of data and therefore, it is regarded as not a handy tool for product design evaluations particularly at the initial design stage. This leads to our intention to develop an immediately applicable approach for decision-makers to evaluate the design options. The proposed approach integrates Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Theory, with Evidential Reasoning (ER) to support the environmental impact evaluations of design options. A case study is carried out to demonstrate its applicability to prioritize the environmental impact of various design options. A symmetrical triangular distribution is introduced for calculating the expected utility and for testing the sensitivity of results.     

Exploring the need for more radical sustainable innovation: what does it look like and why?

It has been argued in recent years that Western economies need to increase their resource productivity by 90% over the next 50 years. This is a radical aim. This paper draws on design for sustainability (DfS) thinking to scope interventions that encourage greater levels of resource productivity through reconfiguring concepts of growth and well‐being within organisational strategies, structures, systems, processes and outputs. Based on research from a UK EPSRC funded project Design Dialogues (2005–2008), this paper links together sustainable design and innovation literatures and dialogue‐based primary research that together inform the development of an approach to innovation for sustainability. The emphasis on sustainable innovation is to understand what is designed (the outputs of business) and why (the inputs: the values, beliefs, visions and objectives) within a context of ecological limits. The foundations of this approach are introduced here in order to demonstrate the potential to provoke a new way of thinking about longer‐term organisational innovation through making explicit the intrinsic connections between natural and human capitals. This paper explores the need to think differently in order to create sustainability and presents the outcome of this research: a methodology for innovation for sustainability.     

Limits of ecodesign: the case for open source product development

Abstract

In pursuit of coping mechanisms for the challenges of sustainable manufacturing, systematic methods have been developed to allow engineers to improve the ratio between products’ utility and environmental impact. These necessary efforts remain however limited if the surrounding production and consumption practices are not called into question at the same time. This article introduces open source product development as a potential approach for unlocking the limits of existing sustainable product design practices and to lead towards alternative and eco-efficient production and consumption practices termed as participative production. First, it discusses the potential advantages of this emerging practice in terms of environmental sustainability. Second, it provides a screened qualitative environmental analysis of 18 exemplary open source hardware products. Specific sustainable design principles implemented by these products are highlighted and discussed in order to identify challenges for further common research in the field of open source and sustainable product development.     

Application of QFD for enabling environmentally conscious design in an Indian rotary switch manufacturing organisation

Many businesses are recognising that environmental consciousness is an important concept for survival in today's highly competitive market. This paper presents a project in which quality function deployment (QFD) for environment (QFDE) has been applied to an Indian rotary switch manufacturing organisation to enable environmentally conscious design at the early stage of product development. QFDE consists of four phases. QFDE phases I and II are concerned with the identification of the rotary switch parts that are important in enhancing environmental consciousness. QFDE phases III and IV are concerned with the evaluation of the effect of design improvement on environmental quality requirements. The results obtained from the case study revealed that QFDE could be applied in the early stage of rotary switch product development as it identified the vital components from an environmental perspective and enabled the options for design improvement to be effectively evaluated. The managerial implications of the case study have also been presented.     

The implications of cultural differences in laundry behaviours for design for sustainable behaviour: A case study between the UK,India and Brazil

Traditional research into sustainable design has typically focused on reducing the environmental impact of products during the manufacture and disposal stages of a products' lifecycle. The last decade, however, has seen an explosion of research into understanding and moderating user behaviour during the use phase of a products' lifecycle; often the most resource-intensive phase. One of the biggest factors that affects behaviour is a users cultural context; however, the effect of cultural context on design for sustainable behaviour has had little exploration in this relatively new research field.     

A strategic quantitative approach for sustainable energy production from biomass

European legislation has created a growing interest in the field of renewable energy production in several countries, including Italy. The applications of biomass and/or biofuel for energy generation have been assumed to provide a high level of sustainability due to the perception that renewable resources are inherently sustainable. Thus, renewable fuels applied to heating and/or electricity generation are potentially carbon dioxide neutral. However, before accepting this assumption, it is essential to analyse the actual level of sustainability in the whole supply chain (SC). This requirement has been clearly identified by the recently updated European Directives on renewable biofuels for transportation. However, there is little evidence that this concern has been directed at energy production from biomass. Thus, approaches derived from Green SC Management (GSCM) methods could provide an effective tool for evaluating, from a strategic perspective, the sustainability level of a specific biomass SC. This paper examines how biomass SC activities can define the overall environmental sustainability level. The approach was based on environmental indicators and the resultant output could support more effective GSCM strategies (e.g. defining logistics carriers, evaluating new biomass suppliers, etc.) for managing biomass SCs. Moreover, the approach could be applied by competent authorities for a quick evaluation of the sustainability level of biomass energy production installations. The approach has been tested in a real case study based on an installation, located in Southern Italy, which uses liquid biomass for energy production.     

Challenges for modelling and integrating environmental performances in concept design: the case of an automotive component lightweighting

The objective of this paper is to discuss the main barriers for modelling and integrating the environmental performances in the automotive concept design. Incorporating environmental assessment in the early design phase of a vehicle component is known as an important challenge that car makers need to face in order to develop more sustainable design solutions; in this regard, the Life Cycle Assessment is the most widespread methodology for the environmental assessment and comparison of alternatives. The present work illustrates the combination of such methodology with the traditional design procedure at two different levels of the component design phase, material choice and concept design. In particular, the potential benefits originated by a lightweight solution for the automotive component Throttle Body are evaluated by considering environmental and technical implications at the same level. The case study shows that a multi-disciplinary approach for design effectively allows the integration of the environmental issue in the company’s established procedures. However, interpretation of results is still a challenging aspect due to the inevitable contradicting elements which should not discourage to develop comprehensive sustainability assessment within the early design stage.     

Effectiveness of EMS in Tunisian companies: framework and implementation process based on ISO 14001 standard

This paper reports environmental analysis results of food and tannery Tunisian companies to identify the features of environmental management system (EMS) that is implemented recently. EMS via ISO 14001 has become one of the principal tools used by companies to handle environmental aspects and impacts through their various complex activities interacted with environment. While several companies have implemented and maintained a formal EMS, it has related mainly to their benefits in short term without responding to the sustainable development recommendations and practices. This study focuses on the strong linkage between the EMS effectiveness of food–tannery Tunisian companies and sustainability. A proactive environmental management approach is proposed and adopts a qualitative and quantitative assessment for factor analysis. It provides a strategic EMS framework and principles for sustainability to evolve the future enterprises’ benefits that has a clear influence on environmental performance in long term.     

Fibre reinforced polymers in the sports industry – Life Cycle Engineering methodology applied to a snowboard using anisotropic layer design

Technological development has had huge impacts in sports performance throughout the years, fostering the development of specific materials and manufacturing processes for sports-related products. Within this context, a new technology for snowboards was developed taking advantage of the internal coupling effects of Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) using an anisotropic layer design. This work deals with the technical, economic and environmental evaluation of a snowboard made of three alternative materials, namely carbon, glass and flax fibre reinforced plastics. It shows how a life cycle analysis can support the design and development of products by applying a Life Cycle Engineering methodology to the design process of a snowboard using an innovative technology. In this case, both the material choice and the fiber placement angles have a significant impact on the stiffness of the resulting FRP and thus in the three dimensions of analysis - cost, environmental and technical. The natural fiber is the most sustainable option environmentally, the glass fiber is the best one economically and the carbon fibre is the best in terms of technical performance. Therefore, the importance attributed to each dimension of analysis is pondered and traded-off to allow an aggregated analysis of the alternatives and a well-informed decision-making.     

Supplier evaluation and selection for sustainable supply chain management under uncertainty conditions

Abstract

With the global increasing importance of sustainable development, sustainable supply chain has gained value among both researchers and industrialists in the last decade. Nowadays, industries are facing pressure from government legislation and the global competition in addition to the pressure from their clients to carry out environmentally – conscious actions. Thus, organisations are required to implement actions to enhance their level of both environmental and economic performances. Traditionally, organisations use criteria such as cost, quality and on-time delivery to evaluate their suppliers’ performance. Although there have been numerous studies on the common criteria for these assessments, very few studies have taken sustainable criteria into consideration. Thereupon, this study tries to put forward a complete model for selection and evaluation of the suppliers, considering three criteria for sustainability, thus using the fuzzy group graph theory and matrix approach. It is an innovative approach based on fuzzy logic and group decision-making, which aims to treat lack of certainty in selection and evaluation of suppliers. We will also discuss a case study in the industry to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.     

Putting consumers first in design for sustainable behaviour: a case study of reducing environmental impacts of cold appliance use

To slow down the increasing environmental degradation, design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) has emerged in sustainable design aiming to promote behavioural change through design innovations to reduce environmental and social impacts from the demand side or consumer side. This paper presents a practice-based journey to investigate the process and results of the application of social-psychological theories into sustainable design. Focusing on the behaviour-related impacts of products and services during the use stage, a Design Behaviour Intervention Model (DBIM) is developed through the analysis and synthesis of the social-psychological theories and behaviour-changing strategies. The DBIM indicates that an in-depth study of consumer behaviour is the preliminary step in DfSB, which determines the application of design strategies and potentially the effectiveness of design interventions. A case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the model. The results show that consumer behaviour insights offer rich resources to assist designers in sustainable design innovation. Product-based design suggestions and a proposed solution highlight that the application of DBIM coupled with consumer involvement throughout the design process could produce desirable and sustainable patterns of household fridge use. Finally, the structured consideration of behavioural change and their possible application in DfSB are discussed.     

Screening of process alternatives based on sustainability metrics: comparison of two decision-making approaches

Importance of sustainability concerns demands consideration of sustainability design criteria in early stages of process design. Most often there are several alternatives for a particular process which must be compared in terms of sustainability metrics to select the most sustainable design. There are several tools available for evaluation of process alternatives in terms of sustainability concerns. However, there is a need for a screening method which enables engineers to compare and select several alternatives in terms of a multitude of metrics and also incorporate their preferences if required. This study utilizes a recently developed sustainability evaluator for process evaluation and compares overall impact factor method for process screening with a novel fuzzy-based approach. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated though application of the methodology on ibuprofen case study to select the most sustainable design.     

Sustainability assessment with time-series scores: a case study of Chinese provinces

Asian nations are currently facing a number of challenges, including environmental degradation and growing societal inequalities, in the course of their rapid economic growth and industrialization. Under such conditions, it is of critical importance to develop appropriate assessment tools with which to comprehensively measure the sustainability status of a region in order to guide its transformation into a sustainable society. This paper proposes a method of sustainability assessment consisting of the three components of environment, resource, and socio-economic with aggregated time-series scores. This method can demonstrate the relative sustainability scores of targeted regions for different time periods, thereby, enabling the comparison of relative sustainability status for different regions over these periods. We carried out a case study of Chinese provinces for the years 2000 and 2005 using the proposed method and confirmed its applicability as the indicative type of sustainability assessment at the regional level, while actually investigating the sustainability status and its chronological changes. The results indicated that aggregate sustainability index scores improved between 2000 and 2005 in most provinces, mainly due to significant improvement in the scores for the socio-economic component, whereas the scores for the environment component deteriorated in some provinces over the study period. Our method proves to be effective in analyzing the relative sustainability status among targeted regions for different time periods in the form of aggregate scores, paving the way for practical applications, such as policy analysis, in the pursuit of a sustainable society.     

Application of fuzzy QFD for enabling sustainability

Contemporary manufacturing organisations recognise sustainability as an important concept for survival. Environmental awareness and recycling regulations have been compelling manufacturers and consumers to evolve sustainable strategies. The modern customers' voices need to be translated with care into technical requirements. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a technique extensively used for this purpose. In order to cope with the vagueness associated with relationships and correlations in QFD, fuzzy numbers have been integrated within a QFD framework and fuzzy QFD has been used in this study. The study is concerned with the application of fuzzy QFD for enabling sustainability in an Indian modular switches manufacturing organisation. The approach is effective in the identification of sustainable competitive bases, sustainable decision domains, sustainable attributes and sustainable enablers for the organisation. The improvement in sustainability has been measured from three perspectives. The results gained as a result of the study indicated that fuzzy QFD could be used as an enabler of sustainability.