Design for manufacture and sustainability in new product development

Abstract

Design for manufacture is well recognised by industry and is about optimising design to aid production. Today there is a significant and growing trend of recognising what happens to a product once its user phase has finished. Post-consumer processes are now an important consideration during the ab-initio stages of design. Rather than a focus limited to design for manufacture or (more recently) design for assembly now the pressure is on for post consumer design. Companies need to do this because legislative pressures are increasing and consumers are becoming ever more aware of, and concerned about, environmental issues. End-of-life processing and design for the environment are therefore areas of growing of interest. This conference paper investigates with industry practitioners their experiences regarding for both the environmental and economic advantages of product life-cycle planning. Legislative pressures and consumer awareness are driving businesses to develop sustainable product design strategies (Jones et al, 2001 p. 27). Changes within the law, to protect our environment, cause companies to pay attention as they begin to affect profitability. The first British Standard to address design for end-of-life processing, and therefore support industry, is BS 8887-1. Over 60 UK manufacturing and design companies that had bought BS 8887-1 contributed to this by being interviewed or providing a written response. The research investigated multiple aspects of sustainable design in practice however, in this conference paper the focus is its application within the design process.