Srinivas Kota

ACLODS: a holistic framework for product life cycle design

Design can substantially affect the life cycle of a product. During design there is a need to consider the whole life cycle rather than a single phase of a product life cycle. Different approaches on life cycle design are reviewed to arrive at requirements for a holistic framework for product life cycle design. These requirements are consolidated using empirical studies conducted in laboratory setting. Based on the findings from literature review and empirical studies, a holistic framework (ACLODS, which is formed by the first letters of the constituting dimensions in the framework) for product life cycle design is proposed. The framework is made of six dimensions; activities, criteria, life cycle phases, outcomes, design stages and structure of the product. Each dimension consists of individual elements pertaining to that dimension. The existing approaches are compared with proposed framework to identify the dimensions which need support to achieve better product life cycle design.

Product development platform for real-time capture and reuse of evolving product information

Product life cycle management promises management of all intellectual assets generated for all life cycle stages of a product. In engineering, over 75% of design activity comprises case-based design ? reuse of previous design knowledge to address a new design problem. This means that rationale capture and reuse are critical in design and redesign projects. The goal of this paper is to report empirical study of designing carried out to understand the needs and constraints for design rationale capture, and to detail the concept, implementation and preliminary evaluation of an unobtrusive, real-time design rationale capture framework.

ACLODS – A Holistic Framework for Environmentally Friendly Product Lifecycle Design

Design for Environment (DfE) is an approach to design where all the environmental impacts of a product are considered over the entire life cycle of a product. Most DfE tools are conceptual in nature, and there is little adoption of these in industry. This chapter discusses the development of a holistic framework that should help in both generation and evaluation of environmentally friendly product life cycle proposals. The overall approach is to investigate literature to analyse the existing guidelines, methods, tools and methodologies for environmentally friendly product design, in order to identify the requirements for a holistic framework for design to reduce the environmental impact of a product lifecycle proposal. An ideal framework to satisfy these requirements is proposed.

Importance of User and Usage for Eco-Design

There are methods and technologies developed for generation and evaluation of product proposals for better environmental efficiency throughout the lifecycle. But in use phase these are not effective due to complexity of user behaviours and usage scenarios. Literature review revealed the need to develop products with the help of user to achieve sustainability. An outline of a conceptual system to include user in design is proposed in this chapter consisting of different dimensions based on the interactions and influences. It is important to consider how and where the user uses the product in reality while designing by including user also in design process. When different elements like people, product and environment come together, their individual characteristics, context in which they operate determine the interactions and influences among them. The questions need to be answered are identified to develop the proposed system.

Sustainability Definitions—An Analysis

Every product or system that we consume or use affects our lives and the environment during its production, consumption and disposal. Emissions and wastes are generated which contaminate soil, water and air, the key life support systems on earth. If these support systems will stop functioning in their natural form, then survival and wellbeing of various living things will be endangered. Thus a product or a system should be conceived based on the principles of sustainability. There exist number of definitions on sustainability making it difficult to choose one for application. So in this paper we aim to discuss the definitions of sustainability from different contexts i.e., global and local, temporal and spatial, measurable and non-measurable, and clear and ambiguous. From the analysis we found most of the definitions are global, non-measurable and ambiguous. We need measurable and clear definitions of sustainability to be used in various situations.

Understanding Consumers’ Perceptions of Sustainable Products in India

Understanding consumer perception of sustainable products is critical for product designers and sustainability enablers; for instance, policy developers can develop successful policies only through detailed understanding of consumers’ attitude. Additionally, future sales of products can be predicted by understanding consumer’s willingness of purchase and sustainable related policies. In this study, through an all encompassing, non-anonymous online survey, we tried to estimate the perceptual experience of sustainable products in the mind of consumers and predict its implications on their future purchasing patterns. The results show that most of the consumers are aware and interested in sustainable products, but majority of them are not practicing sustainable living. Majority of consumers are willing to spend extra for sustainable products, but we need to see whether they do it in practice or not. This work is a start in the direction of understanding consumer’s perception towards sustainable products and develop support to help manufacturers; however, the results indicate that a detailed, and broader study is needed to gain insight into the diversified population perception and behavior towards sustainable products and develop design support.

Sustainable Supply Chain in Product Development

There exists an urgency for organizations all over the world to consider sustainable supply chain strategy in product development. Every firm needs to provide a safe working environment and reduce its ecological footprint as well as ensure returns to its investors. This calls for cross-functional integration, better decision making and performance improvement. Every stakeholder in the supply chain is responsible to ensure its’ sustainability. Several incentives can be found in adopting a sustainable supply chain management strategy. Sustainable supply chain management pushes the system towards forethought, exploration and data analysis in business so as to measure up to the expectation of customers and flourish in the long run. The focus of this study has been on why a company requires sustainable supply chain management and how it would benefit by implementing a sustainable supply chain management strategy. The core aspect was to analyze the advantages of sustainability in a supply chain and how everybody would be motivated to work towards it. Main outcome from the research is that stakeholders in different domains are more or less similar but the challenges and motivations of stakeholders are different in different domains. It is required to consider the domain specific characteristics for inclusion of sustainable supply chain in product development. A conceptual strategy is proposed to include sustainable supply chain in product development.

An Action Effectiveness Measure for Manufacturing Process Performance

The diversity in manufacturing processes has resulted in different kinds of performance measures that suit specific purposes. Performance measures amenable to comparing process alternatives are essential to characterize manufacturing performance. The comparison of process alternatives is increasingly being subjected to broader considerations, like environment and society. This requires a measure amenable to be considered under different perspectives. On analyzing the life cycle processes of a wooden-graphite pencil from a producer’s perspective a generic performance measure of ‘resource-use effectiveness’ is arrived at. Interpretations of the measure under different scenarios and perspectives are presented.

A Conceptual Platform to View Environmental Performance of a Product and Its Usage in Co-Design

All the stakeholders in product life cycle needs to work together to achieve best possible sustainable solution. User perspectives need to be considered in design, for products to be sustainable in use. Literature review and empirical studies helped in identifying requirements to include user perspectives in design. An activity model is developed after thoroughly studying the usage of electric kettle. In this paper we propose a computer aided conceptual platform to visualize and interact with the product in virtual environment by the user for performing basic activities in use of that product. The platform also supports designer to create product and its usage scenarios based on requirements’ from users. It also captures and stores the data generated while user performs the activities virtually for assessment. This is achieved with the help of 3D stereo display, motion capture devices and visualization tool kits. A questionnaire is planned to obtain designer and user feedback on the platform to evaluate the support.

Requirements for Design and Environmental Assessment of Products

Companies can have competitive advantage if their products are developed with the help of users and their practice in mind. Product development needs to include user views in the design [1] as the changes to product proposals in design stage needs less effort and time and has major influence on later stages. User-centered design methods have been proposed and implemented. Virtual reality technology has been developed to support these design methods. Advances in virtual reality technologies help realize virtually not only the products but the environment in which they can be used and the actors who use them. This research aims at investigating the eco-design methods and the technology supporting them. A huge challenge in eco-design is to make clear the environmental potential of products for both the engineer and the user. The paper deals with the use of virtual reality technology to see how it can help both designer and user in design and assessment of product and its use to reduce environmental impact. Different studies are reported in literature [2], [3], and [4] but do not address the environmental properties. The paper reviews the literature to propose the requirements of a user-centered eco-design method and investigates the potential benefits of the holographic technology for this purpose.Copyright