Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

Filters

3
3 3
3
Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Benefits and obstacles of sustainable product development methods

2017 , Stark, R. , Buchert, T. , Neugebauer, S. , Bonvoisin, J. , Finkbeiner, M.

In the last few years, numerous approaches have been introduced for supporting design engineers in developing more sustainable products. However, so far, these efforts have not led to the establishment of a commonly acknowledged standard methodology for Sustainable Product Development (SPD). This brings into question the relevance of developing new methods and calls for more efforts in testing the available ones. This article provides a reflection about the benefits and obstacles of applying existing SPD approaches to a real product development project. It reports the results of a project aimed at developing a new mobility solution under the constraints of sustainability-related targets. This project has led to the development of a new pedelec concept, focusing on the substitution of small passenger cars with the help of three SPD methods - Design for Sustainability Guidelines, Product Sustainability Index, and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. These methods have proved to be generally beneficial, thanks to a combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives. However, the multitude of criteria offered by the methods put forth difficulties in evaluating which sustainability aspects are relevant and therefore lead to higher effort for information retrieval analysis and decision processes. Furthermore, the methods still lack an integrated perspective on the product, the corresponding services and the overarching system.

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Multi-criteria decision making as a tool for sustainable product development: Benefits and obstacles

2015 , Buchert, T. , Neugebauer, S. , Schenker, S. , Lindow, K. , Stark, R.

For developing sustainable products design engineers need to foresee diverse interrelations between a product's characteristics and its economic, social and environmental impacts. In order to support this complex task a wide range of design methods has been developed. Retrospective analytical methods like Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) require a large amount of information and are thus utilized when important design decisions are already made. Prospective methods are rather generic (e.g. checklists) and too broad to be helpful in concrete design decisions. In this paper, the integration of discrete decision trees with LCSA is proposed for shifting multi-criterial quantitative analysis to earlier development. On the basis of sustainability indicators Pareto-optimal decision-paths for given material- and process alternatives along the product lifecycle can be compared up-front. Resulting benefits and obstacles are illustrated by evaluating value creation options of a bicycle frame.

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Design and manufacturing of a sustainable pedelec

2015 , Buchert, T. , Steingrimsson, J.G. , Neugebauer, S. , Nguyen, T.D. , Galeitzke, M. , Oertwig, N. , Seidel, J. , McFarland, R. , Lindow, K. , Hayka, H. , Stark, R.

To facilitate the transition towards sustainable manufacturing, current practices and mechanisms for value creation need to be reconsidered along the whole product lifecycle. However, academic research on sustainability is still bound to narrow fields of applications. In this study, a multi-disciplinary research project is presented that focuses on the development of a sustainable pedal electric cycle (Pedelec) from a first idea to a ready-to-use prototype. The results of the project show how different scientific approaches for bottom-up improvement can be applied together in a concrete case. A holistic view on the product lifecycle proved as a meaningful framework for that purpose.

View