A deep dive into addressing obsolescence in product design: A review

Abstract

In today's fast-paced world, products are constantly replaced by newer and more advanced versions. While some products become outdated due to natural causes such as wear and tear or technological advancements, others are strategically designed with a predetermined shelf life to encourage rapid product turnover. Obsolescence is an essential issue in product design because of its impact on product life, efficiency, and sustainability. Although there are approaches to map and measure possible product obsolescence scenarios, it remains a challenge to quantify and diagnose a product's or component's obsolescence potential based on its design attributes. Therefore, this article aims to analyze the existing literature on obsolescence from a product design perspective. It covers its application in methodological design strategies, metrics for measuring obsolescence from early design stages, and identifying understudied research topics, challenges, and trends. On August 15, 2023, a total of 221 articles published between 1983 and 2023 on SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were selected and analyzed using a content-based research approach encompassing three main aspects: objectives and methodologies, strategies and design phases, and metrics for obsolescence analysis. As main findings, this literature review identified several methodological design approaches aimed at resisting and postponing obsolescence, mainly divided into designing long-life products and extending product life. Nevertheless, this study found no formal identification of product design attributes related to the different types of obsolescence, and obsolescence forecasting metrics have focused on defining whether the scenario happens but do not consider what type of obsolescence the product may exhibit. Consequently, it can be challenging to determine the most effective design strategy to reduce obsolescence. This study has limitations, including the potential for researcher bias to affect the systematization of the information.