Abstract
Ecodesign consists of integrating environmental considerations into the product development process by means of practices that involve the use of methods, techniques, tools, and guidelines. However, many published practices do not incorporate important environmental issues, often resulting in a product development process that is ineffective from an ecodesign standpoint. This paper’s aim is threefold: (i) Identifying environmental and operational criteria and determining weights to these criteria; (ii) assessing and selecting quality function deployment (QFD)-based ecodesign methods using environmental and operational criteria, and (iii) analyzing the practitioners’ perception of the most suitable QFD-based method identified by the second aim. To that end, a comprehensive literature review of ecodesign practices based on QFD and its requirements was carried out, and a survey was conducted with environmental science and product development experts, whose answers enabled the prioritization of the characteristics those practices must meet from environmental and operational standpoints. Thereafter, a workshop was carried out with design engineers from an automotive company in Brazil. This study’s findings indicate that many QFD-based ecodesign methods fail to consider the life cycle perspective, do not assess environmental impacts, and have not been tested before being published. Another finding from industry designers suggests that ecodesign methods should be easy to use and not time-consuming.
Highlights
There is an increasing demand from stakeholders, customers, governments, academic experts, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), and shareholders for organizations to assume greater responsibility for their share of environmental degradation
This study sought to analyze ecodesign practices based on quality function deployment (QFD) and the designers’ perception of one of those methods using environmental and operational criteria
The methods used in this piece of research comprised four steps to conduct an analysis of QFD methods for ecodesign
Summary
There is an increasing demand from stakeholders, customers, governments, academic experts, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), and shareholders for organizations to assume greater responsibility for their share of environmental degradation. Companies and their products are seen as responsible for many environmental problems, including climate change, ozone layer depletion, and soil and water pollution. Taking directives from the European Union alone as examples, one can cite Directive 2009/1.25/EC, which has established a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products, and Directive 2011/65/EU, regarding the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. These have made existing products ( new products once they are developed) incorporate a certain level of improvement from an environmental perspective
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