Product Life Cycle Design for Sustainable Value Creation: Methods of Sustainable Product Development in the Context of High Value Engineering

Abstract

This study proposed a framework for sustainable product development in the context of high value engineering, using life cycle based approaches combined with methods of sustainable value modeling and analysis. A Sustainable Value model was proposed based on the understanding of Value from economic, social and environmental perspectives. Then, a QFD-based approach of life cycle scheming driven by sustainable value requirements was proposed for generating product concepts and life cycle plans of total high value, while Life Cycle Simulation was employed for modeling complicated close-loop type product life cycles and evaluation of sustainable values. The proposed framework may help bring experts in fields of product and process engineering, industrial management and ecological assessments to a common vision, and therefore accelerate design convergence for more sustainable products, processes and business.