Abstract:

The greatest opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of a new product occurs during the design phase of its life cycle.  Design for Environment (DfE) tools, when implemented, become part of the product development process.  Often, however, the DfE tools are isolated from the other activities that comprise the product development process.  To avoid this problem, tools must be situated in a DfE process that describes how the DfE tools will be used and links DfE activities with the rest of the product development process.  This paper presents an innovative DfE process that is being incorporated into an existing product development process at a leading power tool manufacturing company, The Black & Decker Corporation.  The DfE process includes DfE tools and activities that are specifically designed to help Black and Decker achieve their environmental objectives.

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This article was originally published in the International Journal of Performability Engineering (IJPE)   (www.ijpe-online.com)