Hospital Waste Management through Green QFD Implementation

Based on case studies conducted in various health institutions, the high production of medical waste is one proof that medical waste management is still problematic. This study examines various problems in the field of medical waste management. This study explores staff perceptions of medical waste management. This study aims to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes as well as the role of health workers on medical waste management. Here we study the quality index and environmental index of two health care centers, one is a private hospital and one is a government hospital and compared these two indices with each other via a questionnaire survey. To produce more environmentally friendly services, customers, and environmental criteria must be considered during the decision-making process, and the Implementation of Green QFD (G-QFD) provides a very useful methodology to meet this goal

Social Life Cycle Assessment for Additive Manufacturing: A Review

The aim of this dissertation is to assist in the development of the project FIBR3D – Hybrid Processes based on Additive Manufacture of Thermoplastic Matrix Composites Reinforced with Fibers, by providing a base insight on the Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology (SLCA) and other related methodologies. The main objective of this dissertation is to present a literature review to identify the existing life cycle based methodologies, which will give a base knowledge on how they work and how they can be implemented within the project FIBR3D. This study will help in the development of a life cycle based parametric model that will be used to assess the Additive Manufacturing technology that is being developed within the project. The main objective of this work is to study the Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology (SLCA), although it is considered that first it is needed to understand how the environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodologies work, because they retain some similarities with each other and can be connected to create the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment methodology (LCSA). After the study of the other two methodologies, the Social Life Cycle Assessment is analyzed with more detail. These methodologies were studied by analyzing information from papers, book chapters and standards. The keywords that were used in the search of the selected documents were, for example, “Life Cycle Assessment”, “Life Cycle Costing” and “Social Life Cycle Assessment”. After analyzing the selected documents, the information was summarized in tables so it is possible to conclude what can help in the development of the project and what can still be studied in more depth. In this dissertation 17 papers about LCA and LCC and 13 papers about SLCA are analyzed. In addition to the papers, some standards were also studied, because they are considered essential in the study of these methodologies. From all the analyzed papers, only two tried to link the SLCA methodology with the additive manufacturing technology (AM), which was unexpected, but plausible because the AM is a technology still under development. With the analysis of the papers it is possible to perceive that there is a great need to develop studies that apply these methodologies to assess the AM technology and products/processes in the phase of development. Apparently, despite the scarcity of studies, it is already clear that the AM technology is considered to have an immense potential to revolutionize industries and to change some standards at the social and society level

S-FMECA: A Novel Tool for Sustainable Product Design - Additive Manufacturing

The choices made in the early design stage (EDS) will largely define the environmental impacts of a product. The purpose of this paper is to develop an eco-design method used for assessing semi-quantitatively the sustainability of an additively manufactured product since the EDS. This article presents a semi-quantitative method to support EDS-conscious environmental decisions. A novel Sustainable-Failure Mode, Effect, and Criticality Analysis (S-FMECA) tool is developed to support designers in the conceptual design phase, to guide the choices, and to provide a valuable evaluation of the future additively manufactured product. Through the integration of the environmental aspects in FMECA analysis, systematic prevention of errors, and enhancement of sustainability since the EDS would be the main advantage of this tool

EcoDesign for medical devices: Barriers and opportunities to eco effective design of medical devices

Medical devices have a significant negative impact on the environment. The waste generated from medical devices has environmental as well as cost implications. While single-use devices are responsible for rising quantities of medical waste and inventory costs for hospitals, reused devices tend to get involved in cases of reinfection and are more expensive to develop for manufacturers. Beyond the benefits and risks of single-use and reusable devices, the imperative for a less wasteful healthcare system in the United Kingdom lies in the Climate Change Act, which mandates the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from the 1990 baseline. The design of these devices accounts for many of the environmental impacts that occur at the various stages of their lifecycles. Research in ecodesign for medical devices has so far produced more eco-efficient strategies which help progressively reduce the environmental impacts of devices. Based on the reports from the National Health Service, the current efforts at tackling the environmental impact of medical devices are not contributing to the reduction in emissions as required by the Climate Change Act. Eco-effective design is an alternative strategy for preventing waste and maximizing the value of resources used due to the rising pressures from regulatory authorities to reduce environmental impact, and the rising costs of pursuing a take-make-dispose culture, as has been observed in industries such as the automotive sector, electronics sector, textiles and consumer products sector. Yet its application in the medical device industry has not been significantly explored. Through this project, we identify the barriers and opportunities for eco-effective design of medical devices, and propose the principles of eco-effective design of medical devices, providing an approach for integrating eco-effective design strategies in the design process. Research Question: How can eco-effective strategies be integrated in the design of medical devices? 1. What are the barriers and opportunities to eco-effective design of medical devices? 2. How can these eco-effective strategies be integrated in the design process? This study explores the barriers and opportunities to eco-effective design for medical devices in two phases. The first phase reviews the regulatory, practical and epistemic barriers and opportunities to eco-effective design of medical devices through academic literature. The second phase of this research uses mapping of material flows as a method for identifying barriers and opportunities for cradle-to-cradle design of medical devices. Using the insights and understanding from these two phases, we developed the principles of eco-effective design for medical devices. The principles have been validated through interviews with field experts. This project investigates the regulatory, practical and epistemic barriers to eco-effective design in this industry, and identifies design principles to integrate eco-effective design strategies in the design process for medical devices

Vrednovanje ekološke prihvatljivosti u konceptualnoj fazi razvoja tehničkih sustava

U konceptualnoj fazi razvoja tehničkih sustava potrebno je usporedno razmotriti više koncepcijskih rješenja te ih vrednovati s obzirom na kvalitetu zadovoljenja potreba korisnika, troškove, rizike, ekološku prihvatljivost i ostale za izbor koncepta važne kriterije. Unatoč dobroj zastupljenosti metoda koje omogućuju vrednovanje ekološke prihvatljivosti tijekom konstruiranja, pregledom literature nisu pronađene metode koje bi bile specifično namijenjene konceptualnoj fazi i vrednovanju koncepcijskih rješenja koja se međusobno razlikuju u radnim principima i fizikalnim efektima koje isporučuju. Studija vrednovanja ekološke prihvatljivosti koncepata kvalitativnim kriterijima pokazala je da je vrednovanje podložno subjektivnoj interpretaciji ekološke prihvatljivosti u slučaju kada kriteriji ekološke prihvatljivosti nisu eksplicitno određeni. U skladu s tim i ciljevima istraživanja razvijeni su kriteriji ekološke prihvatljivosti za konceptualnu fazu i predložena metoda. Kriteriji su ekoefektivnost i broj pretvorbi oblika energije i signala, ekološka prihvatljivost i broj sekundarnih efekata na okoliš te broj promjena agregatnoga stanja materijala u tehničkome procesu. Predloženu metodu čine vrednovanje kriterijima i primjena pravila sume rangova u svrhu rangiranja koncepata prema ekološkoj prihvatljivosti. Validacija kriterija i predložene metode temelji se na provjeri unutarnje konzistentnosti i vanjske relevantnosti. Primjena predložene metode demonstrirana je na primjerima vrednovanja ekološke prihvatljivosti koncepata pranja rublja i koncepata stolnog sata. Svrsishodnost predložene metode potvrđena je usporedbom s rezultatima studije vrednovanja kvalitativnim smjernicama ekodizajna i procjenom životnog ciklusa koncepata