Product ecodesign and materials: current status and future prospects

The aim of this paper is to discuss the current status of ecodesign in the industry and its future implications for materials. There is today more and more focus on the environmental impacts of products during their whole life cycle. In particular, ecodesign aims at integrating environmental aspects during the product's design process as any other criterion, in order to reduce the life cycle impacts. Although a lot of product environmental impact assessment and Design for Environment tools already exist, environmental aspects are unfortunately rarely routinely integrated into product development process in the industry. This is mainly due to the fact that current ecodesign tools are little adapted to designers' practices, requirements and competencies. After the sequential and DfX paradigms, design of products is today maturing into Integrated Design, where multiple points of views and expertise have to be considered at the same time to progressively define the product

User kansei modeling and eco-design

The use of day-to-day life artifacts is a key phase in the lifecycle of products. Indeed it has a great impact on our environment. User centered methods are not yet taken into account in eco-design approaches. These methods are being developed in two ways, by building new user models encompassing complex dimensions such as Kansei and experience, including values and moods, and by integrating the user himself in the design process. This paper deals with setting-up a new theoretical framework associating user-centered design advanced approaches such as experience design, Kansei studies, or participative design and eco-design methods. The final goal is to support product design by providing some guidelines according to environmental issues linked to the users and their abilities

PSS Characterisation of Telecom Offerings

International audienceThe global telecommunication network provides a powerful infrastructure supporting a multitude of offerings. As early as the 1980’s the telecom industry had moved to services using telecom products that could be provided within the offers (a gateway included in the offer) or by the customers themselves (a computer to access the web). However, although modern telecommunication systems are often considered as good support for Product Service Systems (PSS), telecom carriers hardly refer to PSS when establishing their own offers. Indeed it is not always easy to understand how modern telecom services, using personal mobile phones and other objects, really fit with PSS philosophy. This paper evaluates telecom offerings from a PSS standpoint. Current telecom offerings are compared with PSS characteristics found in literature. The results clarify the potentials of current telecom offerings in the PSS paradigm

Comparing Three Telecom Offers and PSS

International audienceThe increasing presence of telecommunication offerings on the market poses the question of material and energy consumption. One way to reduce these impacts would be to shift their business model to Product-Service Systems (PSS). To study this prospective, the paper focuses on three telecom offerings provided by a French telecom carrier and analyses how close they are to PSS. The first is a classical telecom business offering dedicated to small and medium sized enterprises. The second is dedicated to the school market, providing a dematerialized solution to help the different actors to interact and share information. The third concerns retirement homes and medical establishments. It helps the medical staff to improve the safety of disabled persons. Evaluation of the cases highlights the key parameters that guide transition to PSS. The paper shows how the method can be used to understand each offer individually and also to establish priorities between the offers for introducing PSS

User kansei modeling and eco-design

International audienceThe use of day-to-day life artifacts is a key phase in the lifecycle of products. Indeed it has a great impact on our environment. User centered methods are not yet taken into account in eco-design approaches. These methods are being developed in two ways, by building new user models encompassing complex dimensions such as Kansei and experience, including values and moods, and by integrating the user himself in the design process. This paper deals with setting-up a new theoretical framework associating user-centered design advanced approaches such as experience design, Kansei studies, or participative design and eco-design methods. The final goal is to support product design by providing some guidelines according to environmental issues linked to the users and their abilities

User kansei modeling and eco-design

The use of day-to-day life artifacts is a key phase in the lifecycle of products. Indeed it has a great impact on our environment. User centered methods are not yet taken into account in eco-design approaches. These methods are being developed in two ways, by building new user models encompassing complex dimensions such as Kansei and experience, including values and moods, and by integrating the user himself in the design process. This paper deals with setting-up a new theoretical framework associating user-centered design advanced approaches such as experience design, Kansei studies, or participative design and eco-design methods. The final goal is to support product design by providing some guidelines according to environmental issues linked to the users and their abilities

Monitoring of abrasive water jet (AWJ) cutting using sound detection

Our main objective in the present work is to develop a methodology and create a system for the abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining process control. In the case of AWJ cutting, besides the cutting head traverse rate, the distance between the mixing tube and the workpiece, designated as the stand-off distance, has a predominant influence on the workpiece quality. The control of the traverse rate is performed by the machine controller. The stand off-distance control during the machining represents a problem because no effective on-line in real-time stand-off distance detection system has been developed yet. The detection of the stand-off distance during cutting enables better AWJ machining process control. order to monitor the stand-off distance, we measure the emitted sound generated during the AWJ straight cut operation and analyse its characteristic attributes. In order to verify the proposed stand-off distance monitoring methods, a set of experiments was carried out. The signal analysis was performed in both time and frequency domain. The obtained results show an evident influence of the stand-off distance on sound emission. Thus, efficient control of the AWJ cutting process through sound detection appears to be viabl

Influence of Environmental European Product Policies on Product Design-current Status and Future Developments

AbstractGreat environmental impacts along the life cycle of products might be avoided in the early steps of design. Thus several EU regulations encourage manufacturers to create products considering the whole life cycle of products. European Product Policies aim at boosting the EU market to be progressively more sustainable by setting product's specific thresholds. With this purpose, several policies that are product-related coexist under the scope of different EU regulations, for example: Ecodesign Directive, Labelling Directive, Green Public Procurement or EU Ecolabel. There are relevant aspects of these policies instruments which need to be considered towards an efficient, future oriented and more sustainable design of products. The objective of this paper is to assess how these product policies currently affect the design of products. An initial analysis presents the main technical relevant criteria for designers of such mandatory and voluntary policies. To anticipate to future environmental requirements leads business to competitive advantages. The analysis shows that the four EU product policies are dynamic and potentially synergetic although several aspects need to be further explored such as the scope extension of product groups, the non-energy aspects or the product systems’ link

New PSS Design Method of a Pneumatic Energy System

AbstractMost existing methods supporting the design of Product-Service System (PSS) support the ‘conceptual design’ phase at the higher levels of abstraction and the technical design phase strongly lacks of methodical support. This can be explained by the existing challenge of coupling products and services in designsince these two perspectives currently focus on different aspects and use specific models which appear as difficult to integrate. This paper proposes the design of a PSS for apneumatic energy delivery system. The design is based onthe combination and adaption of two existing methods from the product- and service- oriented design approaches for system engineering.Three levels of description are adopted: external and functional level, process level and structure level. Differentmodels are used to illustrate the levels. Their ability to reconcile the product- and service-oriented approaches is discussed since they provide a comprehensive view of the system in both perspectives. The resulting design process allows the identification of component specificationsand can be iterated at several levels of detail. This case-based design illustrates how the PSS design process can be supported at the technical phases

Collaborative network with SMEs providing a backbone for urban PSS: a model and initial sustainability analysis

iFirst 16 p.International audienceHigh-technology Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have regularly shown their capacities for creating and developing innovative services. However, their reduced size often confines them to vertical applications and limits the possibilities for broader development. Strategies grouping SMEs into collaborative networks are possible but sometimes need a strong leader to ensure credibility. On the other hand, large integrator-operators cannot be proficient in all the necessary domains, particularly when applications move very fast. They very much need the diversity and the dynamics of these SMEs to provide service packages with a common service backbone. Uniting the different actors is a challenge displaying good promises from various perspectives including sustainability. However, it is necessary that the links between the different partners and their corresponding activities be correctly represented in a model to be understood. This article proposes a new model for activities and processes in firms collaborating together in a network. A clearer understanding of the organisation acquired with the model, which is then used to discuss sustainability issues within the network