Incorporating Lifecycle Considerations in Axiomatic Design

At the outset of designing a new product, knowledge about the product is limited, but the designer has a considerable amount of design freedom. Considering the environmental implications of a product design early in the design phase is a crucial step in achieving an environmentally efficient product. By applying the axiomatic approach to a product's design, the designer can ensure that the final embodiment of the product or service satisfies the obligatory and necessary set of functional requirements and constraints, including environmental issues. In this paper we show how the integration of environmental considerations early in the process of axiomatic design can lead to the development of an environmental-friendly product or service. The paper demonstrates an artificial case study of designing a modern manufacturing system. A major issue investigated in this work is the possibility of assessing environmental performance (or environmental-related information) already in the preliminary stages of the design process. An upper bound for the probability of a product failing to satisfy environmental requirements is introduced. In addition, the suitability of lifecycle analysis to the assessment of products during the process of axiomatic design is discussed.