Page 138 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

CHAPTER 8

Design Rules and

Guidelines

DFE Principle 4. Build upon past experiences
to assemble a portfolio of design strategies that

can be codified, communicated through training,
and systematically applied by your design teams.

DFE Rules!
The basic premise of this book is that environmental sustainability is
compatible with economic growth—that companies can redesign
products and processes in a way that is both environmentally respon-
sible and profitable. Accordingly, the goal of DFE is to enable design
teams to create eco-efficient and eco-effective products while adher-
ing to their cost, quality and schedule constraints. Chapter 5 argues
that, for a company to be successful in this goal, DFE must be inte-
grated seamlessly into the develop ment process, from the analysis of
customer needs and establishment of product requirements to the
verification that these requirements have been fulfilled. The availabil-
ity of guidelines for practicing DFE was identified as the second key
element needed to support this process.
The integrated product development process defined in Chapter
5 begins with setting of objectives during the concept phase. Once the
product objectives have been defined, the product development cycle
begins in earnest. It is an exploratory process during which ideas are
generated, considered from various perspectives, and either pursued
or rejected. As manufacturing companies have refined their product
development processes, they have increasingly recognized the need
to adopt guidelines. These guidelines may be expressed in a variety of
forms, ranging from verbal rules of thumb to multidimensional look-
up tables to pictorial maps or diagrams. There at least two types of
guidelines:

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