Page 92 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Managing Envir onmental Innovation 71

product development cycle time has become an essential goal. Equally
important is the goal of continuous improvement in product qual-
ity and responsiveness to the “voice of the customer.” Many firms
have introduced new management methods, such as “stage-gate”
processes designed to accelerate time to market, standardize product
characterization, and improve decision making. A classic publication
by the National Research Council summarizes the prevailing wisdom
of modern product development [3]. It cites four requirements for
using design as a source of competitive advantage:
1. Commit to continuous improvement both of products and
of design and production processes.

2. Establish a corporate product realization process (PRP)
supported by top management.
3. Develop and/or adopt and integrate advanced design
practices into the PRP.
4. Create a supportive design environment.
Moreover, it defines an effective PRP as incorporating the follow-
ing steps:
• Define customer needs and product performance require-
ments.
• Plan for product evolution beyond the current design.
• Plan concurrently for design and manufacturing.
• Design the product and its manufacturing processes with
full consideration of the entire product life cycle, including
distribution, support, maintenance, recycling, and disposal.
• Produce the product and monitor product and processes.

In this spirit, the term “Integrated Product Development” (IPD)
describes a process that has been adopted by most progressive manu-
facturing firms, even though they may have different names for it [4].
IPD is commonly understood to mean develop-
ment of new products using cross-functional
BREAKTHROUGH
teams from inception to commercialization.
PRODUCTS MAY LIKELY
More specifically, we define IPD as follows: a
BE BASED ON
process whereby all functional groups (engineering,
TRANSFORMATIVE
manufacturing, marketing, etc.) that are involved
ENVIRONMENTAL
in the product life cycle participate as a team in the
early understanding and resolution of key issues TECHNOLOGIES.
that will influence the success of the product.
Integrated product development does not tolerate the traditional
“sequential engineering” approach, in which a design is developed
and refined in successive stages by different engineering groups
(design, layout, test, etc.), with each group “throwing results over