Circularity Evaluation of Alternative Concepts During Early Product Design and Development

Julie Kamp Albæk, Sasha Shahbazi*, Tim C. McAloone, Daniela C. A. Pigosso

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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    Abstract

    Product design and development are essential for a circular transition. Circularity decisions, such as those concerning the type of material, assembly method, and expected lifespan, made during the early design stages will significantly influence a product’s quality, cost, esthetics, sustainability, and circularity performance over the product lifecycle. However, circularity is not often considered in the early stages of product design and development. This paper presents the development of the concept circularity evaluation tool (CCET), which aims to support the evaluation of alternative product concepts in terms of their circularity potential in the early stages of product design and development. The CCET was iteratively developed based on an extensive literature review of the success criteria for tool development, guidelines, and existing tools for circular product design and development and strong collaboration with manufacturing companies. The tool was tested and verified at four manufacturing companies in Nordic countries. The tool has been proven useful for evaluating the circularity of products and supportive in the decision-making process in the early stages of product design and development.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number9353
    JournalSustainability
    Volume12
    Issue number22
    Number of pages25
    ISSN2071-1050
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Bibliographical note

    This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

    Keywords

    • Product development
    • Product design
    • Circular economy
    • Circular product development
    • Design for environment
    • Ecodesign
    • Circularity evaluation

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