Management Practices for Sustainable Product Development (SPD): Investigating the integration of sustainability into product development in manufacturing companies

Driven by a growing demand for sustainable products, manufacturing companies have increasingly focused on enhancing the sustainability performance of the developed products. In recent decades, the pressure has further escalated by tougher regulations due to the increased transgression of the planetary boundaries.

Sustainable Product Development (SPD) has thus gained increasing significance across companies, regulatory authorities, and academia to enhance the sustainability performance of products across their life cycle. SPD is defined as the systematic incorporation of environmental, social and economic considerations into the product development process. Several methods, tools, practices and approaches have been developed to support the implementation of SPD in companies, both from an operational and managerial perspective. However, SPD’s managerial integration remains insufficient and unsystematic with the imbalance among the three sustainability dimensions and failures in improving the sustainability performance of products.

This research aimed at investigating the integration of sustainability into product development processes in manufacturing companies with the specific focus on the management practices for SPD (i.e., activities that enable the development of products with enhanced sustainability performance). The Design Research Methodology (DRM) was employed for defining the methodological foundation for the research, which comprised the adoption of several research methods such as systematic literature review, industry survey and exploratory interviews.

Three main results are presented in this thesis as the main contributions. First, the state-of-the-art of SPD management practices was identified, which led to the systematisation and consolidation of a set of 61 SPD management practices. Second, a conceptual model that supports the systematic implementation of the identified SPD practices was deployed. The model is comprised of three key pathways: (i) critical path, (ii) management path, and (iii) support path. Finally, an industry survey investigated the current capability of companies on implementing SPD practices, revealing an increased interest of companies to apply the practices. Moreover, exploratory interviews conducted with companies led to derive six key themes that explains the current state of SPD implementation and its contribution towards the development of products with enhanced sustainability performance.

The consolidation of 61 SPD management practices contributes to both manufacturing companies and academia by supporting the systematic integration of sustainability into the product development process. Findings from the industry survey indicate that companies have yet to fully realise SPD’s full potential, as practice applications are still largely unsystematic, holding significant room for improvement. To aid the application of SPD management practices, the conceptual model provides a structured approach with three pathways. Evidence suggests that implementing these practices can improve product sustainability, though a definitive link between higher capability levels and product performance remains to be established, further highlighting areas for future research.