A Matrix-Based Approach for Sustainability in Product Design

The paper proposes a matrix-based approach that a designer can use to evaluate the sustainability of one or more design solutions in the conceptual phase of a product development process. The methodology is structured in two main phases. In the first one, a data structure, called Augmented-DSM (Design Structure Matrix), has to be drawn in order to collect design information such as functional links among product components, indicators that provide information about the life cycle of each element, connections with the environment and toward other systems. The matrix is based on a DSM format, where new records were introduced to store and organize different types of data and an editing protocol was formalized. In the second stage, a set of procedures have to be applied in order to evaluate sustainability of a design solution and compare it with the others. The presented procedures, in fact, allow designers to assess a product in its proper characteristics, evaluate a device during its use stage and verify the coherence of links present in the functional model. This new approach is conceived to manage different performance indicators and, as a support tool, it is an attempt to aid designers in a quantitative evaluation.