QFD for Product Design based on Life-cycle Strategy

Abstract

This paper surveys end-of-life strategies currently used in the electronics and appliances industries and identifies product characteristics that guide designers to specify appropriate strategies. The survey indicates that important characteristics are wear-out life, design cycle, technology cycle, functional complexity, number of materials, and number of parts. Two key characteristics, wear-out life and technology cycle, serve as factors to categorize products' appropriate life-cycle scenarios. The categorization leads to a methodology that guides product designers to seek environmentally friendly designs, and to identify opportunities for developing new recycling technologies. Further, an application of quality function deployment (QFD) as a design support tool for helping design engineers early in the product design based on appropriate life-cycle strategies is proposed.