Abstract
Determining life cycle strategies at the early stage of life cycle design is crucial for minimizing environmental loads and costs throughout a product life cycle. This article proposes a method for supporting description of life cycle scenario, which is one way to represent a life cycle strategy, based on product life cycle characteristics. The method consists of four main features: (i) step-wise description of a life cycle scenario, (ii) representation of design rationale, (iii) managing design alternatives by using Truth Maintenance System (TMS), and (iv) integrating the results gained from other life cycle design support tools. These four features enable designers to describe and examine various feasible life cycle scenarios. The case study shows that the method successfully supports designers to describe life cycle scenarios easily and efficiently.
