Abstract
Objective. Eco-Design tools, which are widely utilized by major manufactures, have not been spread over Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). SME does not have an incentive to implement Eco-design tools because of the following reasons: (i) Many SMEs are standing at the middle position of the products supply chains. Therefore, they receive the specifications of their products from their customers and they have small flexibility of design and production procedures. (ii) Shortage of information on the upper and the lower stages of the products supply chains make implementing Eco-design tools difficult. (iii) SMEs do not have enough capacity to install new tools due to lack of staff and budget for research and development. To overcome these obstacles, we have implemented the Eco-Design Promotion Project for SME, to diffuse Eco-Design tools, i.e, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Quality Function Deployment for Environment (QFDE). This paper introduces the results of the project, and proposes a model of design process.
Results and Discussion. The number of companies participated in the project was 14 in 2006FY and 63 in 2007FY. As examples, two cases practiced in 2006FY are shown in this paper. In case of the ventilation system, the company implemented QFDE and LCA for the fan, and clarified that CO2 emission through the product life cycle is dominated by the usage stage and the designers found that redesign of the shape of blade to reduce the power consumption in the usage stage is effective to improve the environmental performance. In case of the casting products, the company applied LCA to improve its production line because the detailed product design is strictly specified by its customer. The LCA quantified that the dominant factor was the energy consumption in cupola furnace and the pig iron production. The company found that the improvement of process yield and reducing the feed amount of pig iron are effective. To implement LCA and QFDE for SME effectively, we have to consider not only the product characteristics, but also every aspect where the SME can contribute for the product, since most SMEs are standing at the middle position of the products supply chains. Furthermore, we have to take into account the variations of the status and condition of environmental data management depending on the SME. Therefore, we propose a business model for SME to implement Eco-Design.
Conclusions. The paper shows that the Eco-design tools can be useful for SME to reduce environmental impact by implementing the right tools in right timing by describing practical case studies. Business process models developed by using IDEF0 function modeling method show when LCA is used and what are needed for implementation of LCA. Two business process models are proposed to implement LCA on product design process and on production line design process.
