Elimination of end-of-life cost through a standardised simultaneous design methodology for SME supply chains (ElectSME)

Pending legislation in the EU and its member states as well as the environmental awareness of customers are forcing manufacturers to take end-of-life (EOL) responsibility and to take back out-of-use products. Worldwide, waste from technical products at EOL is becoming an issue of attention. Producer responsibility is causing concern for the whole manufacturing industry as it is unsure how it will finance such a responsibility, particularly with regard to the cost of disposal and recycling. Economical recycling can be the ultimate incentive for companies to support circular economies. However, product design, intended to eliminate recycling cost and generate EOL value, requires the simultaneous and standardised optimisation of the entire product, including the numerous components and modules from suppliers, which are mainly SMEs. First generation design for recycling (DFR) approaches, such as the TOPROCO software presented, show significant shortcomings, which have resulted in a very low degree of adoption within manufacturing industry. The deficiencies of these approaches and the need for a second generation DFR methodology and software tool, as to be developed in the three-year European Commission funded research project ElectSME, is derived. The innovations pursued are presented. The project objective is to deliver proof to manufacturing supply chains of the economic benefit of properly designed products for EOL