Proposal of decision support method for life cycle strategy by estimating value and physical lifetimes

This paper proposes a decision support method for life cycle strategy in environmentally conscious product design. Here, decision of life cycle strategy includes selection of appropriate life cycle options (LCOP), such as upgrading, reuse, maintenance, and recycling. For this purpose, this paper focuses on the lifetimes of products and components, distinguishing the lifetime into two categories, physical lifetime and value lifetime. The method consists of two steps; namely, estimation of the physical and value lifetime of a product and its components by using a "disposal cause analysis matrix", and selection of the appropriate LCOP for each component based on the estimated lifetime. This paper also illustrates an example using a cellular phone. This result reveals that the proposed methodology can successfully support the decision process of life cycle strategy.