A tiered approach to design for environment

There has been much discussion about environmental issues in manufacturing and the design of new products. The challenge is to integrate environmental considerations into the design and manufacturing operations so that it becomes part of the normal operating procedures. This paper is a description of a framework for integration of environmental considerations into design and manufacturing operations. The paper first describes the current state of the art for product design, but does not preclude the use of the same techniques for process design as well. Design for environment is then introduced by comparing DFE to design for manufacturability. Environmental life cycle assessment is introduced next as the most popular method for assessing the environmental impact of a product or process along with a short discussion on measuring design merit. Finally all of these subjects are brought together in a framework for implementing design for environment into process and product design