ECoDE – An Environmental Component Design Evaluation Tool

Abstract

. Mass consumerism has brought about increasing consumption of non-renewable natural resources and manufactured goods, and is creating a waste disposal problem of unprecedented magnitude in the process. In the long run, sustainable manufacturing is only attainable given environmentally responsible product design. There are many tools for the analysis of the impact of manufactured products on the environment, but they do not offer a level of detail sufficient to identify environmentally offensive components in the product. This paper discusses a computer-based design evaluation tool, ECoDE, developed for assessing the environmental impact of components in a product. ECoDE makes use of the Analytical Hierarchy Process to compare each criterion, and rank them in an ascending order of relative significance. The types of materials used, their costs, manufacturing processes, reliability, and ease of access for disassembly are some of the key assessment criteria being considered. Finally, a multi-attribute (or criteria) rating technique is used to compute the scores against each of the criteria for both components and the overall product. The larger the score, the less severe the impact of the component or product on the environment. A discussion is then made on an evaluation test case conducted by ECoDE. Preliminary tests have found that ECoDE is able to calculate the least environmentally friendly component and highlight its likely causes.