Standards in sustainable engineering and design

Abstract

The financial and environmental costs associated with the manufacture and consumption of products may be reduced through design for efficient production, service life extension and post-consumer value recovery. In response to today’s need to design with consideration for the whole product life cycle, British Standards Institution (BSI) published BS 8887-1 (2006) Design for Manufacture, Assembly, Disassembly and End-of-life processing (MADE). Original research into the distribution and use of this first part of the MADE series is reported in this thesis. The organizations that accessed BS 8887-1 were categorised using their Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. The results are presented graphically in multilevel charts using the hierarchical structure of the SIC system. The study found that the majority of standards users that purchased or downloaded BS 8887-1 were companies in the manufacturing sector and particularly electronics producers. Educational institutions also showed high levels of interest in the standard. For the first time, the use of BS 8887-1 in practice has been investigated. The purpose was to discover if, why and how it is being used and to identify examples of its application in design practice. This was accomplished through semi-structured interviews with design practitioners from both industry and academia, thus helping to explain the results of the earlier SIC study. The information gathered through the interviews shows how BS 8887-1 has informed the design process and how it has been used in combination with various design and management techniques e.g. Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP). These studies suggest that demand for the standard has been stimulated by the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, especially the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. Importantly, the use of BS 8887-1 has been found to be helpful in winning new business and reducing the costs associated with manufacture, product maintenance and waste management. Based on the result of the qualitative research, a new model of the use of standards in the New Product Development (NPD) process is presented. The research was proposed by the Chairman of the BSI technical committee responsible for the BS 8887 series. The beneficiaries are BSI, industry and academia, since the investigation has shown BS 8887-1 to be of value, and has informed the continuing development of this series of standards. The thesis concludes by arguing for BS 8887 to become the basis of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard in order to reach a wider audience. It also identifies a need for the standard’s design requirements to be supported with additional supplementary interpretation expanding on, and adding detail to, the information in the standard itself. Influenced by this research, at the time of writing a new BSI working group was being formed to consider developing BS 8887 as an ISO standard. BSI had also begun the process of commissioning a handbook to assist designers in the practical application of BS 8887 in industrial design.