Low-carbon product design

Having been engaged in research and design of consumer electronics products for many years, I have concluded that a good product design needs to meet the product design specifications (including industrial design, product dimension, weight, and functionality), cost, and mass production schedule. Besides that, the other requirements are listed below:

DFM (Design for Manufacture)

DFQ (Design for Quality)

DFR (Design for Repair)

DFU (Design for User)

In response to the sustainability/ESG trend and demand in recent years, product design needs to consider another requirement: "Design for Low Carbon" (DFLC). Low-carbon design needs to consider the minimization of carbon emissions throughout the product's life cycle assessment (LCA). The full life cycle assessment includes the use of raw materials, manufacturing, distribution of products, product use, and product recycling/disposal. To meet the requirements and needs of low carbon, product research and development have added a certain degree of complexity and difficulty. Achieving low-carbon design will have an impact on material selection, supply chain selection, manufacturing methods, product specifications/reliability, maintenance methods, and costs. Therefore, it is necessary to include low-carbon design requirements in the early product planning and development processes to evaluate their impact and influence and propose corresponding solutions. In response to today's trends and needs, product design needs to consider not only the original factors but also "design for low carbon" to obtain the most complete and optimized product design DFX (Design for Excellent). All the requirements of DFX shown in the diagram are as follows :

Low-carbon product design factors

The calculation of carbon emissions needs to cover the carbon emissions generated by each process or value chain activity in the LCA process, and the carbon emission value is directly proportional to the activity data and emission factor. Therefore, to carry out low-carbon design, it is necessary to reduce activity data and emission coefficients during design to achieve the goal of low-carbon design. The factors that dominate low-carbon product design are as follows:

• Design and selection of CMF (color/material/surface treatment):
• • Use recyclable materials
  • Choose low-carbon colors
  • Choose a low-carbon surface treatment
• Structural design
• • Structural design needs to consider ease of disassembly and recycling
  • The process can be optimized and achieve low carbon/energy savings according to the structural design
• Supplier selection 
• • Choose suppliers that use raw materials, components, or assemblies with lower emission factors
• Production process
• • The high yield rate of product assembly. It is easy to rework, and the loss of materials is reduced.
  • Optimize manufacturing process and improve production efficiency to achieve low carbon and energy savings.
• Package Design
• • Choose recyclable materials
  • Simple/lightweight 
  • Optimization of volume
• Product Distribution
• • Choose low-carbon transportation
• User usage
• • Energy saving during use
  • Charging is efficient
• Product recycling and disposal
• • Plan the mechanism and process for product recycling
  • Automated design of recycling/disassembly and equipment planning/procurement

The factors of low-carbon design shown in the figure are as follows:

The development processes of "low-carbon design products" are as follows:

• Product Planning
• • Evaluate the impact of products on brand image
  • Correlation and implementation with corporate sustainability strategy/ESG vision
  • Product positioning and competitiveness assessment
  • Profit and cost analysis (product cost/carbon footprint)
• Product Design
• • Assessment, design, and calculation of product LCA carbon emissions
  • • Based on the parts list (BOM), process, manufacturing yield, consumer product usage, and product recycling, the carbon footprint is initially estimated and the data is fed back to the product planning stage as a basis for planning or strategy adjustments.After the product officially enters the design stage, each stage of LCA is carried out to minimize the carbon footprint and then recalculated based on the updated design and information.
  • Cost and value analysis
  • • Cost: includes the cost of carbon-reducing design and manufacturing as well as costs related to carbon emissions generated by producing products (such as carbon taxes, carbon fees, and carbon tariffs).Value: Improve competitiveness to get more orders, low-carbon product marketing strategies, sales, and brand image improvements, corporate ESG implementation, and value enhancement.
  • Supply Chain selection/management
  • • Choose an appropriate supply chain based on product design needs and goals to provide low-carbon raw materials and components.
  • Manufacturing
  • • Based on product design to plan and optimize the production process to have the lowest carbon emissions and the most efficient energy use.
  • Product Distribution
  • • Plan optimized distribution methods based on sales orders to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Product recycling
  • • Plan the recycling plan based on the sales market, including preparing the tools, equipment, sites, and manpower required for recycling based on product design.It is necessary to communicate with the designer, R&D, and manufacturing personnel in the early stage to facilitate subsequent recycling work and improve efficiency.
  • Data collection
  • • User experienceCollect users' feedback on the product recycling mechanism process and experience.Collect users' actual usage data of the product (such as power consumption area/location, power consumption, and usage time/longevity).Statistics on the quantity, area, and rate of product recycling.
  • Collection of actual production and manufacturing carbon emission factors and activity data.
  • Collection of actual carbon emission factors and activity data of raw materials or components from suppliers
  • Recalculate the carbon footprint based on the actual collected data and compare/review it with the assessment data in the design stage.
• Review and Improvement (Postmortem & Lesson Learnt)
• • Whether the product planning and strategy achieve the expected goals
  • The accuracy of product carbon footprint calculations can be corrected and adjusted based on actual collected data to improve the accuracy of future assessment and calculation data.
  • Based on the problems discovered during the project execution, we conduct reviews and introduce improvement plans into the process, so that the next low-carbon design product project can be promoted more smoothly.

The development process of "low-carbon design products" shown in the figure is as follows:

Low-carbon product design emphasizes the low-carbonization of products and is mainly designed to respond to the impact of products on the environment (E). To achieve sustainability/ESG goals, in addition to environmental impact, the corporation must also consider the social impact(S), such as all engineer's or laborers' human rights involved in R&D, design, manufacturing, and supply chain during product development, use, and manufacturing. The corporation should comply with the  RBA initiatives. As for the corporate governance (G) part, it is necessary to evaluate the impact caused by the introduction of low-carbon product design, such as whether the increase in product costs affects profits; the impact of changes in company processes and supply chains on organizations and individuals. Therefore, before introduction, it is necessary to discuss with all stakeholders, and through effective communication, it can be smoothly promoted and implemented to achieve the expected results. Introducing low-carbon design and promoting sustainability/ESG requires adjusting or adding items to the original company process, such as design review, and design review for manufacturing; For quarterly supply chain review (QBR), and audit, you need to add items related to sustainability, ESG, and low carbon to the original checklist or score card. In addition, energy-saving, carbon-reducing, or carbon-negative technologies will also generate business opportunities and patents for enterprises. During the product development process, relevant practitioners have the opportunity to brainstorm, innovate, and demonstrate performance. Therefore, through detailed planning, effective communication, solid execution, and the accumulation/correction of project execution experience, low-carbon/sustainable design can be completed and the optimal product design (DFX) can also be completed for the enterprise. Our ESG vision and values ​​generate outstanding contributions and benefits as well. Although the product in this article takes consumer electronics as an example, the same framework can be applied to different types of products and adjusted according to their product characteristics. In addition, the priority of a low-carbon product design is to evaluate and calculate the carbon emission of the product in the early stage. If the carbon emission of the initial design or selected materials is too high, the design should be modified or the materials should be replaced； after confirming that the low-carbon design has been optimized, the subsequent detailed design and production can be started. Designing low-carbon and sustainable products requires long-term accumulation, cross-departmental cooperation and consensus, and more importantly, authorization and determination from top managers.

Glossary:

DFM= Design for Manufacture

DFQ= Design for Quality

DFR= Design for Repair

DFU= Design for User

DFLC= Design for Low Carbon

LCA= Life cycle assessment (Link)

DFX= Design for Excellent

Activity data (link)

Emission factor (Link)

Value Chain

CMF= Color, Material, and Finish

BOM= Bill of Materials

RBA=Resoponsible Business Alliance (Link)

QBR= Quarterly Business Review (Link)