Design for Environment (DfE) Methodology using Novel VE-based Product and Process Model, and TRIZ-based Innovation Principles in Consideration of Product Lifecycle

Reduction of environmental impact and energy consumption becomes a crucial issue. In the field of product manufacturing, development and improvement of products that reduce environmental impacts are called the design for environment (DfE). This paper proposes a systematic methodology of the DfE through identification and resolution of contradictions based on the concept of TRIZ (Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch) developed by Dr. Altshuller in the former Soviet Union. The proposed methodology consists of the following four steps: conceiving an original idea to reduce environmental impact or improve product functions, identifying the contradictions between the environmental impact and the product function using a product and process model, transforming the identified contradiction into a TRIZ problem, extracting the applicable TRIZ inventive principles and modify the original idea. It is found that the original TRIZ engineering parameters cannot be used because they are extracted mainly from examples of mechanical system inventions. So, we proposed to add environmental impact parameters customized for the DfE. The proposed methodology has been examined by the PET bottle lifecycle example. The engineer successfully comes up with the idea inspired by this inventive principle. Although the proposed methodology only considers the contradictions between the environmental impact and the product function, it is easily expandable to consider the cost as the additional factor, and further to apply for general design problems.