How Technology can drive Purpose and Sustainability in Research & Development

Design products and services for a Circular Economy - Focus on real Planet Centric Design patterns and leverage Sustainable Digitalization in R&D processes...

Design products that create real value for the consumer and help to reduce the footprint on the environment

From the initial idea, early engineering through prototyping and production, R&D is the most important process in the company. The result of this process, the finished product or good, represents the values the company stands in. Today consumers want more than just simple products and goods that can be used and thrown away once they reached the end of their lifecylce. Consumers demand products that are designed with circularity in mind. Products that help to reduce the environmental footprint and products that can be reused, recycled or shared (for further use by orther parties). Building modularity into products will further help to reduce waste and allows to reuse and refurbish components once they wear out. Within R&D different tasks need to be orchestrated in order to design sustainable products for circular business models: consumer and product research, raw materials and semi-finished products planning, sourcing, prototyping and production are just some of them. Furthermore it is important to understand and apply regulatory requirements (e.g. plastic packaging, etc.) in order to ensure marketability of the product in different areas of the world. Along every single process step in R&D technology plays a very vital role and does help digitalize R&D processes in a smart and sustainable way.

Sustainable Digitalization in product design starts with a fundamental understanding of the consumer need and the impact on the planet. Planet Centric Design is the design pattern - only design and develop products that do not harm the planet and its natural resources. And if you design a product, think in modularity, ease of maintenance and provide refurbish, resell or recycle options right from the start. Immersive Experience can help to simulate product behaviour in an early pre-production phase and how end consumers will interact and use the product (including steps like refurbish or recycle). Machine Learning & Business Intelligence will help to create a digital twin of the product and to define the necessary data models that will help to define new product services in the future and to simulate maintenance aspects of the product (with focus on using less spare parts, through modularity in the product design). Data Intelligence will allow to incorporate real-life data from engineering partners, material suppliers, service providers, end consumers, in order to generate a product data lifecycle stream that will be relevant for further product enhancements and value added (e.g. reuse, refurbish, share) services later on. Automation & Robotics will help to speed up the whole R&D process while automating substantial tasks along the product lifecycle process (PLM) process. Last but not least Smart Integration & Connectivity will enable a tight integration between all the different applications (internal and external, cloud and on-premise) in order to facilitate a complete data and process exchange.

🌎 Leverage Smart Technology early in the R&D process and design sustainable products focused for the Circular Economy

🌎 Bring Modularity into the product design process in order to optimize usage, maintenance and service of products

🌎 Put the planet in the center of your thinking and design products for consumers who will not consume but use the product

I believe it is time to revolutionize the way we do business. It is time for a Purpose-driven Wellbeing Economy. But to achieve this goal we have to speed up the adoption of Sustainable Digitalization in industrial organizations to optimize the way how business is done. Smart Technology is one key enabler to get there. What do you think?