Sustainable-driven Product Lifecycle Management in the Circular Economy

Design and develop sustainable and reusable products that focus on true customer needs and respect Extended Producer Responsibility guidelines is key for the product design and produce lifecycle...

The whole product lifecycle needs to be driven by the company's sustainable strategy - and companies must be able to track their products along the whole product lifecycle

It starts with the product lifecycle - from a first idea to the finished product. The goal is to create products that are focused on the needs of a circular economy and that are build to last. They need to be designed for flexibility in order to provide additional value once they are shared, reused, resold or recycled. Intelligent technology can help to improve the product lifecycle as is allows to develop smart and personalized products thanks to efficient (e.g. modularity...) and sustainable design (e.g. recycled, refurbished...) and smart sustainable raw and semi-finished material choices. Compliance or regulatory requirements (e.g. Extended Producer Responsibility) can be the foundation for the product development process and this insight-driven design process allows companies to develop products that are more sustainable, durable and competitive than the linear alternatives on the market. Elements such as dematerialization concepts right from the start will help to eliminate waste and will make sure that product components add value for other business partners or customers. Using the approach of Digital Twins combined with the capability to process large amounts of data (collected along the product lifecycle) companies can revolutionize R&D and they can better predict the impact of their products on the whole ecosystem (people and planet). Sustainable-driven product lifecycle management will help to design sustainable products that focus on customer needs and provide the necessary flexibility to create additional value for other peers during the product lifecycle.

🌎 Design products for reuse (material, ease of maintenance, simple disassembly, standardization)

🌎 Ability to track the product and its components within the different business networks, up to the customer

🌎 Allow consumers to become users of the product and give them options for refurbishment or sharing

I believe it is a time to revolutionize the way we do business. It is time for a Purpose-driven Wellbeing Economy. But to achieve this companies need new ways to design and develop products and bring them to the market. Sustainable product design starts with reuse in mind and spans across responsible sourcing for raw materials or semi finished products and ends up with a production that is focused on optimizing the use of own or external resources. It must be a joint approach between business partners and end users based on a new circular business model. What do you think?