Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: “Global Supply Chain Risk Management” (original) (raw)

Hierarchy of Sustainable Design Factors within the Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods sector

InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact, 2016

The alarming rate of today’s environmental degradation shows that the businessas-usual is not sustainable. Thus sustainable design has emerged, as not only a thriving research area but also as a business imperative. However, few studies offer empirical evidence on the successful implementation of sustainable design to consumer products. This study identifies the influencing factors for successful implementation of sustainable design within the Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods (FMCG) sector. The unit of the analysis is the front-end of the new product development (NPD) process. Two companies from Brazil and South Korea were selected for in-depth case studies representing different stages of the sustainability continuum respectively. A total of 14 interviews were conducted with different functions from management, design, marketing, and sustainability to R&D at high/ middle/ low level within the company hierarchy. The qualitative data analysis of the standardised questionnaire survey and si...

Unraveling the environmental product design paradox

1997

Abstract As global mandates on end-of-life product disposition finally go in to effect, companies must begin to define appropriate end-of-life strategies. Business decision makers need to be more aware of the opportunities, issues, and liabilities which will face the company in the near future, and be able to sufficiently address them. Environmental Product Design (EPD) suggests considering the life cycle environmental, health, and safety impacts of a product early in development.

A Foundation for Sustainable Product Development

Product development is a particularly critical intervention point for the transformation of society towards sustainability. Current socio-ecological impacts over product life-cycles are evidence that current practices are insufficient. The aim of this thesis is to form a foundation for sustainable product development through the integration of a sustainability perspective into product development procedures and processes. Literature reviews and theoretical considerations as well as interviews, questionnaires, observations, testing and action research through case studies in various companies have indicated gaps in current methodology and have guided the development of a new general Method for Sustainable Product Development (MSPD). This method combines a framework for strategic sustainable development based on backcasting from basic sustainability principles with a standard concurrent engineering development model. A modular system of guiding questions, derived by considering the su...