FESTivE: an information system method to improve product designers and environmental experts information exchanges

Abstract

Effective collaboration between product designers and environmental experts is an important driver for the ecodesign practice in industry. This paper investigates the principal functions required for such an e ective collaboration and aims at facilitating them. Product designers should be able to integrate the environmental parameters into their activities, and to exchange information dynamically with the environmental expert whenever needed during the design process. Therefore, the IT system should be in itself dynamic and exible to the integration of new concepts (knowledge, software). Recent developments in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) are showing some interesting results to gain exibility and dynamism in the IT system. Combining software interoperability using model federation based on MDE with the speci city of ecodesign practice in industry this paper proposes the FESTivE method for Federate EcodeSign Tool modEls. Experimented in twodifferent industrial contexts the practical feasibility of FESTivE has been validated with practitioners. Results on the e ects of using FESTivE in industry shows that product designers and environmental experts are more equipped to anticipate and to respond to each other's needs at each stage of the design process of product or service.International audienceEffective collaboration between product designers and environmental experts is an important driver for the ecodesign practice in industry. This paper investigates the principal functions required for such an e ective collaboration and aims at facilitating them. Product designers should be able to integrate the environmental parameters into their activities, and to exchange information dynamically with the environmental expert whenever needed during the design process. Therefore, the IT system should be in itself dynamic and exible to the integration of new concepts (knowledge, software). Recent developments in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) are showing some interesting results to gain exibility and dynamism in the IT system. Combining software interoperability using model federation based on MDE with the speci city of ecodesign practice in industry this paper proposes the FESTivE method for Federate EcodeSign Tool modEls. Experimented in twodifferent industrial contexts the practical feasibility of FESTivE has been validated with practitioners. Results on the e ects of using FESTivE in industry shows that product designers and environmental experts are more equipped to anticipate and to respond to each other's needs at each stage of the design process of product or service

A methodological proposal to link Design with Additive Manufacturing to environmental considerations in the Early Design Stages

“…All of these experts need to be supported by available methods and tools to take into account all those business constraints, including ecodesign ones [5]. The knowledge required in order to face those constrains needs to be linked in a dynamic manner [6]. In this way collaboration, or in other words different experts sharing resources to reach the same goal, has to take place.…”

“…They need to exchange and use information from each other. It is essential in order to practice collaborative eco-design [6], in other words, to Design To Environment (DTE).…”

A Research Roadmap for Sustainable Design Methods and Tools

“…Even if companies do allocate resources for sustainable design, selecting and organizing SDMTs to support corporate strategy is still challenging, due to complex contexts [46]. Practitioners' lack of access to the relevant literature or SDMT training can also hamper adoption, as can the complexity of collaboration among stakeholders during product development [19,38,47,48]. To be integrated into product development, SDMTs must also accommodate a company's organization, internal processes, and roles [49].…”

Product life cycle management approach for integration of engineering design and life cycle engineering

“…The last point, which results from the previous one, is the lack of interoperability between the systems used in design and those used by the environmental experts. Rio et al (2014) proposed a model-driven architecture based interoperability method to improve the exchange of information between ecodesign and other design activities. Some software vendors worked on the integration of sustainability in traditional design tools like CAD systems (SOLID-WORKS from Dassault Systèmes) or material selection tools (CES selector from Granta Design).…”