Assessing New Product Sustainability Index (NPSI) by Integrating Sustainability Aspects into the Early New Product Design Stages

Abstract

Product design is one of the most important stages in the new product developmentprocess influencing global sustainability. However, the early design strategy offers thehighest impact on sustainability, the need for using sustainable proactive approach inearly design decisions could be the effective tool to achieve sustainability of newproducts. This paper presents a necessity of considering the sustainability aspects inpre-specification stages of new product design process, and introduces a modifiedmethodology for establishing a single Index termed as New Product SustainabilityIndex (NPSI) which enables the designers to carry out a quick analysis of thealternatives of new product designs and make choices based on various criteria. Theindex aggregates (TBL) and R & D aspects of different types of quantitative andqualitative indicators and information objects from a product manufacturing point ofview, into one single index. The sustainability matrix, aspects and criteria used inevaluating of (NPSI), is constructed in table form.