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The key D4S approaches are: redesign and benchmarking, and new product design and PSS (product service systems). Each is explained below.
Redesign
The goal of redesign method is to sustainably redesign an existing product depending on its primary functionality when market and manufacturing conditions are already known. D4S redesign is a right approach for developing countries since it comes with smaller risks and investment and follows a structured and predictable path.
1) Create the team and plan the project
The team has to include people from different backgrounds. In this step, the individual roles should be defined and how each person can contribute best should be determined. The ideal situation is when the team has members with different areas of expertise.
2) Analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, drivers and goals for the company: SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis shows the current product innovation capacity within the enterprise. The team should come up with appropriate project goals depending on this analysis.
3) Select the product
4) Find D4S drivers for the selected product
After selecting the product, the team should discuss the internal and external D4S drivers with the overarching company goals. This step is important to understand if the chosen product is the ideal one for the D4S Redesign efforts.
5) Conduct D4S Impact Assessment
Often supported by Life cycle assessment software, quantitative evaluation methods outline and provide more quantitative assessment methods and can provide measurable environmental impacts of the product.
6) Develop a D4S strategy and a D4S design brief
The D4S strategy wheel illustrates 7 general D4S strategies that cover a wide range of improvement directions and parallel the stages of the product life-cycle:
1> Selection of low-impact materials;
2> Reduction of materials usage;
3> Optimisation of production techniques;
4> Optimisation of distribution system;
5> Reduction of impact during use;
6> Optimisation of initial lifetime; and
7> Optimisation of the end-of-life system.
For the design brief focus on;
> The reason(s) for selecting the product;
> An indication of the social (people), environmental (planet), and financial (profit) goals;
> The selected D4S strategies;
> The way the project will be managed;
> The final composition of the project team;
> A plan and time scale for the project; and
> The project budget (staff and money) and activity
breakdown.
7) Generate and select ideas
This step is imperative as plans are created to improve the sustainability of the product and also pick a new product concept.
8) Develop concept
In this step, the selected product ideas are developed into concepts and then into a more detailed design. In addition to concept development, the production plan, and marketing plans are developed during this stage, as in traditional product innovation projects.
9) Evaluate D4S
Comparing the new design with the previous one provides an estimate of how successful the new product is going to be.
10) Implementation and follow-up
Tips & Best Practices
Companies should focus on the simple and easily implemented interventions that have the potential for greatest impact aligned with overall business goals while choosing an initial product for Redesign.
An essential prerequisite for the successful introduction of D4S Redesign is to keep the team motivated. Three ways to convince people about the relevance of D4S Redesign are:
1) highlight business benefits
2) provide good examples of D4S Redesign products and resultant benefits
3) list convincing sustainability arguments
Benchmarking
The goal of D4S benchmarking is to determine how to make that product more sustainable by comparing it to competitor’s products and also learning from other companies’ practices.
New product design
1) Policy Formulation
Policy formulation addresses the company’s goals and strategies.
2) Idea generation
Idea generation allows the company to develop ideas for new products, by considering the usage of developing technologies, materials and also taking into account consumer needs.
3) Product development
Product development involves debating and testing concepts against the decisions in the idea finding phase.
Tips & Best Practices
Eco-friendly materials, sustainable development practices, innovative information, and communication technology, can help inspire new product design.
Key Challenges
The key challenge for new product design is to have market demand because without a consumer need, it is not likely for the product to be successful and even the most sustainable product will fail.
Product-service systems
The goal of PSS is to help companies transition to a more integrated product and service market. It is useful for businesses that want to expand into a market which is impacted by environmental and social concerns. The method is used to fulfil the consumer’s demands in a sustainable way while also gaining more profit, and creating more value.
It is useful to implement a pilot project before restructuring the whole company or creating a company on a new business idea. The reason for applying for such a project is to outline the PSS business opportunities, to find out how the new PSS design and development process can work, to experiment with new PSS tools, and finally to develop new PSS for D4S solutions and test them.
1) Explore opportunities, identify and analyse the existing reference system
2) Generate PSS ideas and select the most promising concepts
3) Detail selected PSS concepts
4) Evaluate and test detailed PSS concepts
5) Plan implementation
Tips & Best Practices
For efficient PSS development, both the product and service sides have to merge and be integrated into market research and innovation activities including the formulation of design specifications, the timeframe for design implementation, and the actual delivery of the PSS on the market to increase efficiency and success. Today, it often happens that both sides (products and services) are not coordinated or well connected, leading only to sub-optimal results. It is highly suggested that companies involve other organisations and consumers in the process to build capacity.