A Data-Driven Approach for Improving Sustainable Product Development

Marcin Relich ()
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Marcin Relich: Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Zielona Gora, 65-417 Zielona Gora, Poland

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: A product’s impact on environmental issues in its complete life cycle is significantly determined by decisions taken during product development. Thus, it is of vital importance to integrate a sustainability perspective in methods and tools for product development. The paper aims at the development of a method based on a data-driven approach, which is dedicated to identifying opportunities for improving product sustainability at the design stage. The proposed method consists of two main parts: predictive analytics and simulations. Predictive analytics use parametric models to identify relationships within product sustainability. In turn, simulations are performed using a constraint programming technique, which enables the identification of all possible solutions (if there are any) to a constraint satisfaction problem. These solutions support R&D specialists in finding improvement opportunities for eco-design related to reducing harmful impacts on the environment in the manufacturing, product use, and post-use stages. The results indicate that constraint-satisfaction modeling is a pertinent framework for searching for admissible changes at the design stage to improve sustainable product development within the full scope of socio-ecological sustainability. The applicability of the proposed approach is verified through an illustrative example which refers to reducing the number of defective products and quantity of energy consumption.

Keywords: constraint-satisfaction modeling; eco-friendly products; energy consumption; predictive analytics; product sustainability; sustainability performance; systems modeling and simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6736-:d:1125185

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