Lifecycle Insights reposted this
📈 Our research shows that companies have invested in several key areas of manufacturing sustainability initiatives, from wastewater recycling and sourcing cleaner fuels to reducing energy usage. A lot goes into large-scale #manufacturing initiatives like these. 🗜 But there's relentless pressure on companies to show continued #sustainability improvements. CEOs turn to their sustainability chiefs for ongoing gains. Many have checked boxes in manufacturing and are now turning their eye toward product engineering. Designing sustainable products? That's not on the list of straightforward initiatives, partly because multiple design process variables merge with ongoing #engineering challenges. It's like combining the ongoing traffic problems of L.A., Austin, or Atlanta with a flock of flamingos loose on the freeway after a trailer overturns. Getting where you're trying to go wasn't easy, and now there are flamingos. To appreciate what some solutions provide, here are some challenges engineers face: 🔩 Design process variables: if a product component isn't designed by engineers and they're tasked with integrating "off the shelf" components into a design, it's often challenging to access carbon footprint or efficiency data for that component. 👷♂️ Workforce and production crunches: engineers already navigate tight schedules. Understanding a product's sustainability profile doesn't relieve any schedule pressure: what's on the critical path is often the only thing engineers get to do. Integrating product sustainability must be quick, intuitive, or automated to meet deadlines. 🐢 Steady, reliable [late adopters]: You want engineers who are careful, thorough, and consistent. The flip side? Great engineers can be slow to let go of their established methods, habits, or even user interfaces. Compartmentalizing sometimes lets engineers tune out hassles they don't have the authority to fix or have gone unaddressed. 👍 The good news is that many solutions and tools are emerging to help engineers gauge the sustainability profile of their products. Bill of material (#BOM) tools: These can be consulted, such as a catalog, providing a grade or rating for a product or component. #Informedengineering tools provide integrated, dynamic information for engineers comparing sustainability metrics as they swap out one design component for an alternative component to measure sustainability impact. Are you exploring how to integrate sustainability gains into the design process? What challenges or benefits are you discovering along the way? How are you herding flamingos? I'd love to hear your story and what you've learned. #sustainabilityexecutive #manufacturing Follow Lifecycle Insights for #research and guidance on #digitaltransformation for #engineering and #manufacturing #executives. We'll be sharing more insights like this one from our interviews, studies, and publications. Stay tuned!