Total Design Control within the Sustainable Engineering Design Process

Any new engineering product or system which is presented to the global market has to be designed before manufacture. Normally the driving fundamental for any new product is that of cost. The product must be able to be produced as cheaply as possible to increase the profit margin.

It is increasingly important to consider environmental issues when creating new products, but consideration alone is not enough it is important that products and services are created to incorporate "low environmental impact". This however is a very broad brush approach and needs to be refined so that the product creator (Engineering Designer) can apply principles of sustainability to the new product.

This paper reviews sustainability principles and incorporates and enhances the design and manufacture model to encompass the whole life of the product from "cradle to grave". Though this is not a new concept the novel sustainability model considers six elements which the product experiences during its whole life and applies the principles of engineering design to each sustainability element.

Within this model it is put forward that the design function is the only function within the whole product creation process that can define and direct sustainability principles and apply them to a new product or service.

The concept has been developed therefore of "Total Design Control" where it is the designer or the design function which controls and specifies all the phases of product creation from material sourcing, product design, manufacture, product use, maintenance and product disposal.