An Overview of Possible Integration of Green Design Principles Into Mechatronic Product Development Through Product Lifecycle Management

People that work on the development of mechatronic products do not have enough data related to the end of the product lifecycle when making decisions related to the product design. Sustainable design tools in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems could enable more sustainable designs with ‘greener’ decision-making. PLM tools, which are supporting designs of mechatronic products, are lacking more consideration about the product’s overall lifecycle ecological footprint. Most decisions that are made during the design phase are based on costs of materials and processes that are involved in development and manufacturing, not to the service, reuse, recycling and disposal of such products. This study will investigate the possibility of including the data related to the end of the product lifecycle. Integrating green design tools into the PLM systems would help mechatronic engineers to develop more sustainable designs. This paper will investigate the current state of the art in the area of Product Lifecycle Management systems that support design and realization of mechatronic projects. It discusses some ideas that can be used for determining a framework for data capturing of electro-mechanical product related data. This would connect decisions in earlier phases with the ones in final stages of a product lifecycle. This data can be used for the environmental footprint determination.