Multiple generation life-cycles for product sustainability: the way forward

In recent times, product engineers have been under pressure to produce new strategies toward sustainable development, whether it involves materials or component recovery. The trend of product design development is shifting from 'cradle-to-grave' to 'cradle-to-cradle' which leads to the advent of multiple generation product life-cycles. This paper studies the design guidelines from Design for X which provides directional criteria on designing for multiple generation life-cycles. Therefore, in this paper, Design for Multiple Life-Cycles is defined as a combination of eco-design strategies including Design for Environment and Design for Remanufacture, which leads to other design strategies such as Design for Upgrade, Design for Assembly, Design for Disassembly, Design for Modularity, Design for Maintainability and Design for Reliability. This multiple life-cycles design thinking will pave the way for a more sustainable design and development of future products. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.