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atonline
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26th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference
26th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference
Teaching eco-design by using LCA analysis of company's product
Teaching eco-design
portfolio: 28ththeCIRPcasebystudy
Design using ofLCA
Conference, an May analysis
Italian of company's
2018,manufacturing
Nantes, France product
firm
portfolio: the case astudy of an Italian manufacturing firm
A new methodology Claudioto analyze
Favi *, Marco the Marconi
functional b and Germani
, Michele physical c architecture of
existing Department
products for and
Claudio
of Engineering
a
anFavi
assembly
a
*, Marco
Architecture, oriented
UniversitàMarconi
b
product
, Michele
di Parma, Parco family
Germani
Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43124,identification
c
Parma, Italy
b
Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Largo dell’università, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
Department ofDepartment of Engineering
andand Architecture, Università di Parma, Parco Area
delledelle Scienze
via181/A,
Brecce43124, Parma, Italy Ancona, Italy
a
c
Industrial Engineering Mathematical Sciences, Università Politecnica Marche, Bianche 12, 60131,
b
Paul Stief *, Jean-Yves Dantan, Alain Etienne, Ali Siadat
Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Largo dell’università, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
* Corresponding
c
Departmentauthor. Tel.: +39-0521-90-6344;
of Industrial fax: +39-0521-90-6344.
Engineering and Mathematical E-mail address:
Sciences, Università claudio.favi@unipr.it
Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131, Ancona, Italy
École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, LCFC EA 4495, 4 Rue Augustin Fresnel, Metz 57078, France
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-0521-90-6344; fax: +39-0521-90-6344. E-mail address: claudio.favi@unipr.it

*Abstract
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 37 54 30; E-mail address: paul.stief@ensam.eu

Abstract
Eco-design is a design paradigm aiming to the development of sustainable products. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered an eco-design
tool able to assess the product environmental performances through a life cycle perspective. However, LCA shows some limitations in
Abstract
Eco-design is a design paradigm aiming to the development of sustainable products. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered an eco-design
industry’s daily practice and cannot be considered a standard for implementing eco-design. The paper aims to describe the implementation of a
tool able to assess the product environmental performances through a life cycle perspective. However, LCA shows some limitations in
novel eco-design teaching approach involving company’s employees from different technical departments. LCA analysis of company’s product
Inindustry’s
today’s business environment,
daily practice and cannotthe be
trend towards amore
considered product
standard variety and customization
for implementing eco-design. Theis unbroken.
paper aims Dueto to this development,
describe the needofofa
the implementation
portfolio allowed to create a specific eco-knowledge, used to train designers and engineers on this subject for the implementation of eco-design
agile
noveland reconfigurable
eco-design teachingproduction
approach systems
involving emerged
company’sto cope with various
employees productstechnical
from different and product families. LCA
departments. To design andofoptimize
analysis company’sproduction
product
actions during the development of new products (espresso coffee machine). Results highlighted relevant learning outcomes and significant
systems
portfolioasallowed
well astotocreate
choose the optimal
a specific product matches,
eco-knowledge, used toproduct analysis and
train designers methods are needed.
engineers Indeed,for
on this subject most
theof the known methods
implementation aim to
of eco-design
improvements in terms of environmental sustainability of a new product design.
analyze
actions aduring
producttheor development
one product family
of new onproducts
the physical level. Different
(espresso product families,
coffee machine). however, may
Results highlighted differ learning
relevant largely inoutcomes
terms of the
andnumber and
significant
nature of components.
improvements in termsThis fact impedes sustainability
of environmental an efficient comparison and choice
of a new product design.of appropriate product family combinations for the production
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
system.
© 2019AThenew methodology
Authors. is proposed
Published to analyze
by Elsevier existing
B.V. This products
is an open in article
access view ofunder
their the
functional and physical
CC BY-NC-ND architecture. The aim is to cluster
license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
these
© products
2019 in new assembly
The Authors. Publishedoriented product
by Elsevier
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) B.V.families
This is for the optimization
an open access articleof under
existingtheassembly lines andlicense
CC BY-NC-ND the creation of future reconfigurable
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 26th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference.
assembly systems.
underBased on Datum of Flow Chain, the
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review responsibility the scientific physicalofstructure
committee the 26thofCIRP
the products
Life Cycle is analyzed.
EngineeringFunctional subassemblies are identified, and
(LCE) Conference.
aPeer-review
functional analysis
under is performed.
responsibility of Moreover,
the a hybrid
scientific functional
committee of the and physical
26th CIRP Lifearchitecture
Cycle graph (HyFPAG)
Engineering (LCE) is the output which depicts the
Conference.
Keywords: LCA; teaching; eco-design; eco-knowledge.
similarity between product families by providing design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative
example
Keywords:ofLCA;
a nail-clipper is used to explain
teaching; eco-design; the proposed methodology. An industrial case study on two product families of steering columns of
eco-knowledge.
thyssenkrupp
1. IntroductionPresta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed
been managed approach.
by schools and academia, including eco-design
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
1. Introduction themes
been in
managed undergraduate
by schools and graduate design curricula [7][8].
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018. and academia, including eco-design
Eco-design is defined as “the integration of environmental Life cycle
themes engineering has
in undergraduate andbeen adopted
graduate designas baseline
curricula for the
[7][8].
aspects
Eco-design
Keywords: into product
is defined
Assembly; design
Design as and development,
“theFamily
method; integration with the
of environmental
identification aim of development of engineering courses oriented
Life cycle engineering has been adopted as baseline for the to eco-design
reducinginto
aspects adverse
product environmental impacts throughout
design and development, with theproductaim of [9][10] and of
development became a consolidated
engineering trend into engineering
courses oriented eco-design
life cycle” [1]. Eco-design methods are
reducing adverse environmental impacts throughout product spread in academic [9][10] and became a consolidated trendexperiences
education [11]. However, pedagogical in engineering and
and scientific literature but their effective
life cycle” [1]. Eco-design methods are spread in academic implementation applications are scarce, and the results
education [11]. However, pedagogical experiences and of these initiatives will
1.within
Introduction
technical departments of the provide
product range andoutcomes
characteristics manufactured and/or
and scientific literature but theirseems effectivedifficult [2][3][4].
implementation only
applications aretangible
scarce, and the resultsin future
of theseyears [12][13].
initiatives will
Different barriers have been identified, such as: lack of assembled
Isolated in this system.
teaching In this
initiatives context,
oriented to the main challenge
eco-design practices in
within technical departments seems difficult [2][3][4]. only provide tangible outcomes in future years [12][13].
Due toresources
allocated the fast (man development
power and in lack
time), the ofdomain
information of modelling
industries and
are analysis
available is now
in not only to Past
literature. cope experiences
with single
Different barriers have been identified, such as: lack of Isolated teaching initiatives oriented to eco-design practices in
communication
on environmental andimpacts,
an ongoinglack trend of digitization and products, a limited product range orteaching
existingmethods,
product families,
allocated resources (man power andoftime),
expert lackknowledge,
of information etc. demonstrated
industries arethat the traditional
available in literature. Past such as
experiences
digitalization,
[5][6]. Concerningmanufacturing
the lack enterprises
of eco-knowledgeare facingand important
expertise, but also to be
university able toor
lectures analyze
refresherand courses,
to compare products
resulted not to define
efficient
on environmental impacts, lack of expert knowledge, etc. demonstrated that the traditional teaching methods, such as
challenges
teaching in today’s
methods relatedmarket
to environments:
eco-design subject a continuing
play a critical new
to product
spread families. It can
eco-knowledge in be
the observed
industrial that classical
world existing
[14][15]. The
[5][6]. Concerning the lack of eco-knowledge and expertise, university lectures or refresher courses, resulted not efficient
tendency
role for towards
the reduction of product
implementation of development
eco-design times and
strategies in product
complexity familiesand are regrouped in functionaspects
multidisciplinary of clients or features.
concerning
teaching methods related to eco-design subject play a critical to spread eco-knowledge in the industrial world [14][15]. The
shortened
manufacturing product lifecycles.
firms. In theInlastaddition, there is thean increasing However, assembly oriented product families areahardly to find.
role for the implementation oftwo decades,
eco-design education
strategies in sustainability
complexity constitute
and a major
multidisciplinary obstacle and
aspects gap between
concerning
demand
about of customization,
ecological matters being
of at the
future same timeofin decision-
generations a global whatOn the product actually
companies family level,
do products
and what differ
they mainlyto indotwo
want is
manufacturing firms. In the last two decades, the education sustainability constitute a major obstacle and a gap between
competition
makers in with competitors
industry (e.g. all over
engineers, the world.
designers, This trend,
managers) has main
noticed characteristics:
[16]. Most (i) the number
companies are of components
simply doing theand (ii) the
minimum
about ecological matters of future generations of decision- what companies actually do and what they want to do is
which is inducing the development from macro to micro type of components (e.g. mechanical, electrical, electronical).
makers in industry (e.g. engineers, designers, managers) has noticed [16]. Most companies are simply doing the minimum
markets, results in diminished lot sizes due to augmenting Classical methodologies considering mainly single products
2212-8271
product © 2019 The
varieties Authors. Published
(high-volume by Elsevier B.V.
to low-volume This is an open
production) [1].accessorarticle under thealready
solitary, CC BY-NC-ND license
existing product families analyze the
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
To cope
2212-8271 with
© 2019this
The augmenting
Authors. variety
Published by as well
Elsevier as
B.V. to
This be
is anable
opentoaccessproduct
article structure
under the CC
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 26th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference.
on a physical
BY-NC-ND level
license (components level) which
identify possible optimization potentials
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.04.009 in the existing causes difficulties regarding an efficient definition and
Peer-review under
production system,responsibility of the scientific
it is important to have committee
a precise of the 26th CIRP Life Cycle
knowledge Engineering
comparison of(LCE) Conference.
different product families. Addressing this
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.04.009
2212-8271 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
2212-8271 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of scientific
of the the scientific committee
committee of the of theCIRP
28th 26thDesign
CIRP Conference
Life Cycle 2018.
Engineering (LCE) Conference.
10.1016/j.procir.2019.01.032
 Claudio Favi et al. / Procedia CIRP 80 (2019) 452–457 453
2 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

to meet legislation, and as a result, the potential of eco-design skills and knowledge. Section 2.1 provides an insight about
and eco-knowledge is still limited [17]. In addition, design the context and the learning objectives, while Section 2.2
methodologies oriented to sustainability are applied as describes the adopted teaching method and activities.
isolated case studies for pilot products, rather than to be a
standardized and integrated framework within the product 2.1. Context and learning objective
development process [18]. In conclusion, it is noticed that the
effective development of eco-design methodologies into the The identification of the “context” for the implementation
design process can be obtained by the profitable and effective of the eco-design teaching strategy is necessary to undertake
integration between “education” and “industry innovation” the process of learning objectives definition. In particular, the
[19]. The desired level of environmental awareness and eco- context was modelled considering two different domains: (i)
knowledge can be set by manufacturing firms with industry- external, related to the market/environment in which the
focused eco-design researches, which needs to be formalized company operates, and (ii) internal, related to the mission of
over education-focused approaches. These results strengthen the company. These two domains characterize the structure of
the possibility to explore industry-based partnerships for the teaching activities and allow to choose the most suitable
cross-disciplinary eco-design teaching projects [20]. methods for the LCA analysis of product portfolio.
Therefore, an innovative training method, based on the External domain includes the definition of the following
learning-by-doing principles, seems the most promising aspects:
solution to support companies towards the use of eco-design  the type of eco-design strategies to adopt (marketing,
in their daily activities [21]. product certification, brand value, legislation, etc.);
The paper describes the implementation of an eco-design  the type of life cycle analysis to use (full-LCA, carbon
teaching initiative inside an Italian manufacturing firm footprint, water footprint, etc.).
producing espresso coffee machines. The main novelty of the Concerning the case study, the type of eco-design
teaching strategy is related to: (i) the direct involvement of the strategies to adopt was based on two inputs: (i) the need to
company personnel in eco-design and life cycle activities, and fulfill European regulations for professional coffee machines
(ii) the definition of eco-design strategies/tips based on the (e.g. eco-design, WEEE), and (ii) the growing environmental
analysis of environmental performances of their past design awareness of certain markets such as Northern Europe, United
solutions, adopted in the whole product portfolio. As a result, States and Japan. Both inputs are very important for the
a specific eco-knowledge about products designed and company aiming to maintain the competitiveness in the
manufactured by the company was acquired and shared market. In addition, it is worth noticed that the company acts
among the involved company’s employees. In addition, the as supplier for important coffeehouse chains (e.g. Starbucks,
paper reports the experience of the teaching activities McCafè), which are particularly careful about environmental
including positive and negative outcomes. The most sustainability aspects, as reported in their corporate
interesting outcome of this work is the possibility to use this responsibility reports. Therefore, they require to provide
case study as a baseline for the implementation of a standard products certified from the environmental point of view using
“eco-design teaching approach” which can be scaled up in the LCA methodology and involving all the partners of the
other industrial contexts and applications. supply chain. The focus of the required product certification is
The paper is structured as follows: after this introduction, on the greenhouse gas emissions and the global warming
the teaching approach and its implementation is presented in potential (GWP), calculated through the IPCC protocol that is
section 2. Outcomes of the proposed teaching activity are currently the most widespread and accepted indicator [22].
presented in section 3. Challenges, limitations and outlook, Internal domain includes the definition of the following
including the transferability of the course design to other aspects:
industrial sectors, are reported in section 4.  the personnel to involve in the teaching initiative;
 the type and number of products to analyze.
2. Methods and Tools Ten people belonging to four company departments were
involved in the eco-design teaching activities: (i) one person
This section describes the necessary steps to develop an from the Company management, (ii) two persons from the
eco-design teaching strategy within an industry. This study Marketing department, (iii) five persons from the Design and
focuses on the implementation of the eco-design teaching engineering department and, (iv) two persons from the
approach within an Italian firm producing professional coffee Testing laboratory.
machines. The need to implement an eco-design course comes Four models of professional coffee machines, one model of
from the company’s management who decided to adopt a automatic coffee machine, and two models of coffee grinders
systematic strategy to improve the environmental features of were analyzed, representing the company’s product portfolio.
their products. This initiative was the first one oriented to eco- The chosen products cover both the low-end and the high-end
design and eco-knowledge capitalization inside the company. market with the higher sales volume.
For this reason, the company decided to start a collaboration Concerning the learning objectives (Table 1), they were
with eco-design experts belonging to university avoiding defined based on the taxonomy of knowledge defined by
“isolated” consultancy services. The choice of the company’s Bloom [23]. The entire Bloom’s hierarchy is covered, with a
management was to undertake a learning process for internal focus on higher levels (i.e. evaluating, creating), which are the
employees aiming to provide the necessary environmental most interesting ones in case of industrial applications.
454 Claudio Favi et al. / Procedia CIRP 80 (2019) 452–457
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000 3

Table 1. Learning objectives of the eco-design teaching activities.

Learning objective Bloom’s level

State and explain the basic concepts of life cycle
I – Remembering
thinking and LCA methodology
Identify the most important life cycle phases in the
II – Understanding
specific industrial sector (coffee machine)
Use design data to build a product life cycle model III – Applying
Compare different design alternatives from the
IV – Analyzing
environmental point of view
Select the most appropriate design solutions
according to classic (e.g. cost, performance) and V – Evaluating
environmental drivers
Define eco-design tips based on the main outcomes of
V – Evaluating
the LCA analysis
Design/Re-design new/existing products to improve
VI – Creating
their eco-sustainability
Interpret and use results for business negotiations VI – Creating
Use the eco-knowledge to train the other personnel VI – Creating
Recall eco-design tips in the conceptual design of
VI – Creating
new products

2.2. Teaching method and activities

The adopted teaching method is essentially based on the

learning by doing principles, applied by directly involving the
company’s employees in eco-design activities. During the
first steps, the involvement was in the form of cooperation
with the eco-design experts in specific tasks. At the end of the
teaching period, instead, an assignment regarding a complete
eco-design project was given. Fig. 1 illustrates the workflow,
activities and timing of the proposed teaching method. Fig. 1. Workflow of the proposed teaching method

2.2.1. Step 1: Introduction The definition of the functional unit and system boundaries
The objective of the first step was to provide to the is an essential task in any LCA study. However, they are
involved personnel basic concepts on life cycle design and strictly correlated to the abovementioned context (both the
LCA. This initial introduction was performed in 1 month with internal and external domains). The functional unit was
a total of 6 hours of lessons, equally divided in three (3) derived from the products and their context of use (e.g.
lectures. The main topics debated during these three lectures preparation of coffee-based drinks, in specific geographical
focused on the explanation of the following contents: (i) locations, in a specific lifetime). In the same way, the system
context and relevant environmental standard/legislation, (ii) boundaries were strictly correlated to the product
life cycle thinking, and (iii) LCA methodology and tools. characteristics and to the company. The manufacturing phase
must be considered since the involved company internally
2.2.2. Step 2: LCA of product portfolio design and assemble all the products. As for all the energy
During the second step, the LCA analysis of the selected related products (ErP), it was expected that the use phase was
products were performed. Given the high number of products the most impactful of the entire life cycle, thus it could not be
analyzed and the iterative nature of the LCA process, this step neglected. The product end of life (EoL) is important since
spanned for about 5 months. All the products have a high products must be WEEE compliant. In addition, the company
level of complexity, especially the professional coffee intended to implement actions aimed at the direct
machines that are composed by hundreds of management of the product EoL (e.g. collection of used
components/assemblies, manufactured by using a high products, component remanufacturing). For these reasons, a
number of materials (e.g. steel, copper, brass, plastics) and cradle to grave approach was required.
processes (e.g. metal casting, metal chip removal, plastic Different company departments were actively involved to
injection molding). Moreover, most of the components are support the external experts in specific tasks of the LCA
delivered by external companies, thus also the supply chain is study. The company’s management was involved to define the
rather complex. Performing an LCA of these products objective of the analysis (i.e. to understand the environmental
required the involvement of environmental experts from performance of products, to identify the most relevant
university applying specific LCA standards (e.g. ISO 14040- criticalities). The marketing department was involved for
14044). understanding the most appropriate way to communicate
 Claudio Favi et al. / Procedia CIRP 80 (2019) 452–457 455
4 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

results, both internally and externally. Based on the defined  lectures for the explanation and discussion of results (about
external domain (i.e. the market), the GWP indicator [22] was 80% of the course time);
adopted to measure environmental sustainability in the coffee  practical group works and activities to apply the
machine sector and to disseminate results. During the life knowledge acquired during lessons (about 10%); and
cycle inventory phase, the design and engineering department  test (assessment) to verify the learning (about 10%).
was involved for the collection of relevant data about The course was followed by employees belonging to the
materials, manufacturing processes and supply chain. marketing and commercial department, design and
Considering the product complexity and the amount of engineering department, and laboratory department. The
technical documentation (e.g. drawings, bill of materials), the course was mainly focused on analyzing and discussing the
life cycle inventory was performed with the support of results obtained with the LCA of the product portfolio. The
employees, both the one involved in the training program and main objective was to extrapolate specific eco-knowledge
the other ones who were in charge to manage product related from LCA results of the analyzed products, in order to
information (e.g. supplier data, manufacturing processes, provide to the involved personnel useful best practices to be
maintenance plans). Another important contribution was used in future eco-design projects. Details about the lesson
given by the laboratory department, involved to define the use typologies, duration and contents are reported in Table 2.
scenarios and the related data about energy consumption.
Currently, no use scenarios for coffee brewing equipment are Table 2. Course organization.
defined in legislations or international standards. A standard
Lesson Contents Type Duration
protocol to measure the energy consumption of these products
in the different working conditions (e.g. during the coffee 1 Life cycle analysis of professional Lecture 5 [h]
coffee machines
extraction, during stand-by, during the supply of hot water or
steam) is also missing. Therefore, the marketing and 2 Comparison among coffee machines Lecture 3 [h]
models
commercial departments were involved to define a set of
standard use scenarios based on end user typologies (e.g. 3 Life cycle analysis of coffee grinders Lecture 2 [h]
and automatic coffee machine
small bars vs big coffee houses) and aspects related to
geographical locations (e.g. in the United States there is a 4 Comparison among coffee grinders Lecture 1 [h]
higher consumption of hot milk-based drink than in Europe). 5 Test (assessment) 1 Test 1 [h]
The laboratory department defined a standard measurement 6 Analysis of the manufacturing phase Lecture 6 [h]
protocol and apply it to collect relevant data about energy (including comparison among design
consumption for each use scenario. A result of the testing alternatives)
activity for the Italian use scenario is reported in Fig. 2. 7 Analysis of the use phase (including Lecture 6 [h]
comparison among technologies and
use scenarios (e.g. Italy vs USA)
8 Analysis of the EoL phase (including Lecture 2 [h]
comparison among EoL scenarios
(e.g. recycling vs remanufacturing)
9 Test (assessment) 2 Test 1 [h]
10 Re-design of a coffee machine Team 3 [h]
work

2.2.4. Step 4: Assignment

At the end of the course, an assignment was given to the
involved department: the development of an eco-design
project aimed at the environmental improvement of an
Fig. 2. Italian use scenarios for life cycle inventory. existing coffee machine. The principal “actors” of this step
was the employees, while the environmental experts only
2.2.3. Step 3: Eco-design course based on product portfolio acted as supports in the trickiest phases, to correctly address
The direct involvement of different departments in specific the project towards the best design solution. According with
tasks of the Step 2, allowed to stimulate the employee’s the management indications, the eco-design project was
awareness about the common issues to face, the data to collect focused on a model of professional coffee machine, with the
and the aspects to consider during an environmental following main specifications: (i) external dimensions of 815
assessment and/or an eco-design project. After the completion x 565 x 565 [mm], (ii) two (2) brewing groups with dedicated
of all the LCA studies, the third step focused on providing to controls, and (iii) nominal power of 4,5 [kW]. The same
company’s employees additional skills about eco-design and product was the object of a previous optimization project;
environmental sustainability, in order to make them able to however, due to the lack of eco-knowledge, only cost
autonomously manage and develop future eco-design projects. reduction solutions had been implemented. The objective of
The duration of the course was 30 hours, spread over 2 the assignment was to improve the environmental
months (about 4 hours per week). The course included: performance of the product, while maintaining the full set of
456 Claudio Favi et al. / Procedia CIRP 80 (2019) 452–457
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000 5

functionalities and with cost constraints (+5% maximum reduce the overall amount of energy required to brew coffees,
deviation with respect to the original solution). The available thanks to the adoption of two additional boilers, with smaller
input data were essentially the results of the full LCA, carried dimensions than the main boiler, and located near the brewing
out by the environmental experts during Step 2. The main groups. During the coffee brewing, only a small amount of
environmental hotspot was related to the use phase which is water contained within the secondary boilers is warmed up at
responsible of about the 95% of the overall life cycle impact the required temperature (approx. 97°C). In this way, it is
(considering an Italian use scenario, product life cycle of 5 possible to reduce the temperature in the primary boiler
years, switch-on time of 12 hours per day). Among the energy (approx. 80°C) generating a sensible reduction of the energy
used, a relevant percentage (about one third of the total) is consumption for coffee brewing of approx. 35%. The second
consumed during the warm-ups and the stand-by phases. solution adopted for the new model was the use of insulation
Concerning the material and manufacturing, the most materials around the main boiler, the pipes and the additional
important contributions are due to the following assemblies: boilers. The insulation material allowed to reduce the overall
(i) brewing groups: 55 [kg CO2eq]; (ii) framework: 51 [kg electric energy consumption during the use phase (approx.
CO2eq]; (iii) main boiler: 48 [kg CO2eq]. 4%). A third solution adopted and reported in this work was
During the eco-design course (Step 4) several specific best the reduction of materials and weights of the two brewing
practices (tips) have been defined (Table 3). These design groups (heads) where the additional boilers were mounted. In
guidelines represented the eco-knowledge that the employees this case a chromium-plated ring was removed, and the mass
used during the eco-design project assignment (3 months) to of brass was reduced of approx. 25% (Fig. 3).
define and implement the most appropriate re-design strategy.
The final expected result was a re-designed version of the
coffee machine.

Table 3. Eco-design tips.

# Tip
1 Energy efficiency technologies shall be used to reduce the overall
energy consumption
2 Insulation measures shall be adopted to reduce heat dispersion in
boilers and pipes
3 Smart sensors and technologies shall be adopted to reduce the stand-by
consumption (e.g. automatic switch off)
4 Electronically controlled electric motors shall be adopted to regulate
the power absorption Fig. 3. Eco-design solutions adopted in the brewing group.
5 Aluminum alloys are impactful materials compared with other
solutions (e.g. carbon steel) but have a higher recyclability ratio At the end of the assignment phase, the environmental
6 Stainless steels are impactful materials and where possible must be experts together with the involved company’s employees
substituted with carbon steel validated the solutions and quantified the obtained benefits.
7 Plastics are lightweight materials, but their recycling at the EoL is The LCA methodology was used to verify the environmental
challenging performances, while experimental measures were performed
8 Components weight, and thus the quantity of material used for their to verify the energy consumption of the re-designed coffee
manufacturing, must be minimized machine. The implementation of the eco-design action leads
9 The use of different plastic typologies shall be avoided in order to to a reduction of the total GWP of approx. 25%, compared
favor product recyclability at the EoL with other professional coffee machine models. A specific
10 The use of varnished parts shall be avoided to limit the environmental reduction of 10 [kg CO2eq] was observed for the
issues related to manufacturing and EoL manufacturing of each brewing group (originally 55 [kg
11 Number of threaded joints shall be reduced in the external chassis to CO2eq]). Concerning energy consumption, a reduction of 20%
improve the reachability of internal parts of electric energy required during the daily use was measured.
12 Rapid joints solutions shall be adopted to favor an easy disassembly of These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the course in
components that need to be maintained during the useful life or are supporting companies without eco-knowledge towards the
candidate to reuse/remanufacturing at the EoL improvement of their products.

2.2.5. Step 5: Results analysis 3. General outcomes of the eco-design teaching approach
Following the assignment provided during the previous
step, the employees involved in the eco-design training plan The eco-design teaching approach offered an opportunity
worked as a team to provide design solutions able to reduce to initiate the company to life cycle thinking. This structured
the environmental load of a professional coffee machine. A partnership brought the company to be active in the field of
brief discussion of some solutions is reported in this section. environmental sustainability, creating a desired level of eco-
The first solution implemented in the new coffee machine knowledge about their products. The implementation of such
model was the adoption of the T3 (three-dimensional a course allowed to reach the following results: (i) eco-design
temperature control) technology. This technology allowed to actions became an application of eco-design tips learned
 Claudio Favi et al. / Procedia CIRP 80 (2019) 452–457 457
6 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2019) 000–000

during the course, (ii) eco-design solutions were developed References

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