This chapter endeavours to lead the scientific discussion regarding which IPSE factors are expected to, in theory, lower the environmental impact of a life cycle compared to a traditional product sales business. To do so, the IPSE concept is introduced, first with an emphasis on engineering processes rather than an object such as PSS. In the following sections, four aspects from theory will be discussed: product development, information asymmetry, economies of scale, and risk. These sections discuss how environmental impacts are influenced from a product life cycle perspective, and highlight crucial factors theoretically. They are followed by an overall discussion and an examination of some promising future work. The chapter provides the research community with a first theoretical cornerstone regarding environmental performance by IPSE. To practitioners, it will be an eye opener for how they engineer.

Large amounts of material are used for rail infrastructure causing significant environmental impact. At the same time the industry’s motivation to innovate is low and the lowest price is the main driver for selecting a tender. The concept of Integrated Product Service Offerings (IPSO), have in several business areas proven to be a mean with potential to reduce the environmental impact of products and services, increase cost efficiency and quality, and act as a driver for change. The business model is based on a life cycle approach and focuses on the function and not the product of an offering.  

The objective of this paper is therefore to investigate the potential benefits and challenges regarding resource efficiency and knowledge transfer from the provider and buyer perspectives when using IPSO for rail infrastructure. In order to this, theories such as resource efficiency, product development, knowledge transfer, networks and literatures focusing on IPSO are used to discuss the empirical findings. The empirical part has been collected using individual interviews and a focus group approach.

Among the main findings is that fact that the lack of information transfer and knowledge integration is a barrier for innovation and the buyer’s conservative business culture makes it difficult to implement new types of contracts. Since IPSO contracts require improved information transfer they could potentially stimulate innovation as well as processes for evaluation of the contracts. IPSO contracts provides a holistic life-cycle perspective and incentives for dematerialization, resulting in a more resource-efficient and durable infrastructure. By involving the contractors already in the design phase their knowledge could be used in a better way, creating a feedback loop from practice to design. The contractors hope that by introducing IPSO contracts the buyer would focus less on the initial purchasing price and more on the total life-cycle cost in relation to quality in order to get the best solution.

Several challenges with IPSO are discussed, and most of them are derived from the risk and uncertainty aspects that come with long-term contracts and inexperience with a new business model. New competences in risk management and other types of calculation methods are needed but most of all a change in mindset. Some of these uncertainties also are connected to the inadequate documentation hindering IPSO contract working for anything but new investments.

The manufacturing industry today uses many kinds of chemicals in its cleaning processes. The industrial cleaners often contain some sort of degreasing chemical to clean parts and components before the main processes, for instance assembly or surface treatment. These types of cleaning methods are often expensive and involve hazardous handling of chemicals in manufacturing, as well as in the transportation of hazardous waste. In addition, the cleaning processes often use a substantial amount of energy for cleaning.

The aim of this paper is to explore how ultra-clean water cleaning, using a method called Qlean, can be applied in the manufacturing industry. In order to meet this aim, a case study was conducted at Flextronics, in Karlskrona, Sweden. The data for this research was collected through interviews and functional tests at different industries, which then was analysed further.

The results from this research show that using solvent-free industrial cleaning with ultra-clean water is beneficial from the perspectives of quality, environment and business. The quality improvement derived from using solvent-free industrial cleaning in the case of cleaning printed circuit boards was the most important benefit.

This paper aims to lead theoretical discussion regarding which IPSE (Integrated Product Service System) factors are expected to increase environmental performance of a life cycle compared to a traditional product sales business. Existing theories such as theory of product development, transaction cost theory and theory for risk management are used and the paper theoretically analyzes and identifies the following crucial characteristics; complexity of the product, uncertainty of offering, control of product operation, asymmetric information and scale of economy.

The productivity development for rail and road infrastructure has been weak a long time; and explanation can be found in the traditional contracts used, with little room for incentives for innovation. This literature study investigates the use of the few realized PSS contracts within the rail and road infrastructure. The descriptions and the scientific reports are on a synoptic level and a majority of the reports are funded by the involved actors, showing that there is an interest for PSS contracts in the industry and indicating significant potential for further research in the area.

This paper begins by consolidating industrial challenges and research issues concerning Product/Service Systems obtained through various activities by the authors. Based on this, it points out the importance of the holistic view in further research in this area so that PSS providers do not fall into local optimization. The intent of this contribution to our research community includes shedding light on interesting issues that thus far have been relatively invisible and with narrower scope.

The book "Systems Engineering: Practice and Theory" is a collection of articles written by developers and researches from all around the globe. Mostly they present methodologies for separate Systems Engineering processes; others consider issues of adjacent knowledge areas and sub-areas that significantly contribute to systems development, operation, and maintenance. Case studies include aircraft, spacecrafts, and space systems development, post-analysis of data collected during operation of large systems etc. Important issues related to "bottlenecks" of Systems Engineering, such as complexity, reliability, and safety of different kinds of systems, creation, operation and maintenance of services, system-human communication, and management tasks done during system projects are addressed in the collection. This book is for people who are interested in the modern state of the Systems Engineering knowledge area and for systems engineers involved in different activities of the area. Some articles may be a valuable source for university lecturers and students; most of case studies can be directly used in Systems Engineering courses as illustrative materials.

Increased competition and new customer requirements make manufacturers to strive towards selling industrialproduct/service systems. Product/service systems have derived partly from environmental research and development.However, it is still not clear how much can be earned in environmental and economic concerns.This paper aims to explore the economic and environmental benefits of product/service systems from a life-cycle perspectivein comparison to traditional selling approaches. To fulfill this aim, four case studies were performed at four product/servicesystem providers in Sweden. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, telephone interviews and dataprovided by the product/service system providers. A comparison life-cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted betweentraditional scenarios and product/service system scenarios. In addition, a life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis was conducted. Tosummarize, in all four cases the product/service system scenarios had environmental and economic advantages incomparison to their traditional selling scenarios.

Integrated product service offerings (IPSO) have the potential of obtaining better margins, profitability andless environmental impact. Becoming a service provider implies significant changes in the way companiesdo business, considerable changes within the organization and changes with the relationships to externalactors. This paper aims to contribute to the research concerning these changes when companies start toprovide IPSOs.Changes within the organizations have been necessary for all the companies studied and especially thesales staff since trust, transparency and long-term relationships with the customer is crucial. Support fromthe top management is also of importance as well as working in cross-functional teams. Changes are alsoneeded in the service organization and amongst the retailers. Apart from the change in the providercustomerrelationships little has been done in including other external actors, but the companies seepotential in doing so in the future to expand and develop their IPSOs.

 Servicification is a key toward sustainable business in the secondary industry. It is needless to say that services are sources of core value in the tertiary industry. Thus, this chapter addresses a critical issue for both of those industries, designing services. This chapter demonstrates the effectiveness of our service-design methodology to support service design processes through applications to two service examples in industries- real operation. Before that, a theory for the methodology is explained.

Manufacturing companies face many challenges today, one of theseis how to successfully meet increasingly diverse customer needs. This could beachieved through customisation. This paper elucidates how mass customisation could be enabled by companies adding more services to their customised products. This ‘servicification’ of products is made available by integratedproduct service engineering. This paper also describes how products and services can be developed in coherence through an integrated product service engineering approach. Furthermore, a software supporting this approach along with customisation named Service Explorer is described. This paper presents acase study of a forklift truck manufacturer called Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG). TMHG customise their product/service offerings and by doing so they can offer its customers increased value than only selling standard forklift trucks. TMHG has managed to create successful customised offerings for its customers. However, with a more integrated development, TMHG could become even more successful.

This paper explores the business implications of Integrated Product and Service Offerings (IPSOs). The objective is to show examples of the business implications of IPSOs from a supplier’s perspective, and to suggest specifications for supporting methods needed for such an industrial company. The paper is largely based on empirical case studies of 120 Swedish manufacturing companies of all sizes. Results from the case studies show that both small and large companies that conduct the transition towards IPSOs face several important strategic challenges, some of them associated with high risk.

In recent years there has been a shift in mechanical industry from a focus on physical products to product-service systems (PSS). The objective of this paper is to map out engineering implications and challenges based on five empirical examples of integrated product-service offerings (IPSOs). The paper is mainly based on case studies at Swedish manufacturing companies of different sizes. The following IPSOs were studied: (1) Lighting Function, (2) Core Plugs, (3) Material Handling, (4) Plate compacting, and (5) Thrust. These examples show that the orientation towards IPSOs implies several important strategic implications for a provider. Based on the examples, a discussion is presented concerning existing and potential engineering issues related to engineering requirements, development process and risks and opportunities with IPSOs.

In Sweden, there are a growing number of manufacturers that are using the approach of industrial product/service systems. This paper explores how manufacturers and university researchers have started a workshop series where important and topical product/service system issues are elucidated. The companies face many challenges in order to achieve a good product/service system business. Many challenges are related to changing different peoples’ mindset within the company and/or with external companies and customers. Having a learning network approach of dealing with these challenges has been perceived as a good manner of tackling the questions raised within the product/service system providing companies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how work with Lean and environmental aspects affect one another, and if possible and beneficial from a business point-of-view, how they could be integrated into a single model.

It was found that several of the fundamental concepts concerning Lean and environmental aspects support one another. Further, Lean has the potential to improve the environmental performance of a company, and can contributeto the environmental work by its proactive approach, structured way of operating and long-term way of thinking. The environmental perspective can contribute to Lean with its more holistic view; additional cost savingsand improvements might be found when looking at the operations from an environmental point-of-view.

The study showed that it is not only possible to integrate Lean and environmental work, but that it also has the potential to be beneficial from both a business and an environmental standpoint. Integration can reduce the risk of sub-optimization, and synergies can be achieved. With this knowledge, the authors composed a model for how Lean and environmental work can be practised and integrated.

Servicification is a key toward environmental conscious business in the manufacturing industry After looking at the business and economic implications of Integrated Product and Service Offerings, it suggest specifications for methods beneficial for such a manufacturing company. The paper is based on the empirical case studies of 120 Swedish manufacturing firms of different sizes. It is expected to encourage discussion on this crucial theme in mature economies such as those of Europe and Japan. 

Production of biogas through anaerobic digestion (AD) from the organic fraction of minucipal solid waste (OFMSW) was compared to incineration of the waste. At the moment, almost all of the OFMSW in Singapore is incinerated. Three different scales of biogas plants were compared to incineration: one large-scale biogas plant that can treat half of all OFMSW in Singapore; one medium- scale biogas plant about 15 times smaller than the large one; and one small-scale biogas plant that can treat waste from e.g. a shopping centre or food centre. Two alternatives for utilization of the biogas were also compared, generation of electricity and the use of the biogas in heavy vehicles. The combination of the different scales and the different utilization gives the six different scenarios. By using life cycle assessment (LCA) the different scenarios were compared in terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication, energy use and land use. The results show that biogas production creates less environmental impact than incineration. The use of the gas as a vehicle fuel creates a bigger decrease of GWP, acidification and eutrophication than when using the gas for electricity generation. The prevention of leakage of biogas during production and upgrading is crucial for the environmental impact on GWP. A leakage of only a few percent of the produced gas will lead to a loss of all the gain in saved GHG-emissions.

In Today’s society there are a wide variety of floor and floor materials. An extensive range of products and methods are also used to ensure that these floors remain functional. All floor types and products create environmental impact of various kinds and magnitudes.

This study was initiated by the authors in order to evaluate the Twister™- method’s environmental pros and cons in relation to other traditional floor care methods. This has been ascertained through a Life Cycle Assessment which was conducted within the study. The study has been in co-operation with HTC Sweden AB, the developer of the Twister™- method.

A Life Cycle Assessment helps to identify and quantify the environmental impact of a product or a service, from a holistic perspective, which incorporates extraction of materials, their manufacture, use and waste management. The software application SimaPRo 7.0 has been used in this study, from which the Eco-indicator 99 method has been selected.

In the study, the Twister™ method is compared with other floor care methods using polish and wax. The analysis also includes a breakdown of the Twister™ method, as well as a breakdown of the Twister™ pad manufactured by HTC Sweden AB.

The results show that the elements of the Twister™ method with the greatest environmental impact are the scrubbing machine that is used and the energy consumption that the Twister™ method requires. The results also show that the Twister™ method has a significantly lower environmental impact than floor care methods using polish or wax. The parts of the Twister™ pad that have the greatest environmental impact are the industrial diamonds and the  material that makes up the pad.

This study was initiated by the authors in order to evaluate the Twister™ method’s environmental pros and cons in relation to other traditional floor care methods using polish and wax. This has been ascertained through a Life Cycle Assessment which was conducted within the study. The study has been in co-operation with HTC Sweden AB, the developer of the Twister™ method.

The results show that the elements of the Twister™ method with the greatest environmental impact are the scrubbing machine that is used and the low energy consumption that the Twister™ method requires. The results also show that the Twister™ method has a significantly lower environmental impact than floor care methods using polish or wax. The parts of the Twister™ pad that have the greatest environmental impact are the industrial diamonds and the material that makes up the pad.

I dagens samhälle finns det en stor variation på golv och golvmaterial. Till dessa finns det en stor variation av de produkter och metoder som används för att hålla dessa golv funktionsdugliga. Samtliga golv och produkter ger upphov till miljöpåverkan av olika storlek och sort.

Denna studie är initierad av författarna för att utvärdera hur Twister™- metoden står sig miljömässigt, jämfört med andra traditionella golvvårdsmetoder. Detta sker genom en livscykelanalys. Arbetet har skett i samarbete med företaget HTC Sweden AB som har utvecklat Twister™-metoden.

En livscykelanalys ställer en produkt eller tjänst miljöpåverkan utifrån helhetsperspektiv innefattande materialframställning, tillverkning, användning och resthantering. Som hjälp i denna studie har programvaran SimaPro 7.0 använts vari metoden Eco-indikator 99 valts.

I studien ställs Twister™-metoden mot golvvårdsmetoder innefattande polish och vax. I analysen sker även en nedbrytning av Twister™-metoden likväl en nedbrytning av den Twister™-rondell som HTC Sweden AB tillverkar.

Resultatet visar att den del av Twister™-metoden som har störst miljöpåverkan är den skurmaskin som används och den energianvändning som Twister™-metoden kräver. Resultatet visar även att Twister™-metoden har signifikant lägre miljöpåverkan än golvvårdsmetoderna polish och vax. De delar av Twister™-rondellen som har störst miljöpåverkan är de industridiamanter och den rondell, som Twister™-rondellen består av.

The manufacturing industry today uses different kinds of chemicals in its cleaning processes. The industrial cleaners often contain some sort of degreasing chemical to clean parts and components before for instance surface treatment processes. These types of cleaning methods imply expensive and dangerous handling of chemicals in the manufacturing process, as well as in the transportation of hazardous waste. Furthermore, the cleaning processes also uses a substanstial amount of energy for cleaning.

“Ultra-clean water” is relatively new way of cleaning without the use of chemicals. The method has proven successful, for example, in the cleaning of building exteriors, transformer stations, and tunnels. The procedure has been to spray with low-pressure, thus better salvaging the paint yet removing dirt, oil and debris from surfaces such as walls. Successful projects, for example, include the cleaning of the above mentioned building exteriors and tunnel walls at and Södra Länken tunnel system in. The aim of this paper is to explore the potentials of how “ultra-clean” water cleaning can be used in the manufacturing industry. The overall goals of the project are to reduce manufacturers’ use of chemicals, and also the amount of emissions to landfills. Another goal with the project is to reduce the environmental effects on the manufacturing site, the amount of chemical emissions during manufacturing and the amount of chemical transports from the facility. Furthermore this innovation have a potential to improve the working environment within the industry and at the same time reduce the energy consumption used for cleaning. Two case studies will be presented in which environmental performance of a prototype of the solvent-free cleaning technology is compared with existing technologies. The first case is dealing with cleaning of circuit-boards with special attention to flux material residues. Furthermore the second case focuses on surface treatment industry and focuses more on the ability to clean oily and/or fatty surfaces.

To summarize, this research project have a large economic and environmental potential in its unique constellation of university research and manufacturing company involvement. At this moment the potentials are preliminary but shows a lot of promise for the future.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how Swedish industry has adapted theirproducts for product/service systems (PSS).Design/methodology/approach – Three case study companies that manufacture forklift trucks,soil compactors and household appliances are studied. Interviews with company staff are conducted aswell as product analyses in laboratorial environment. The theory is based mainly on previous PSS,design and remanufacturing research.Findings – A key factor when developing products for PSS is to design the product from a life-cycleperspective, considering all the product’s life-cycle phases, namely manufacturing, use, maintenanceand end-of-life treatment. Many of the design improvements deal with the accessibility of parts andcomponents during maintenance and remanufacturing operations, and several of them could reducethe need and cost for maintenance, repair and remanufacturing.Research limitations/implications – Uncovering any additional product requirements needed fora successful PSS not addressed in this paper. For example, it could be interesting to explore whichproduct data could be collected during use in order to improve the products’ different life stages.Practical implications – The findings in this paper illustrate and describe many industrialimplications for engineering designers to consider when developing PSS.Originality/value – The novelty of this paper is aimed for designers to study how they can adapttheir future products used in PSS in a more beneficial way than in traditional product design. Thepaper shows ideas and general guidelines to follow which have been scarcely published.

Despite the many existing Eco-design methods and tools, their use is still limited. When they are used, these methods and tools are often not integrated in the product development process. The purpose of this research is, given a special focus on Eco-design methods and tools, to increase the knowledge concerning engineering designers’ use of methods and tools. Even though more and more approaches focus on how to perform Eco-design, as well as on what is required for its successful integration, there seems to be a gap between the developers and the presumptive users, e.g. designers. In the study, 12 CEOs, 5 marketing mangers and 12 design managers were questioned.

Product/Service Systems have recently grown in manufacturers’ interest. This paper presents an international survey of manufacturers from Sweden, Japan, Italy and Germany. The results show that customer connection and demands along with increased competition were main driving forces for product/service systems. Also, most product/service systems include physical products, maintenance and repairs. Staff working with product development, marketing and after sales were the major actors in product/service system development. As in traditional product sales, most product/service systems still have the ownership of physical products transferred to the customer/user. Physical products used in product/service systems are seldom adapted for product/service systems.

The manufacturing industry today uses different kinds of chemicals in its cleaning processes. The industrial cleaners often contain some sort of degreasing chemical to clean parts and components before for instance sur-face treatment processes. These types of cleaning meth-ods imply expensive and dangerous handling of chemi-cals in the manufacturing process, as well as in the transportation of hazardous waste. Furthermore, the cleaning processes also use a substantial amount of en-ergy for cleaning.The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of how ultra-clean water cleaning can be used in the manufac-turing industry. In order to meet the aim, a case study was conducted at a electronic manufacturer. The data for this research was collected mainly through interviews, but also by industrial study visits.The results from this research show that using solvent-free industrial cleaning with ultra-clean water is benefi-cial from the perspectives of quality, environment and business. The quality improvement is the most important benefit that the electronic manufacturer can see by using solvent-free industrial cleaning for their printed circuit boards.

Many manufacturers are shifting focus for different reasons from being providers of mainly physical products, to providing increased services in their customer offerings. Traditionally, the focus at manufacturing companies has been more on product development than service development; this is one reason why it is important for PSS developers to meet others who understand this situation. This chapter describes challenges large PSS providers in Sweden are facing, and how these can be explored and discussed within a Product/Service System company-academia network setting. It is concluded that during the three first years of network meetings, this approach has been a success. In addition, the experiences gained from participation in this network have resulted in recommendations for PSS providers and researchers thinking of starting up similar networks and/or building ones already begun.

 Services are getting increasingly important in the manufacturing industries today. As a result, it has become common for companies to provide a combination of services and products as an integrated offering. This paper focuses on such business models and development processes. It explores the current status and needs of industries on those issues. Through reviewing 12 journal articles tackling these issues and complementary academic contributions, it was found that uncertainty is a critical concept to be addressed properly. Based on this result, nine Swedish companies interested in such business were interviewed on this issue. The matured providers raised convincing customers as their major challenges while others consider understanding the internal meaning of IPSO business is their current challenge. In addition, there is a wish to have a quantitative tool for companies to utilize upon developing such offerings.

A new business concept that offers products and services in a different way of traditional product-sales businesses is getting more attention especially in manufacturing industries. This paper investigates how this new business by means of integration of products and services is achieved in Germany and Italy. In addition, it analyzes the differences according to the company sizes. The results include that this type of business is in many cases motivated by their focus on customers and often consists of physical products and their maintenance. The Italian companies, as opposed to the German ones, often design their physical products specifically for this type of offers. From the analysis based on the size difference, small companies are found to achieve specific design for this type of offers while owning physical products. There do not seem to be any established methods or tools developed to support the development of such offers and within such methods/tools there would be room for more adaptation in form of physical product design.

In this research collaboration project between SMEs and academia a new way of cleaning machine parts have been developed. The cleaning company Servicestaden and researchers at Linköping University have discovered new ways of cleaning without the use of solvents. In the research project called ‘Solvent-Free Industrial Cleaning’ (SOFIQ) it has been found that cleaning with the SOFIQ-technology is more environmentally sound than with traditional cleaning techniques. However, there is a major challenge to keep up the pace of cleaning within manufacturing since it often have high demands of short lead times. This is a challenge that will be constraining the use of the method.

The aim with the Integrated Product and Service Engineering (IPSE) project is to develop a methodology for companies that want to make the journey of moving from selling products to also sell Integrated Product and Service Offerings. In order to achieve that major changes are needed in the companies. In this paper the learning network approach is described as well as the content of the workshop series that the companies participated in. The findings show that a learning network approach is beneficial methodology for achieving changes in the companies, since the participants learn from each other and from the researchers.

There is a large need of environmental solutions at developing countries, where a network of small firms, e.g. in Sweden, have much opportunity for their business. This paper discusses, from both theoretical and from practical aspects, the high degree of complexity that needs to be managed when small firms export environmental-technology innovation to emerging markets. Especially, it deals with how a network of firms should manage its innovation processes. Based on the review of some 50 literature, the paper explains the methodologies adopted in an on-going project to study these issues. Discussions include differences with development of an integration of products/services within a single firm.

The multi- and interdisciplinary field of sustainable product innovation is rapidly expanding as an arena for scientific research. Universities in Nordic countries can be considered as an exponent of this type of research, with active research groups in, among others, Göteborg, Helsinki, Lund, Lyngby, Linköping and Trondheim. In the context of a Nordforsk funded project, seven second generation PhD supervisors from these universities, who have been active in this field for many years, discuss funding, publication, research traditions, education and supervision practices related to PhD research in this field. A number of recommendations to improve current practices are made, including the mapping currently existing differences in different academic institutions, studying the cross-over learning effects between academica and non-academic partners, and the development of ‘quality indicators’ of research in the SPI domain.

As a product service system provider it is important to consider its benefits and drawbacks. Connecting the product service system with a remanufacturing system has a good potential of being economically and environmentally beneficial. This paper elucidates the case of three different remanufacturers and how their relation with their core provider affects their business. Products sold as a part of a product service system have great potential of being remanufactured in an efficient manner. This is for example due to large possibilities to plan the remanufacturing operations and to achieve pre-information about the cores coming in to the remanufacturing facilities.

An increasing number of manufacturers have started to sell their products through integrated product service offerings. These offerings can preferably be connected to remanufacturing systems. In order to achieve a successful remanufacturing process, there must be an efficient take-back system - and preferably good product designs. In this paper, we have highlighted the design for remanufacturing aspects found in our research with remanufacturing companies.

Manufacturers at present face new circumstances in terms of consumer services and serious environmental problems. An effective way to deal with these circumstances may be to pursue qualitative satisfaction rather than quantitative sufficiency. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of Service Engineering, including the service design process model, to increase customer satisfaction. The redesign of services offered by a global warehouse manufacturer is used as an example of the application. Four redesign options, such as rapid delivery of components and a robust electrical system, were generated. The effectiveness of the method was demonstrated by the application.

Manufacturing companies face many challenges today. One of these is how to successfully meet increasingly diverse customer needs. This paper elucidates, from several perspectives, how mass customization could be enabled using integrated product and service engineering. BT Products AB (BT) produces forklift trucks in Sweden that are customized and sold through various kinds of product offerings, which are also customer-tailored. By doing so, BT can offer their customers increased value through customized product service offerings. This paper shows, through a case study at BT, how the customization issues are tackled by the company. Though the development of products and services is conducted in separate organizations at BT, the company has managed to create successful customized offerings for its customers. However, with a more integrated development BT could become even more successful in its customer offerings.

Life cycle engineering deals with technologies for shifting the industry from mass production and mass consumption paradigm to closed loop manufacturing paradigm, in which required functions are provided for customers with the minimum amount of production. This subject is discussed from the various aspects, such as life cycle design, design for environment, reduce/reuse/recycle, life cycle assessment, and sustainable business models.

Advances in Life Cycle Engineering for Sustainable Manufacturing Businesses gathers together papers from the 14th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference. This conference is the longest running annual meeting in the field, in which papers are presented regarding developments of leading edge technologies, proposals of new concepts, and prominent industry case studies.

Manufacturing companies around the globe are striving to increase their revenues and profitability. One way is through Functional Sales, i.e. shifting the focus from the production of products to the production of services. Functional Sales and Design for Environment (DfE) have many common issues, e.g. the life cycle perspective. The paper’s aim is to highlight a proposed interactive design method for Service Engineering of Functional Sales offers and to relate this method to selected DfE methods and tools as well as users’ experiences with these methods and tools.

The paper concludes that the proposed method has several benefits that are useful in DfE. One benefit is that the method does not focus on products but rather on how needs can be satisfied by increasing service content. Another is the visualization of e.g. validation in order to facilitate communication between different actors in the product development process.

The aim of this paper is to present an outline of an interactive design model that can be used for Service Engineering of functional sales concepts. This paper also aims to show how the previous service engineering research relates to this new model. A further aim is also to verify the overall outline of the interactive design model. The proposed model’s overall outline has been confirmed by and discussed with eight companies and further supported by the output from the literature review, and seems to be relevant for different types of functional sales offers. Therefore, the conclusion is that the proposed model gives a relevant image of important lifecycle activities for Service Engineering of functional sales offers.

The focus of this book is the consideration of environmental issues in engineering process and product design. It presents a selection of 30 papers ensuing from the 12th CIRP International seminar on Life Cycle Engineering. This book is of interest to academics, students and practitioners, specializing in environmental issues in mechanical engineering, design and manufacturing. This volume is recommended as a reference textbook for all researchers in the field.

The focus of this book is the consideration of environmental issues in engineering process and product design. It presents a selection of 30 papers ensuing from the 12th CIRP International seminar on Life Cycle Engineering. This book is of interest to academics, students and practitioners, specializing in environmental issues in mechanical engineering, design and manufacturing. This volume is recommended as a reference textbook for all researchers in the field.

This paper presents and clarifies the academic and industrial terminology used in the area of product recovery. It is concluded that there exist many different concepts and definitions in academia and industry, several of which are unclearly defined. Given this, a new way to define product recovery is presented through the use of a model. This model is based on actual industrial product recovery cases, existing academic product recovery concepts and definitions and product design theory. The presentation contains a holistic model that can be used for describing and analyzing different product recovery scenarios. In addition, several industry cases are presented as a verification of the model.

Despite an increasing number of Design for Environment (DfE) methods and tools, industrial utilization is still limited. Identifying Engineering Designers' requirements is a useful way to increase the utilization of DfE methods and tools. This paper is based on existing literature and a semi-structured interview study at an industrial equipment company. Different reasons why engineering designers utilize methods and tools are presented, as well what makes a method or tool actively utilized. Several engineering designer requirements for methods and tools are identified and described. Several identified requirements that a DfE method ought to fulfill are listed and described. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Researchers often regard remanufacturing as an environmentally beneficial end-of-life option. There have been, however, few environmental measurements performed in the area. The aim of this paper is to identify general environmental pros and cons with remanufacturing. This is done through the analysis of practical examples in remanufacturing industries. Life Cycle Assessment methodology has been used for the environmental validations.

The first conclusion, based on the industrial cases and the literature review, is that remanufacturing is preferable from a material resource perspective when compared with manufacturing of new products. The second conclusion is that remanufacturing is preferable from a more overarching perspective for some of the investigated cases, but it is not possible to draw any general conclusions since the companies studied are few and benefits from remanufacturing are highly context-related.