  6.4.1 Design Assessment - General -- Mar. '98 Design assessment includes a number of interrelated activities which are intended to systematically evaluate the product design and design options described in the previous section. Design assessment begins with the establishment of the environmental profile of a product. A profile highlights the life cycle stages which have the most significant impact on the overall environmental performance of the product. Designers may review each design option through a series of life cycle checklists. Checklist questions have been developed to implement the DfE core principles in each life cycle stage. The responses to the checklist questions may then evolve into the identification of unique improvement strategies for each design option. The final outcome is the priority listing of improved design options. The difficulty in completing the design assessment is understanding the interactions between the various life cycle stages for a product option. Changes made in one life cycle stage will often impact other stages. For example, a raw material substitution may well have an effect on the remaining life cycle stages of manufacturing, use, or disposition. To aid the designer and potentially avoid costly repetitions in the review process, the concepts of dominant environmental profile and improvement strategies have been developed. The dominant environmental profile concept will identify the most appropriate life cycle stage to be considered when beginning the review process. The improvement strategies provide an outline that structures the development of the life cycle checklists for evaluation. The checklist responses may then be consolidated to complete the design assessment.
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Nickel & Its Uses
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