A product design framework for a circular economy

Abstract

The paper provides a circular economy framework from a product design perspective with tools to aid product designers in applying circular product design in practice. Design research for circular economy has so far mainly been limited to referring to existing fields of research such as design for disassembly, remanufacturing and recycling. The implications of combining these fields in the context of circular economy from a product design perspective however have remained largely unexplored. Furthermore, available aids for product designers are limited. A critical review of current ‘circular economy’ terminology led to the (re)definition the five most design-relevant topics: future proof design, and design for disassembly, maintenance, remake and recycling. With this an adapted circular economy model was proposed. Next, several tools were developed to aid a designer with the application of circular product design. The tools were tested and validated with Philips designers and engineers. A Philips case study was used in the development and application of the tools.