A proposed method for Design for Eco-Finance

Products are becoming more complex to the extent that some elements of the design may be outsourced to multiple external vendors. Hence, any changes made during design activities can generate significant additional costs and time With high upfront design and development costs being common place specifically in low-volume high-value electronics production, the ability to accurately predict the anticipated financial burden of both these activities, and through-life production changes is of great importance to a business, especially in light of probable future influences such as environmentally driven legislation. The paper describes a new approach to address such issues, through the development of an Eco-Financial Decision Support System to help electronics companies provide rapid responses and quotations for the design and development of new or obsolescent products. These will be addressed through development towards ‘Design for Eco-Finance’ (DfEF), a new component of the DfX family, which will allow designers to perform a ‘trade-off’ between environmental impacts and costs, supporting the financially viable, sustainable design of electronics products.