Development of a circularity impact and failure analysis: Obsolescence and recyclability integration

Abstract

The application of the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) has been an established practice in systems engineering and engineering design for some decades. The benefit of applying FMEA is to raise engineers' awareness of potential risks related to a specific design configuration so that corrective actions can be preventively prioritized to avoid potential failure to happen. The work presented in this paper originates from the established practices of using FMEA and FMEA Boundary Diagrams in product development and extends the scope of analysis by integrating circularity considerations early on in the design process. Based on such rationale, the paper presents the first stage of the development of an approach named Circularity Impact and Failure Analysis (CIFA) aiming to become an integral part of a design for circularity strategy. The objective of the approach is to raise engineers' awareness about potential circularity issues in early design so that they can act accordingly to create more circular solutions. The paper presents the first results of the prescriptive work toward the development of CIFA, limiting the circularity considerations to the integration of obsolescence and recyclability considerations in the FMEA. The paper presents the logic and the rationale of the approach and exemplifies the application of the approach to the case of a bicycle V-brake.