Design for sustainability (DFS): The intersection of supply chain and environment

Abstract

This new product development research reviews the "design for" or DFX literature to consolidate the current body of knowledge and to seek the future direction of the field. It finds that DFX techniques can be placed under the heading of sustainability in the dimensions of economics (dominated by supply chain design techniques), ecology (dominated by environmental design techniques) and social equity. A DFS (design for sustainability) taxonomy is presented to order and consolidate current techniques within these categories. A new DFX concept is developed that incorporates remanufacture, reuse, and recycling as one environmentally-friendly approach for end-of-life. A strategy and life-cycle phase framework is developed to enhance the application of DFX techniques by practitioners and to enable DFX strategy research. The current literature is deficient in addressing social equity and reverse logistics, and these areas should be further developed. Several other future research directions, including the need for aligning with theory and empirical testing, as well as exploring the relationships between the DFX techniques and dimensions of sustainability, are presented.