How eco-design tools can be implemented in the product development process of a company: A case study on bicycle helmet

Abstract

This study was performed at the facility of Intersport France (Ile-de-France, 91), at the department of Sourcing, Quality and Development team.

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the benefits of eco-design tools for large companies with important economic constraints, such as Intersport, and the types of products that can emerge from their use. To do so, I have described the general process of product development first and compared with the process of Intersport. It allowed me to understand how the eco-designing part can be implemented in the product development process. I, then, worked on the different sustainable initiatives implemented in the industry and more specifically at Intersport. After that, a set of different eco-design tools were selected due to different parameters of evaluation, to choose exploitable tools for a novice team. The choice of the product that would be developed was made on a bicycle helmet, because of its technicity and the use of plastic, which is a similar aspect of many of the other products developed by the SQD team.

After having described the technical decomposition of the bicycle helmet, the use of two tools: the TRIZ contradiction matrix and the Life Cycle Assessment, allowed to find that the best compromise for an eco-designed helmet is a composite liner with EPS and cork. This product was already developed by another brand, expert in the industry of bicycle helmet, which confirmed the scalability of the project. Based on environmental criterion such as CO2 emission, this product was compared to carbon shell helmet and standard helmet, as they are the most representative helmets currently available on the market.

Finally, the results of the tools were exposed to the SQD team, to see if the eco-design tools used can be transmitted and used by every product developer. The results were mitigated, since the use of the tools was not easy to understand enough to be used by everyone, but the environmental aspect was considered seriously.