DESIGN LIFE CYCLE

A Life Cycle Design is a process of design and engineering work for the entire project and plant
lifecycle from initiation through project construction and production until disposal of the plant
facility. The Life Cycle Design is integrated technology, people, process and business into the
EPC project including operations and maintenance identifies opportunities to increase reliability
and safety.

Life cycle thinking in energy sector

Drastic increases in atmospheric CO2 caused by the burning of fossil fuels, has led to the search
for alternative energy sources like biofuels and renewable energy sources. To analyze whether or
not these alternative sources have overall less environmental impact than conventional energy
sources, life-cycle analysis is needed. Life-cycle thinking is an intricate part of finding new energy
sources that have an overall smaller impact on the environment.

The stage through which a design develops over time is known as design lifecycle. The phases of
a design lifecycle include the following;

phase activities

1. Planning/ problem definition • Define the system to be developed

• Set the project scope

• Develop the project plan

2. Analysis • Gather business requirements

3. Design • Design the technical architecture

• Design system models

4. Development • Build technical architecture

• Build databases and programs

5. Testing • Write test conditions

• Perform testing

6. Implementation/installation • Write user documentation

 • Provide training

7. Maintenance • Build a help desk

• Support system changes

8. Extension and redesign • Advancement

• Further designing

Product lifecycle

What Is a Product Life Cycle?

The term product life cycle refers to the length of time a product is introduced to consumers into
the market until it's removed from the shelves. The life cycle of a product is broken into four
stages—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This concept is used by management and
by marketing professionals as a factor in deciding when it is appropriate to increase advertising,
reduce prices, expand to new markets, or redesign packaging. The process of strategizing ways
to continuously support and maintain a product is called product life cycle management.
• Introduction: This phase generally includes a substantial investment in advertising and
a marketing campaign focused on making consumers aware of the product and its
benefits.

• Growth: If the product is successful, it then moves to the growth stage. This is
characterized by growing demand, an increase in production, and expansion in its
availability.

• Maturity: This is the most profitable stage, while the costs of producing and marketing
decline.

• Decline: A product takes on increased competition as other companies emulate its

success—sometimes with enhancements or lower prices. The product may lose market
share and begin its decline.
Discuss the role of lifecycle thinking in green economy

Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is about going beyond the traditional focus on production site and
manufacturing processes to include environmental, social and economic impacts of a product
over its entire life cycle.

The main goals of LCT are to reduce a product's resource use and emissions to the
environment as well as improve its socio-economic performance through its life cycle. This
may facilitate links between the economic, social and environmental dimensions within an
organization and through its entire value chain.

A product life cycle can begin with the extraction of raw materials from natural resources in the
ground and the energy generation. Materials and energy are then part of production, packaging,
distribution, use, maintenance, and eventually recycling, reuse, recovery or final disposal.

In each life cycle stage there is the potential to reduce resource consumption and improve
the performance of products.

Life Cycle Approaches

Life cycle thinking has provided a conceptual basis for moving the sustainability agenda forward
in the public and private sector to assist in decision-making at all levels regarding policy and
product development, production, procurement, and final disposal. Life cycle approaches can be
used in all sectors, and can examine key impact categories and indicators, assessing the
environmental and social impacts (e.g. Environmental LCA and Social LCA, carbon footprint,
water footprint, etc.), as well as the ultimate effects of these on all three key sustainability pillars
(e.g. life cycle sustainability assessment).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

LCA is a methodological internationally standardised method. It quantifies all relevant emissions

and resources consumed and the related environmental and health impacts and resource
depletion issues that are associated with any goods or services. Life Cycle Assessment considers
a product’s full life cycle: from the extraction of resources, through production, use, and
recycling, up to the disposal of remaining waste. LCA studies help to avoid resolving one
environmental problem while creating others. Life Cycle Assessment is therefore a powerful
decision support tool necessary to make consumption and production more sustainable.
Life Cycle Management

Life cycle thinking is made operational through Life Cycle Management (LCM). This management
approach puts the tools and methodologies within the life cycle thinking basket into practice. It
is a product management system that helps enterprises to minimize the environmental and social
burdens associated with their product or product portfolio during its entire life cycle.

The integration of LCM into enterprise operations is similar to that of the ISO 9000 and 14000
standards in that it favours a cyclical plan-do-check-act approach, and thereby provides a basis
for continual improvement. The elements of Life Cycle Management are shown in the visual. Find
insights and inspiration from our set of success stories on how life cycle thinking, management,
and approaches are being developed and implemented in practice around the world.

Elements of Life Cycle Management

Benefits of Life Cycle Approaches

The impacts of all life cycle stages need to be considered comprehensively by citizens, companies
and governments, when they make decisions on consumption and production patterns, policies
and management strategies.

At a macro level, life cycle approaches avoid shifting problems from one life cycle stage to another,
from one geographic area to another and from one environmental medium (for example air
quality) to another (for example water or land). At a micro level, they enable individuals (e.g.,
product designers, service providers, government agents) to make choices for the longer term
and with consideration of all environmental media (i.e., air, water, land).

All in all, life cycle approaches can bring several benefits:

• Incorporating life cycle and sustainability management will improve image and brand
value for both world market players as well as smaller suppliers and producers.
• By engaging in supportive programmes and initiatives and implementing life-cycle
approaches, governments can show global responsibility and governance by sharing and
disseminating sustainability options world- wide.
• Life cycle approaches will help point consumption in a more sustainable direction by
offering better information for purchasing, transport systems, energy sources, to guide
consumers

In fact, decision making at different levels is already based on the life cycle approach, for
instance… … Consumer purchasing decisions via ecolabels, or company reports on
environmental and social issues. … Business design of products and services via Life Cycle
Assessments studies, Design for Environment, Total Cost of Ownership calculations, or
management systems that are orientated toward products or facilities. … Government policy
making by involving a wide range of stakeholders (e.g. via Product Panels) or through Integrated
Product Policy (IPP) approaches.

What is the design lifecycle?

Life-Cycle Design is the environmentally sound design of products based on the whole lifecycle
starting from exploitation and processing of raw materials, preproduction, production,
distribution, to use and returning materials back into the industrial cycles.

• Ecologic efficiency/Optimal function

• Save resources
• Use renewable and sufficiently available resources
• Increase product durability
• Design for product reuse
• Design for material recycling
• Design for disassembly
• Minimise harmful substances
• Produce in an environment-friendly manner
• Minimise environmental impact during product use
• Use of environment-friendly packaging
• Dispose of non-recyclable materials in an environment-friendly way

Economic considerations in life cycle design (life cycle costing)

1. Meaning of Life Cycle Costing:

Life cycle costing is a system that tracks and accumulates the actual costs and revenues
attributable to cost object from its invention to its abandonment. Life cycle costing involves
tracing cost and revenues on a product by product base over several calendar periods.

The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of an asset is defined as:

“The total cost throughout its life including planning, design, acquisition and support costs and
any other costs directly attributable to owning or using the asset”.

Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of an item represents the total cost of its ownership, and includes all the
cots that will be incurred during the life of the item to acquire it, operate it, support it and finally
dispose it. Life Cycle Costing adds all the costs over their life period and enables an evaluation
on a common basis for the specified period (usually discounted costs are used).

This enables decisions on acquisition, maintenance, refurbishment or disposal to be made in the

light of full cost implications. In essence, Life Cycle Costing is a means of estimating all the costs
involved in procuring, operating, maintaining and ultimately disposing a product throughout its
life.

Life cycle costing is different from traditional cost accounting system which reports cost object
profitability on a calendar basis (i.e. monthly, quarterly and annually) whereas life cycle costing
involves tracing costs and revenues of a cost object (i.e. product, project etc.) over several
calendar periods (i.e. projected life of the cost object).

Thus, product life cycle costing is an approach used to provide a long-term picture of product
line profitability, feedback on the effectiveness of the life cycle planning and cost data to clarify
the economic impact on alternative chosen in the design, engineering phase etc.
It is also considered as a way to enhance the control of manufacturing costs. It is important to
track and measure costs during each stage of a product’s life cycle.

2. Characteristics of Life Cycle Costing:

a) Product life cycle costing involves tracing of costs and revenues of a product over several
calendar periods throughout its life cycle.
b) Product life cycle costing traces research and design and development costs and total
magnitude of these costs for each individual product and compared with product revenue.
c) Each phase of the product life-cycle poses different threats and opportunities that may
require different strategic actions.
d) Product life cycle may be extended by finding new uses or users or by increasing the
consumption of the present users.

3. Stages of Product Life Cycle Costing:

Following are the main stages of Product Life Cycle:

(i) Market Research:

It will establish what product the customer wants, how much he is prepared to pay for it and
how much he will buy.

(ii) Specification:

It will give details such as required life, maximum permissible maintenance costs, manufacturing
costs, required delivery date, expected performance of the product.

(iii) Design:

Proper drawings and process schedules are to be defined.

(ii) Specification:

It will give details such as required life, maximum permissible maintenance costs, manufacturing
costs, required delivery date, expected performance of the product.

(iii) Design:

Proper drawings and process schedules are to be defined.

vi) Tooling:

Tooling up for production can mean building a production line; building jigs, buying the
necessary tools and equipment’s requiring a very large initial investment.

(vii) Manufacture:

The manufacture of a product involves the purchase of raw materials and components, the use
of labour and manufacturing expenses to make the product.
 (viii) Selling

(ix) Distribution

x) Product support

(xi) Decommissioning:

When a manufacturing product comes to an end, the plant used to build the product must be
sold or scrapped.

4. Benefits of Product Life Cycle Costing:

Following are the main benefits of product life cycle costing:

i. It results in earlier action to generate revenue or lower costs than otherwise might be
considered. There are a number of factors that need to be managed in order to maximise return
in a product.
ii. Better decision should follow from a more accurate and realistic assessment of revenues and
costs within a particular life cycle stage.
iii. It can promote long term rewarding in contrast to short term rewarding.
iv. It provides an overall framework for considering total incremental costs over the entire span of
a product.

5. Life Cycle Costing Process:

Life cycle costing is a three-staged process. The first stage is life cost planning stage which
includes planning LCC Analysis, Selecting and Developing LCC Model, applying LCC Model and
finally recording and reviewing the LCC Results. The Second Stage is Life Cost Analysis
Preparation Stage followed by third stage Implementation and Monitoring Life Cost Analysis.

The three stages are:

Life Cycle Costing Process:

LCC Analysis is a multi-disciplinary activity. An analyst, involved in life cycle costing, should be
fully familiar with unique cost elements involved in the life cycle of asset, sources of cost data to
be collected and financial principles to be applied.

He should also have clear understanding of methods of assessing the uncertainties associated
with cost estimation. Number of iterations may be required to perform to finally achieve the
result. All these iterations should be documented in detail to facilitate the interpretations of final
result.
 Stage 1: LCC Analysis Planning:

The Life Cycle Costing process begins with development of a plan, which addresses the purpose,
and scope of the analysis.

The plan should:

i. Define the analysis objectives in terms of outputs required to assist a management decision.

Typical objectives are:

a. Determination of the LCC for an asset in order to assist planning, contracting,

budgeting or similar needs.
b. Evaluation of the impact of alternative courses of action on the LCC of an asset
(such as design approaches, asset acquisition, support policies or alternative
technologies).
c. Identification of cost elements which act as cost drives for the LCC of an asset in
order to focus design, development, acquisition or asset support efforts.
ii. Make the detailed schedule with regard to planning of time period for each phase, the
operating, technical and maintenance support required for the asset.
iii. Identify any underlying conditions, assumptions, limitations and constraints (such as
minimum asset performance, availability requirements or maximum capital cost
limitations) that might restrict the range of acceptable options to be evaluated. Identify
alternative courses of action to be evaluated.
iv. Identify alternative courses of action to be evaluated. The list of proposed alternatives
may be refined as new options are identified or as existing options are found to violate
the problem constraints.
v. Provide an estimate of resources required and a reporting schedule for the analysis to
ensure that the LCC results will be available to support the decision-making process for
which they are required.

Next step in LCC Analysis planning is the selection or development of an LCC model that will
satisfy the objectives of the analysis. LCC Model is basically an accounting structure which
enables the estimation of an asset components cost.

Stage 2: Life Cost Analysis Preparation:

The Life Cost Analysis is essentially a tool, which can be used to control and manage the ongoing
costs of an asset or part thereof. It is based on the LCC Model developed and applied during the
Life Cost Planning phase with one important difference: it uses data on real costs.
The preparation of the Life Cost Analysis involves review and development of the LCC Model as
a “real-time” or actual cost control mechanism. Estimates of capital costs will be replaced by
the actual prices paid. Changes may also be required to the cost breakdown structure and cost
elements to reflect the asset components to be monitored and the level of detail required.

Targets are set for the operating costs and their frequency of occurrence based initially on the
estimates used in the Life Cost Planning phase. However, these targets may change with time as
more accurate data is obtained, from the actual asset operating costs or from the operating cost
of similar other asset.

Stage 3: Implementing and Monitoring:

Implementation of the Life Cost Analysis involves the continuous monitoring of the actual
performance of an asset during its operation and maintenance to identify areas in which cost
savings may be made and to provide feedback for future life cost planning activities.

For example, it may be better to replace an expensive building component with a more efficient
solution prior to the end of its useful life than to continue with a poor initial decision.

Obsolescence consideration in life cycle design

Designers need to consider the whole product cycle of potential products, services and systems
throughout the design cycle and beyond. Products may have an impact not only on the direct
consumer but also on society at large and the environment.

An understanding of the product life cycle allows the designer to design a product with
obsolescence in mind. Doing this at the design stage can potentially eliminate the effect of a
product on the environment when it is no longer in use.

Obsolescence affects the product life cycle.

Planned: A product becomes outdated as a conscious act either to ensure a continuing market
or to ensure that safety factors and new technologies can be incorporated into later versions of
the product.

Style (fashion): Fashions and trends change over time, which can result in a product no longer
being desirable. However, as evidenced by the concept of retro styling and the cyclic nature of
fashion, products can become desirable again.

Functional: Over time, products wear out and break down. If parts are no longer available, the
product can no longer work in the way it originally did. Also, if a service vital to its functioning
is no longer available, it can become obsolete.
Technological: When a new technology supersedes an existing technology, the existing
technology quickly falls out of use and is no longer incorporated into new products. Consumers
instead opt for the newer, more efficient technology in their products.

Design for Obsolescence

It’s fair to say that the Smartphone is to blame for many everyday technologies including the
calculator, the torch and the camera slowly entering the realms of obsolescence. !!!

The challenges of obsolescence are best addressed at the design stage. Part of this involves
analyzing procurement information and avoiding the selection of parts close to obsolescence.
Taking a strategic approach to obsolescence management by forecasting and planning can make
a big difference to optimizing product life cycle.

Types of obsolescence

Technical obsolescence

Functional obsolescence

Architectural obsolescence

Planned obsolescence

Style obsolescence

Consequences

Driven by rapid technological changes, new components are developed and launched on the
market with increasing speed. The result is a dramatic change in production methods of all
components and their market availability. A growing industry sector is facing issues where life
cycles of products no longer fit together with life cycles of required components. This issue is
known as obsolescence, the status given to a part when it is no longer available from its original
manufacturer.

The problem of obsolescence is most prevalent for electronics technology, wherein the
procurement lifetimes for microelectronic parts are often significantly shorter than the
manufacturing and support life cycles for the products that use the parts. However, obsolescence
extends beyond electronic components to other items, such as materials, textiles, and
mechanical parts. In addition, obsolescence has been shown to appear for software,
specifications, standards, processes, and soft resources, such as human skills. It is highly
important to implement and operate an active management of obsolescence to mitigate and avoid
extreme costs
Technology adoption life cycle:
This adoption chart highlights the way in which consumers embrace new products and services.

Technology adoption life cycle: This adoption chart highlights the way in which consumers
embrace new products and services.

Customer groups

Based on demographic and psychological characteristics, customers fall into one of the 5 adopter
groups, namely:

1. Innovators
2. Early Adopters
3. Early Majority
4. Late Majority, and
5. Laggards

Distribution
As can be observed, the technology adoption lifecycle has a bell curve. The divisions are
approximately equivalent to where standard deviations would fall. This means:
Innovators make up about 2.5% of the total population
Early Adopters about 13.5%
Early Majority and Late Majority both at 34%, and
Laggards the remaining 16%
Each group represents a unique psychographic profile i.e. a combination of psychological and
demographic traits. Hence, marketing to these groups require completely different strategies from
those of other groups. Marketers, by better understanding the differences among the groups, can
better target all of these consumers with the right marketing techniques.
Innovators

Innovators are technology enthusiasts.

These are risk-oriented, leading-edge minded individuals who are extremely interested in
technological developments (often within a particular industry). Innovators are a fractional
segment of the overall consumer population.
This is the first group of consumers that are likely to invest in your product. Innovators
aggressively pursue new products and technologies. Sometimes, they seek out innovations even
before the company has launched a formal marketing program. This is because technology
occupies a central interest in their life or business. For this customer group, completeness of
product feature set or performance are secondary.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of innovators (roughly 2.5%) in any given market segment.
Usually, they are unwilling to pay a lot for new products. Nonetheless, winning them over is
important because their endorsement offers the required reassurance for other consumers in the
marketplace. Furthermore, technology enthusiasts serve well as a test group to make the
necessary modifications before targeting the mainstream.

Early Adopters
A larger but still relatively small demographic, these individuals are generally risk-oriented and
highly adaptable to new technology. Early adopters follow the innovators in embracing new
products, and tend to be young and well-educated
Like Innovators, early adopters are visionaries that buy into a new product concept very early in
its life cycle. However, unlike Innovators, they are not technologists. Rather, they are visionaries
that are not just looking for an improvement, but also a revolutionary breakthrough.
Consequently, they are willing to take high risks trying something new. They are the least price-
sensitive of the customer groups and are highly demanding in product feature set and
performance.

Early Adopters do not rely on well-established references in making buying decisions. Instead,
they prefer to rely on their own intuition and vision. In addition, they are willing to serve as
highly visible references to other adopter groups in the population. Since visionaries are good at
alerting the rest of the population, they are of upmost importance to win over.

Early Majority
Much larger and more careful than the previous two groups, the early majority are open to new
ideas but generally wait to see how they are received before investing.
This customer group comprises of the Pragmatists. The first two adopter groups belong to the
Early Market. However, in order to become truly successful, a company must win over the
Mainstream Market, starting with the Early Majority. These Pragmatists share some of the Early
Adopters’ ability to relate to technology. However, they are driven by a strong sense of practicality.
They know that many inventions end up as passing fads. Consequently, they are content to wait
and see how other customers are faring with the technology before investing in it themselves.
They want to see well-established references before investing substantially. Because there are so
many people in this segment (roughly 34%), winning these people over is fundamental for any
business that strives for substantial profits and growth.

Late Majority
Slightly conservative and risk-averse, the late majority is a large group of potential customers
who need convincing before investing in something new.
This group comprises primarily of the Conservatives. The Late Majority as a group is about as
big as the Early Majority (34% of the total population). They share all the concerns of the Early
Majority. In addition, they believe far more in tradition than in progress. Customers in the Early
Majority group are comfortable with their ability to handle a new technological product if they
decide to purchase it. In contrast, members of the Late Majority are not. As a result, these
Conservatives prefer to wait until something has become an established standard and invest only
at the end of a technology life cycle. Even then, they want see lots of support and tend to buy
from large, well-established companies only. Being the market leader is therefore an important
prerequisite in order to win over the Late Majority.

Laggards
Extremely frugal, conservative, and often technology-averse, laggards are a small population of
usually older and uneducated individuals who avoid risks and only invest in new ideas once they
are extremely well-established.
This group is comprised of the Skeptics. This segment constitutes 16% of the population. These
people simply don’t want anything to do with new technology. The only time they ever buy a
technological product is when its buried deep inside another product. These Skeptics have a
strong believe that disruptive innovations rarely fulfill their promises. They are almost always
worried about unintended consequences. From a market development perspective, Laggards are
usually regarded as not worth pursuing. However, their criticism on the product feature set and
performance provides valuable feedback for technology companies.

The Chasm
You can see a gap between Early Adopter and Early Majority groups in the Technology Adoption
Life Cycle. This gap represents the chasm that the technology has to cross. It signifies the
credibility gap that arises from using the group on the left as a reference base for the customer
base on the right. The chasm exists because consumers trust references from people that belong
to their own adopter group.

Of course, this creates a challenging dilemma for technology companies. How could you use
people from the preferred reference group if they haven’t bought from you yet?

In other words, using customers from one group as references for the other groups is highly
ineffective. Hence, the Chasm!

Since the leap from the Early Adopters to the Early Majority means the transition from the Early
Market to the Mainstream Market, crossing the chasm is of upmost importance to truly achieve
market success with a newly launched product / technology.
Summary
According to Moore, successfully crossing the chasm can be achieved by targeting a very specific
niche market within the Early Majority first. The sole goal of the organization in its attempt to
cross the Chasm should be to secure a beachhead in a mainstream market to create a pragmatist
customer base that is referenceable. Segmenting is everything here: focus all your marketing
resources on one specific segment at the time and make sure you become market leader in that
specific segment before moving on the next one. This is a so called ‘Big Fish, Small Pond’
approach. A great marketing framework that can help picking out the right marketing techniques
for potential customers is the Marketing Funnel or AIDA Model. In addition, make sure that your
product offers a complete solution and that service levels are high (i.e. Whole Product Solution).
The user experience Pragmatists have with your product will ultimately determine whether they
will enthuse their peers as well. Once you have established a strong word-of-mouth reputation
within different segments of the Early Majority, you have successfully crossed the chasm.