lead to risks of transfers of environmental impacts: as the contribution of the use
stage to the impacts is decreasing, the contribution from the manufacturing stage
could relatively increase.
In order to prevent transfer of pollution, engineers in innovation should be able
to evaluate their innovations in a life cycle and multi-criteria perspective.
Environmental evaluation is generally carried out at the end of the product development process and results cannot be used during the design process itself. On the
contrary, during innovation, less data on the future vehicle are available, but there
are more time and more levers for making changes.
In order to integrate an eco-design approach within a company, tools must be
suited to the company, its products, and the corresponding design phase and
innovation process. Indeed, both the technical and organizational aspects need to be
taken into account simultaneously [3] to ensure (1) the progressive expansion of the
environmental field from a technical point of view, and (2) from an organizational
point of view, a step by step integration of the environment in all organizational
departments to ensure that users are more fully acquainted with the tools and to
formalize environmental recommendations that are more accessible.
This article presents Groupe PSA’s approach for integrating eco-design method
in the innovation process, known as E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutive integration of the Evaluation of the Environmental Performances of Innovative
Complex Sub-systems). E3PICS is based on an eco-design framework of reference
that incudes, in particular, a checklist for innovation leaders, and quantitative tools
for simulating the effects of the innovations on the future vehicles.
2 Eco-designing in the Automotive Sector’s
Innovation Process
Groupe PSA’s desire was to initiate an eco-design method during the innovation
phase. For car manufacturers, most of the time, innovations have little impact on the
vehicle architecture because of their incremental nature and the fact that such
innovations often concern subsystems or components [4]. A set of innovations is
generally proposed by the innovation team to the team in charge of the routine
design of the vehicle, which Beaume represents as an “innovative feature” flow
from the innovation department to the vehicle program department, during the
“contextualization phase” [5]. Both structures are completely separated (see Fig. 1).
This study focuses on evaluating innovations during the “contextualization
phase”, i.e. between Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 and TRL 6. This phase
aims to validate the connection of an innovation to the vehicle program and contains three milestones: TRL 5: innovation project’s commitment; TRL 6: innovation
project’s connection to a vehicle program; and TRL 5 1/2 : innovation project’s
mid-term review.
372
J. Garcia et al.
stage to the impacts is decreasing, the contribution from the manufacturing stage
could relatively increase.
In order to prevent transfer of pollution, engineers in innovation should be able
to evaluate their innovations in a life cycle and multi-criteria perspective.
Environmental evaluation is generally carried out at the end of the product development process and results cannot be used during the design process itself. On the
contrary, during innovation, less data on the future vehicle are available, but there
are more time and more levers for making changes.
In order to integrate an eco-design approach within a company, tools must be
suited to the company, its products, and the corresponding design phase and
innovation process. Indeed, both the technical and organizational aspects need to be
taken into account simultaneously [3] to ensure (1) the progressive expansion of the
environmental field from a technical point of view, and (2) from an organizational
point of view, a step by step integration of the environment in all organizational
departments to ensure that users are more fully acquainted with the tools and to
formalize environmental recommendations that are more accessible.
This article presents Groupe PSA’s approach for integrating eco-design method
in the innovation process, known as E3PICS (Methodology of an Evolutive integration of the Evaluation of the Environmental Performances of Innovative
Complex Sub-systems). E3PICS is based on an eco-design framework of reference
that incudes, in particular, a checklist for innovation leaders, and quantitative tools
for simulating the effects of the innovations on the future vehicles.
2 Eco-designing in the Automotive Sector’s
Innovation Process
Groupe PSA’s desire was to initiate an eco-design method during the innovation
phase. For car manufacturers, most of the time, innovations have little impact on the
vehicle architecture because of their incremental nature and the fact that such
innovations often concern subsystems or components [4]. A set of innovations is
generally proposed by the innovation team to the team in charge of the routine
design of the vehicle, which Beaume represents as an “innovative feature” flow
from the innovation department to the vehicle program department, during the
“contextualization phase” [5]. Both structures are completely separated (see Fig. 1).
This study focuses on evaluating innovations during the “contextualization
phase”, i.e. between Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 and TRL 6. This phase
aims to validate the connection of an innovation to the vehicle program and contains three milestones: TRL 5: innovation project’s commitment; TRL 6: innovation
project’s connection to a vehicle program; and TRL 5 1/2 : innovation project’s
mid-term review.
372
J. Garcia et al.