Made Sustainable

Image Source: Boeing

President Bill Clinton visited the McDonnell Douglas, Long Beach California manufacturing facility in February 1996 to give his support for the ramping production of the United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster airlifter. It was a critical time for scaling and justifying program funding. I was finishing my fifth year as a Design Engineer and applying what I had learned previously from a Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) project led by Sandy Munro, a pioneer in lean design and manufacturing. DFMA was aligned with the overall New Product Development (NPD) process and its various stage gates.

Image: Boeing, my Munro & Associates measuring tape circa late 1900s

Design for Sustainability (DFS) has a common framework to DFMA in terms of materials, processes, and suppliers involved in producing a product.

Image: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) process

Many companies are striving to implement DFS programs within their existing NPD processes. There is a lack of NPD features in current software offerings as it relates to accommodating DFS workflow steps.

Image: Design for Sustainability (DFS) considerations and steps

Many software tools and regulations have shaped DFS since this 2009 United Nations Environmental Program publication, but the core tenets remain. DFMA and DFS share similarities in approach and steps. It is time to make DFS a standard workflow as part of the NPD process.