Cost savings from reduced life cycle environmental impacts

Environmental design is one aspect of good design practice and overlaps with many other design approaches such as lean manufacturing, design for assembly/disassembly, cost down, etc. As such healthcare product design teams should already be addressing many aspects of environmental design. However, all companies can benefit from formalising their approach to environmental design by using ENVIRON’s web-based system.

The Design Council estimates that over 80% of the quantities and costs of materials and utilities consumed by a product are locked in at the design stage. ENVIRON’s system provides a structured approach using tried and tested processes which can highlight new opportunities to minimise these environmental costs across the product’s life cycle. Application of similar environmental design processes at Siemens Medical Solutions has reduced product costs by between 30% and 50% in some cases, as illustrated in the table below.

Example cost savings achieved by applying environmental design at Siemens Medical Solution
ProductSavings
STRATON X-Ray Tube
  • 66% reduction in material consumption
  • Use of up to 40% recycled parts in new tubes
  • 33% improvement in scan performance
SOMATON Definition X-Ray Device
  • Modular product architecture (easier to maintain)
  • Energy savings of 30% for standard examinations and 50% dose reduction for heart examinations
  • Over 80% reduction in lead content (from 110kg down to 19 kg)
  • Use of more then 95% recyclable materials

Other examples of EcoDesign cost savings include manufacturing cost savings at Smiths Group and recycling cost savings at ABB.

For further information, please contact Dr Aidan Turnbull
Head of WEEE, RoHS & EcoDesign on +44 (0)1225 748420