In the link below, there is a product design example from
Xerox that I found very interesting. The article shows that providing
environmentally friendly designed products, the business can also save money in
its supply chain.
Xerox is well known for selling copier machines. The company
identified that these copier machines have parts that can be used in new
machines. By designing new products to use the same parts, Xerox avoided the
purchase of new and different parts saving the company several hundreds of
million dollars a year. Moreover, Xerox created a take-back program for
customers to take the burden of disposing the machine to the company. This
program ensures that Xerox has a supply of used parts.
Another interesting point raised in the article is about
packaging. Packaging is an important part of product design and has an effect
of the supply chain. “Excess packaging reduces the quantity
shipped per shipment, increases the fuel consumption per unit shipped, and
requires proper disposal after use.” HP redesign the packaging for a camera and
was able to increase the number of units shipped per shipment from 300 to 720
and reducing the weight by 175 grams per unit.
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