Europe – sustainable management of product life cycles: EU project

ELIMA is a research project with eight European partners that aims to develop ways of better managing the life cycles of products. The ELIMA consortium think that using technology to collect vital information during a product‘‘s life can lead to better, cheaper and more sustainable products.



The team is building and testing special prototypes with these data collection features – and we are investigating the implications for producers, users, and recyclers. The technology needed is built into what are called smart products or intelligent products. These contain sensors and memory to record data such as time, temperature and power consumption.



This is added to data about materials and manufacture. The information is then sent, perhaps over the internet, to a database where the producer and others can actively manage the entire product life cycle. The costs of this extra technology can be set against the potential benefits, such as:



· improved designs based on a better understanding of how people use products · re-use of components from disposed products, knowing their remaining life

· better logistics, maintenance and new value-added services offered to users · a reduced impact on the environment, for example by advice to the user on energy saving, or by resource saving in maintenance



Context



ELIMA is a particularly timely project given the recent EU-wide adoption of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE) as well as the related RoHS Directive and the current development of Community integrated product policy (IPP) and the proposed EUP directive which will establish a framework for the intigration of environmental aspects in product design.



As EU member states implement the WEEE Directive, take-back of end-of-life products must be economic and end-of-life processing efficient. This will increase producer responsibility, reuse and recycling and promote ecodesign. ELIMA contributes to these aims and helps meet the objective of the directives by highlighting opportunities for reducing waste.



The project addresses the goals of Key Action 1 of the Framework 5 research and technology development "Competitive and Sustainable Growth" programme: improving industrial capability (through an innovative approach to managing product life cycles), improving product quality (through sustainable design and development of new products and services) and minimising resource consumption. The ELIMA project aims to work at a European level to create high-quality jobs in manufacturing, IT and services, to reduce the environmental impact of the consumer products sector and to improve the quality of life for EU citizens.



Project aims and work programme



1. Understanding the data to be collected and stored about the product and developing any standards necessary. The work on data is largely complete.

2. Developing the ELIMA technology – hardware and software. A prototype system is being tested, based on RFID smart tags and GSM systems.

3. Developing prototype products and using them in "field trials" with consumers – these are currently running.

4. Evaluating the project results – the value of the information collected, the environmental impact of the technology, the attitudes of consumers, etc.. This includes developing methods for modelling and analysing product life cycles.

5. Developing business models for new value-added services that could help pay for the ELIMA system. This involves research into innovative product/service systems and their sustainability.



Summary of progress



At the end of the first year, the ELIMA project had established the design requirements of the information system software and hardware for use in life cycle management of products. The refrigerator field trial (GDA/Merloni) started but the consumer entertainment (PS2) trial was delayed by hardware develop