یکپارچگی ارزیابی چرخه زندگی در فرآیند توسعه محصول: رویکرد روش شناسی Integrating life cycle assessment in the product development process: A methodological approach

1. Introduction In the highly competitive environment where companies are inserted, the search for a differential over their competitors becomes increasingly important for organizations to seek or maintain their position in the market. This differential can be achieved, among other ways, through the adoption of practices that contribute to sustainable development. In this context, according to Moreno et al. (2011), an important aspect of sustainability is the movement towards more sustainable products. In this perspective, according to Lacasa et al. (2016), sustainability has become a requirement for competitive companies, which increasingly seek to make conscious decisions regarding the impacts that might be caused by their products still in the development stage. Moreover, some authors point out that product development present a few issues that have been perceived as challenging and represents one of the major challenges facing the 21st century industry (Gmelin and Seuring, 2014; Maxwell and van der Vorst, 2003). This is due to challenges, such as rapid changes in customer expectations, global competition, accelerated technological innovation shortening the product life cycle, the socioeconomic environment, cultural aspects like the fascination for the new and the short fashion cycle (Ekmekci and Koksal, 2015; Gmelin and Seuring, 2014). In addition to government restrictions on products with unsustainable characteristics that increase successively (Gmelin and Seuring, 2014). To respond to these challenges, especially those that address sustainability issues, throughout time environmental factors have receivied more attention in product development activities (Telenko et al., 2016). On those grounds, techniques have been used to assist in the assessment of impacts caused by products and industrial activities. Among them is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a methodology used to quantify the potential environmental and human health impacts of the entire life cycle of a product, as well as to quantify the effects on resource stocks. LCA have been being considered as one of the most powerful tools to support decision-making processes used in sustainable production. It allows learning about the most problematic parts and phases of a product’s life cycle and identify and assess future improvements (Zafeirakopoulos and Genevois, 2015). This allows evaluating whether the solution found for the new product is better or worse for the environment than those currently available (Tao et al., 2017). Then, LCA can be conducted to meet the need for decisions that consider environmental aspects in the Product Development Process (PDP) (Gmelin and Seuring, 2014). For that reason, the use of LCA in the PDP is an important element to identify and reduce environmental impacts of the entire product life cycle (Wang et al., 2015). Also, it has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers. However, most of the actions employed are based on the assessment of impacts when products and/or processes are already developed. Therefore, this study aims to propose a methodology for the integration of LCA in the product development process. The purpose of considering LCA in the PDP is to help product development with a minimal impact since the early stages of development. The proposed methodology can help companies in the process of developing more sustainable products.