The design of environmentally friendly products requires data to assess the impact of the product on the environment throughout its life and the original design and manufacturing information that should accompany the product to manage the end-of-life process. Both of these requirements can be satisfied by the innovative combination of two groups of International Standards. The DEPUIS project pr...

The complexities associated with software system implemented often makes it imperative to maintain the existing software as a system of high functionality and throughput regime even in the face of changed external environment. It is preferable to enhance the functional operation by upgrading the existing software than changing entire systems as is demonstrated by continued usage of proprietary ...

Managed and optimized – these are the names for the levels 4 and 5 of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) respectively. With that the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) pays tribute to the fact that, after the process has been defined, higher process maturity, and with that higher product maturity, can only be achieved by improving and optimizing the life-cycle process itself. In the last thr...

The objectives of the Building Envelope Life Cycle Asset Management (BELCAM) project is to assist asset managers by developing methods to predict the remaining service life of building envelope components, and by providing tools to optimize maintenance expenditures. The project concentrates on roofing systems, as a “proof of concept”, but will apply the tools, procedures and methods to other bu...

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) facilitates a systems view in environmental evaluation of products, materials, and processes. Life-cycle assessment attempts to quantify environmental burdens over the entire life-cycle of a product from raw material extraction, manufacturing, and use to ultimate disposal. However, current methods for LCA suffer from problems of subjective boundary definition, inflex...

Many companies are beginning to change the way they develop products due to increasing awareness of green product development. To copy with this trend, designers are being asked to incorporate environmental criteria into the design process. Recently Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to support the decision-making for product design and the best alternative can be selected based on its estimat...