A reference framework for life-cycle design of complex products

Due to legislation and public awareness of industrial impact on environment, the producers will be more and more expected to recycle their own products after usage and to design products for easy recycling. For complex products, many uncertainties about the future end-of-life treatment make it difficult to achieve a satisfactory design. So it is necessary to permanently manage the products life-cycle, in a way that follows the evolution of relevant information, either contextual data or enterprise data. The reference framework proposed to support life-cycle design is based on a three-level definition of a product and its recyclability. It allows one to manage the information changes and consecutive corrections.