E-FMEA-a new promising tool for efficient design for environment

This paper starts with a discussion of the importance of environmental demands in the early design process and the demands on an efficient DfE-tool for small and medium sized enterprises. It continues with a presentation of two quite common DfE-methods, life cycle assessment and checklists/guidelines. This presentation is followed by a presentation of a new DfE-method named E-FMEA (environmental failure mode and effects analysis), previously presented by Nilsson et al. (1998). The paper presents and discusses advantages and disadvantages of these three methods. For the E-FMEA method we also present some results from case studies. A figure is presented in an attempt to show where the three above DfE-methods are most fruitful to use. Finally we present some ideas of further research on the E-FMEA-method.