Sustainable New Product Development: a decision-making tool for the construction industry

ABSTRACT

During the last decades, environmental sustainability has acquired growing importance in different productive sectors. The construction sector, aware of its environmental impacts, searches for mitigation within both processes and inputs. One of these mitigation strategies is the recycling of construction and demolition waste within the production chain. This paper deals with the proposition and application of a systematic decision-making tool in the context of the construction industry. The proposed procedure introduces a tool for Sustainable New Product Development using Quality Function Deployment to analyse the use of recycled aggregate for making concrete blocks in a multivariate context. That tool allows requirements identification and prioritisation considering the perspectives of both customers and developers, as well as standards and environmental aspects. Some results of a real case application are presented, and the benefits and potential barriers related to its adoption are discussed. These results contributed to the identification of trade-offs associated with the challenge of comparing alternative construction materials. It was also possible to identify that the use of recycled materials does not necessarily ensure that a product is more environmentally friendly than others.

KEYWORDS:

• Construction and demolition waste (c&dw)
• quality function deployment (qfd)
• sustainable new product development (snpd)
• performance indicators

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) through the grant Process number 002-16-0 and Process number 2644-15-0.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES [002-16-0,2644-15-0].

Notes on contributors

Morgane Bigolin

Morgane Bigolin works as a researcher at the Laboratory of Structural Tests and Models and in the Disaster Risk Management Group (GRID) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). She did her PhD in Civil Engineering in UFRGS. Her research interests include innovative materials, sustainability, development and performance of construction systems, social housing, risk management and resilience.

Ângela De Moura Ferreira Danilevicz

Ângela de Moura Ferreira Danilevicz is currently Professor in the Department of Production and Transport Engineering (DEPROT) and the Graduate Programme in Production Engineering at UFRGS. She has received her PhD in Production Engineering from UFRGS and Post-doctorate from the Bren School of Environmental Management and Science, University of California Santa Bárbara (USA). Works in the area of Production Engineering and interfaces, with an emphasis on Innovation Management in Products and Services, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Sustainability and Circular Economy.

Marc A. Weiss

Marc Allan Weiss holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley (1985). Has experience in Economics, with emphasis on Regional and Urban Economics. Chairman and CEO of Global Urban Development (GUD). He is also a visiting professor at UFRGS and coordinates the Porto Alegre Sustainable Innovation Zone (ZISPOA).

Luiz Carlos Pinto Silva Filho

Luiz Carlos Pinto da Silva Filho holds a PhD in Civil Engineering/Bridge Maintenance (Leeds University/UK, 1998). Titular Professor at the UFRGS, he is currently Director of the School of Engineering, and leader of the Research Groups LEME (Laboratory of Tests and Structural Models) and GRID (Disaster Risk Management). He has experience in the areas of civil engineering materials and structures, with an emphasis on the following topics: durability and useful life of structures, construction pathology, special concrete, advanced engineering composite materials, structural reinforcement and repair, analysis, testing and modelling of structural systems, non-destructive tests, effects of high temperatures on structures, safety against fire and panic, and performance and evaluation of construction systems.