Development of a generic data collection model for upstream processes in life cycle inventory of electronic products

Other conference contribution, 2002

Considerations of cost, high speed, high reliability, high manufacturability and environmental compatibility have to be taken into account in future product development of electronic products. To simulate the environmental compatibility, for example a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be performed. An electronic product usually consists of hundreds to thousands of electronic and mechanical components. To perform an LCA is very time consuming if a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is done for every single component. This is not needed because the unit processes in the upstream product system in some cases are the same for the ingoing components. In this paper a generic model for LCI is developed and applied to one product system (a business telephone). In this model, the components are divided into main groups and then into sub-groups that result in process modules for unit processes that are similar for the ingoing components. There already exist some models that describe the LCI of electronic products in other ways. This model takes the LCI strategy for the manufacturing phase one step further by identifying which processes constitute part of the common denominator of the upstream product system and proposes which ones should be inventoried first. The developed model makes it possible to obtain a higher resolution and level of understanding compared to earlier models with respect to both components and processes.