Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) logic is widely used by manufacturers for
the design and manufacture of automotive components. Manufacturers are increasingly
finding difficulties to incorporate environmental considerations in the broad range of
products that they manufacture. Therefore, there is a need for a systematic method for
environmental process planning to evaluate product configurations and their associated
environmental impact. The framework and models discussed in this paper can deal with
a variety of product characteristics and environmental impacts through a selection of
Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) for a final product configuration. The
framework and models have been applied in a real-life application and have proven that
changes in product design or process selection can reduce the product's environmental
impact and increase process efficiency. Hence, manufacturers can use the framework
and models during the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) process to
benchmark each product variation that they manufacture in a standardised manner and
realise cost saving opportunities.
