Integrated Approach to Product and Process Design Based on Life Cycle Engineering

Product innovation through continuous improvement of existent products and processes is a key factor for companies to sustain competitiveness in nowadays markets. To deal with this challenge marketing, design and manufacturing areas should be combined, bringing together a multidisciplinary team with different expertises and perspectives (Ulrich, 2003). Product innovation is achieved by implementing the product development as a process, starting to capture information from the exterior, identifying the customer’s needs, and following the best way to achieve products with more value. Value can be perceived as a ratio between the customer needs and the product cost. Pursuing high Value means to conceive products with the functions that customers are willing to pay at the aBStract