Why Upgradability should be Considered for Rationalizing Materials

Abstract Design of more sustainable products is a fundamental priority in our society. New opportunities for facilitating the dissemination of the remanufacturing approach, the dissemination of Product-Service Systems, or for increasing the lifetime of product (three ways for rationalizing materials) are proposed by the integration of upgrades which are functional enrichments brought to the product. This paper aims to show the need of product upgradability through a concrete study focused on four presuppositions: upgradability concept requires (P1) a potential pool of disposed devices which still work, (P2) a need for adaptability of product to user needs, (P3) a need for adaptability of product to the competition, and is related to (P4) an accumulation of product dissatisfactions over time. The first results show the necessity to consider a new sort of “evolutionary” products for sustainability: Innovations with multiples upgrade cycles.

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