Week 6

Product Life Cycle ♻ & Cradle-To-Cradle Design 🔄

This week we learned 2 things which were the product life cycle and cradle-to-cradle design. We will be talking about the Product Life Cycle.

What is the product life cycle? 🤔

There are 6 stages of the product life cycle being: 

1. Raw Materials 🌳
2. Manufacturing 🔨
3. Packaging 📦
4. Distribution 👐
5. Use 📝
6. Disposal ⛟

After learning of the 6 stages, we were told to do a mini-activity 📝! 

We had to identify which stages were the paper at based on the image given to us. This allowed us to understand a paper's life cycle ♻, which was a very intriguing process as what we had known before was not as detailed as what we found out that day. 

For us to have an easier understanding of the 6 stages, we were taught to associate the 6 stages with Birth, Growth, and Death which is similar to a life cycle of a living organism. 

Birth = Raw materials, manufacturing, packaging and distribution 

Growth = Use

Death consists = Disposal

The purpose of learning product life cycle was to help us understand sustainable development as the resources on earth is not finite, therefore, the materials that are chosen for our product must be sustainable and to find out if it is sustainable is through the product life cycle. 

Applying Product Life Cycle ♻

Speaking of our product, our next activity was to do a product life cycle of our product !

It was relatively hard as the information was not readily available but in the end, we managed to get the information we need.

Table 1: Product Life cycle of the water bottle

Stages	Explanation
Stage 1 Raw materials or Extraction	Metal ores and insulation material are extracted from mine and rubber trees. Ores are transported, and metals are extracted. Rubber is extracted from rubber trees and is transported.
Stage 2 Manufacturing and Production	Metals are cut into smaller pieces Metals are cleaned to get rid of dirt and impurities. Metals are shaped into a water bottle. Rubber is cleaned and synthesised into insulation material. Insulation material gets heated up to be shaped and cut into smaller sleeves. Machines and equipment used to manufacture and produce the product is solar-powered to reduce the amount of harmful gases released in the atmosphere.
Stage 3 Packaging	Finished water bottle product are packed according to size, colour , and design They are packed into boxes made out of cardboard and wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent damage
Stage 4 Distribution	The finished product is transported from the manufacturer or the company to consumers, either directly, or through retailers/ wholesalers/ agents. The product will be sold through as many outlets as possible, to create brand awareness of the product as well as boost sales.
Stage 5 Use	The water bottle is used for holding and keeping cold water. It allows consumers to easily transport it and bring it with them everywhere they go.
Stage 6 Disposal	Reuse: The water bottle can be given to other people or be passed down to family members Recycle:  Lithium-ion batteries can be recycled by regaining the rare metals inside, such as cobalt, nickel, copper, and aluminum. The rubber in the insulation sleeve can also be recycled to create new products like playground turf and rubberized asphalt.  Disposal: When the water bottle comes to the end of its use, it can be sent back to the company to use the materials from the water bottles sent back to the company to make new water bottles.

Cradle-To-Cradle Design 🔄

Most of the product life cycle falls into the  Cradle-To-Grave product system. Which is from the raw material it will go to the landfills. The system minimizes the negative impact on the environment through the 3 R's which are Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.

Since Cradle-To-Grave is not very effective, we have learnt something new after that which is the Cradle-To-Cradle Design. Cradle-To-Cradle design is a biometric 🔍 approach to the design of products and system that emulates nature's processes. It was modelled after Nature where the cycle has a loop with no end.

For cradle-to-cradle, materials are reused to make new ones so that the old materials will have use while reducing the number of raw materials being extracted. The biological cycle is a type of cradle-to-cradle design that consists of:

1. Production 🔨
2. Product 📦
3. Use Phase 📝
4. Bio-degradation ♨
5. Biological nutrients 🌟
6. Plants🌱

Cradle-to-Cradle seeks to completely remove the waste through design. The main principle that was focused on was:

1. Nutrients become nutrients again 🌟
2. Use of renewable energy ⚡
3. Celebrate Diversity 👬

We visited a few websites that demonstrate the 3 principles above used by companies to help us further understand how the principles work.

With the information we had, it was time for us to move on to the activity which was to apply cradle-to-cradle to our own product.

Applying the Cradle-To-Cradle Design 🔄

The groups met at their own individual channels to discuss how to apply the cradle-to-cradle design to their own products. 

We decided that our product will be sent back 📭 to the company when the product is nearing the end of its life. This allows us to make use of the material available through the reused of the old product to make a new one to reduce the need to extract more raw materials. 

Next, was to use solar power 🌞 on the machinery and equipment used to manufacture and produce the product, reducing the amount of electricity used and therefore lesser consumption of fossil fuel.

After we applied the cradle-to-cradle design, we went back to the main channel and shared them with the rest of the class. When every group had finished sharing, Dr Noel gave us a short debrief and summary and we went on with the rest of our day.

 

Reflection 📜:

~Trisyia 🐌~

This week we learned what is a product life cycle and how to apply the cradle-to-cradle design. This was quite difficult at first because there are so many steps for both topics but after going through slowly and listening in class, I understood. The activity we did was quite challenging as we were not sure how to categorise and explain each step of the product cycle. However, after referring to the slides given in blackboard which had an example of the activity, we managed to incorporate our product into the product life cycle concept. Then we applied the cradle-to-cradle design to our own product. This was quite manageable as all of the members understood this concept quite well. 

~Jun Ying🚲~

In this week, we learnt about the life cycle of a product. At first, I did not understand how a product could have a life cycle, but after a small lecture, I realised that the product life cycle is similar to that of living things, in that there is birth, growth and death in both. After that, when doing the first activity, I did not know what to write about the life cycle of our product, the mini water bottle refrigerator, as it was only an idea and had not been made yet. Hence, I had a hard time visualizing what its life cycle would be. I then came up with a solution by splitting the water bottle into parts that I was familiar with, such as the insulation sleeve and the water bottle itself. By doing so, I was able to do the activity with ease. The next concept we had to learn was the Cradle-To-Cradle design, which I thought was very interesting as it can effectively remove waste generation from a product's life cycle. Our next activity was quite easy as we just had to apply what we had learned about the Cradle-To-Cradle design into our product. After this lesson, I will try to cherish the things I have more as I now know they will be disposed of one day.

~John👽~

Another week, another new thing to learn. This time round is the life cycle of a product. I honestly thought that the life cycle of a product is just manufacture, followed by usage of consumer and then finally, the trash. I was wrong as it was way more complicated than that which kind of shocked me. It was confusing at first but eventually I got the hang of it. It was online so it was actually hard to pay attention at first cause it was also early in the morning but because things got interesting it woke me up thankfully. After learning the life cycle of a product, we learnt cradle-to-cradle which was a new term to me. I knew the process but I was not expecting it to be cradle-to-cradle. Overall this week was relatively interesting with learning how products get manufactured and finally reaching to how it ends and what happens from there on. It does help me see things in a new light when it comes to the products around me.