Have you wondered where the products you use come from, or what happens to them after you throw them away? Actually, products go through life cycles, just as living organisms are born, age and die.
Life-cycle thinking is a fundamental concept that enables a holistic approach to the planning, implementation and evaluation of a product's EHS performance, and its compliance with standards. The term 'product life cycle' refers to the phases of a product life — from planning to disposal.
If you search for this term on the Internet, you will find that other disciplines also refer to it, but with different meanings. For example, in the context of business management, 'product life cycle' usually refers to the stages of a product's market performance, followed by growth, maturity, saturation and eventually a decline in sales. This type of 'product life cycle' is not our intended area of study, so be careful not to get this concept mixed up. We will refer to 'product life cycle' only in the engineering context.
For example, the sales of mobile phones are now mainly driven by replacement sales. How often do you change your phone?
The following article talks about the product life cycle of a mobile phone.
Reading
Environmental Literacy Council (2002) 'The Environmental Literacy Council — Cell phone life cycle'.
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