5.   Lean Design

One of the biggest problems we face is the inappropriate application of materials, i.e. high quality, highly environmentally impacting plastics making up mostly short-life, 'disposable' products. These materials are being wasted. Following on from the requirements you have established in projected use-life, this stage asks you to carefully consider the material commensurability of your product: how appropriate are the materials chosen for this product? Lean design is not, as the term might suggest, simply about production-side 'lightweighting'—which is often cited as a way to slash the energy bill of products (embodied and/or in use-life) as well as the overall costs of manufacture, transport and end-of-life materials 'output'. While important, this is only part of the picture if the overall volume of products continues to increase, if production and end-of-life management is more environmentally costly, or if these products afford more materials intensive uses. And there might in fact be good reasons to create a comparatively materials intensive product (for example replacing a lightweight, recyclable product package with a long-life, durable, multi-use product dispenser or container). This stage is about getting you to start to think more 'culturally' about materials: how certain materials tend to 'communicate' certain meanings. The choice of materials in a product can, for example, play a major role in whether users will bother to care for it and consequently how long it will 'live' for. This process can also be habit changing: it can circumvent the need for a user to purchase a range of similar products. A key ambition of the lean design principle is to modify the desire for the accumulation of lots of things as well as encourage a more careful, forward-thinking 'consumption'. The following questions should be answered intuitively. Make a note of what you can't answer as Step 6 is a more detailed materials research exercise.

Exercises:

 
1 Compile a materials audit of your proxy product including if possible packaging, noting any materials that you do not recognise or know about.
2 What is the nature of your knowledge about these materials—why do you think these materials have they been used in this particular product?
3 What kinds of inherent qualities do these materials possess?
4 What do they 'say' or mean to you, what do they bring to mind?
5 How does the product packaging relate to the actual product: are product and packaging materially and/or symbolically commensurable (e.g. a 'green' cleaning product packaged in durable, reusable cleaning gloves; a paper product that doubles as its own envelope or package)? If not, can you see how product and packaging might be integrated?
6 How else do you think the number and amount of materials used in this product be could be minimised?
7

Can the product be made to fold, nest or otherwise reduce in transport volume (related to Stage 8)?
8 Do you know whether the materials in this product include heavy metals, toxic substances, persistent organic compounds?
9 How do the materials in this product interface with each other—for example are components glued together, welded, snap-locked, and how do these interfaces impact on the end of life management of this product (this relates to Steps 7 and 10)?
10 Could the product be made more lightweight—does it need to be so big, heavy or materially complex? Why?
11 What will happen to the materials at the end of the use-life of the product, for example can they be recycled into another product or are they only able to be down-cycled to a lesser quality product, thus merely delaying landfilling?
12 What are some of the alternative materials that might have been considered for this product (e.g.bamboo for timber products)?
13 Are any of the materials to your knowledge derived from renewable sources (plantation products, soy-based inks and dyes, starch or sugar-based plastics)? Might they have been?
14 Could this product have been made out of reclaimed materials (what about reclaiming materials from products it replaces or has made obsolete)?
15 Given these considerations, summarise how the design of this product might be made leaner, i.e. more appropriate?