The Swedish company Kockums AB, at the forefront within maritime and naval technology, is in need of a tool, document, and/or method to include environmental aspects in their product development process. This is mainly because of additional requirements put on Kockums AB from their main customer. Ship recycling is the major issue that has to be addressed and included in Kockums AB’sworking procedures. Moreover, ship recycling is a pressing issue to handle due to horrible conditions in South Asian countries, where most ship dismantling is taking place. For these reasons, the objective of this M.Sc. thesis was to integrate environmental aspects in the product development process at Kockums AB by designing and proposing a way of implementing a tool, document, and/or method. Environmental product requirements that Kockums AB is demanded to fulfill mainly derives from customers, classification societies, laws and legislations, and themselves. The Hong Kong Convention has been adapted, in 2009, but is yet to enter into force. Ship recycling is covered by the convention,and an ‘Inventory of Hazardous Materials’ has to be provided from the ship builder, and hence this is the main aspect for Kockums AB to consider. Naval ships are, however, excluded from the Hong Kong Convention. Kockums AB does not have a routine on how to handle environmental requirements nor are environmental aspects included in their product development process. Consequently, Kockums AB’senvironmental ambition should not be put too high and rather aim at follow laws. In an empiricalstudy, regarding environmental aspects at Kockums AB, difficulties were identified. Lack of environmental knowledge, communication problems, and misunderstandings regarding the ambiguous term environment showed to be most notable. The three most prominent success factors for asuccessful integration of ecodesign, from the conducted literature review and empirical findings, are education for employees, existence of an environmental champion, and top management support. A Long-term Environmental Action Plan (LEAP), which took the success factors into account and contains 18 Actions, was developed for Kockums AB, and is the ultimate result of this research. The LEAP was developed in accordance with ISO 14006, a new standard for incorporation of ecodesign in Environmental Management Systems, with the aim of reducing adverse environmental impactsthroughout a product’s lifecycle. Moreover, the proposed way of implementing the LEAP was based on a ”Plan, Do, Check, Act” methodology from Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS). POEMS focus on a product’s environmental efficiency throughout its lifecycle, by a systematic integration of ecodesign in the company’s strategies and practices, and hence continual improvements. This way of implementation should be familiar to Kockums AB because the company is certified according to ISO 14001, where continual improvement of environmental performance is a key factor. The proposed LEAP includes tools, documents, and methods that are to be used in daily work and product development at Kockums AB. It is a step towards environmentally conscious design and enhanced environmental knowledge at Kockums AB. Additionally, as a result of the LEAP, the expectation is that environmental conscious mindsets of employees arise.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-80969 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Karlsson Sundqvist, Therese, Källmar, Karin |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Industriell Produktion, Linköpings universitet, Industriell Produktion |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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