Synopsis

Advanced topics in regular course program may promote a quality education and more prepared professionals. In this paper it is demonstrated how a requirements management framework focused on sustainability, proposed as a post-graduation thesis, was applied in product development projects of a regular graduation course. The framework ensures that the new product reflects the organization commitment with sustainability dimensions. This study was conducted within the product development discipline. Two results were observed the understanding of how the organization product portfolio must be projected to contribute to financial, social and environmental results and projects quality increase in relation to former semesters.

The inclusion of sustainability issues in a triple-bottom line (TBL) and its implementation is still a challenge for manufacturing companies, which mainly target on environmental and economic improvements (Pujari and Wright, 1999; Diehl and Brezet, 2004, Labuschagne et al., 2005). In last years, several product development tools and methods have been proposed in scientific literature focused in developing more sustainable products. However, there is a lack on the transference of such studies to real new product development (NPD) cases (Baumann et al., 2002).

This gap can be explained, in part, for the educational culture that apart advanced research from regular education. Although sustainability is a common subject in advanced research programs it is still incipient in regular education and difficult to include in design and engineering curricula. The inclusion of advanced topics in the regular course program may promote a high quality education and, for consequence, more prepared professionals. The educational road is an effective way of building culture for further application in companies, in the long run.

This paper aims to demonstrate how a requirements management framework (RMF) focused on sustainability, proposed as a post-graduation thesis, may be applied in student’s product development projects in regular graduation. The framework content was simplified for class presentation and some of its parts were incorporated to the NPD model used by the students.

Next sections contain a brief theoretical basis with the explanation of the NPD model used and the RMF, the method presentation, the results and a discussion.

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Ângela Maria Marx has a multidisciplinary background, which includes BA in Social Communications (2000), Specialisation in Graphic Design (2003) and Master in Industrial Engineering (2009), with emphasis on Quality Systems and area of expertise in Product Development and Sustainability. Her thesis, entitled "Proposition of a requirements management method for sustainable product development" originated a new research line in the university Industrial Engineering post-graduation program. Currently, she is part of the Product Development Management Group (GEDEPRO), linked to the Products and Processes Optimization Laboratory of the post-graduation program in Industrial Engineering at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She also works as a researcher in the project "Sustainable product development in a product service-system environment".

Ângela Maria Marx
Researcher
Industrial Engineering Department
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Osvaldo Aranha
99-5th floor
Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
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Istefani Carísio de Paula has a degree in Pharmacy from University of São Paulo / Ribeirão Preto (1989), Master degree of Pharmaceutical Sciences form the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1996) and Ph.D. in Production Engineering from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2004). Held in Post-Doctoral Graduate Program in Production Engineering, UFRGS (2006-2007). She is currently professor of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in the Industrial Engineering graduation and post-graduation programs. She has experience in Industrial Engineering with emphasis in Project Management and Product Development Management, focusing on development of products. She is conducting a research project entitled "Sustainable product development in a product service-system environment". She is also interested in the following topics: development of pharmaceutical products, quality control and pharmacology.

Istefani Carísio de Paula
Professor
Industrial Engineering Department
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Osvaldo Aranha
99-5th floor
Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
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