Reference
Promotion of Design for Environment (DfE) by Massive Reduction of LCA Calculation Time Awarded "Seventh LCA Japan Forum Incentive Award"
- Award Presented at Eco Products 2010 Exhibition on Dec. 10, 2010 -

Dec. 7, 2010
FUJITSU TEN LIMITED

LCA Calculation System Input Screens

Left: Product no. and other information input on the input screen.
Right: CO₂ emission rate is calculated in a few minutes on theoutput screen.

FUJITSU TEN LIMITED (Head office: Kobe City, Hyogo, Japan; President & Representative Director: Takashi Shigematsu, Capital: \5.3 billion), developer of the ECLIPSE car navigation brand, has been awarded the Seventh LCA Japan Forum "Incentive Award"^*1.
FUJITSU TEN has developed an evaluation system for Design for Environment (DfE)^*2. Application of this evaluation system has provided massive reductions in the data entry time of design personnel related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)^*3 calculation.
The awards ceremony was held during the Eco-Products 2010 Exhibition held at the Tokyo Big Sight on Dec. 10, 2010 together with the presentation of some actual examples.

Award Topic

Massive reductions in the data entry time of design personnel related to LCA calculation - Independent development of an information system capable of LCA calculation through input of product number -

Award Background

Although the importance of LCA measures were widely known, one major difficulty in implementing LCA was the complexity of calculations.
It was necessary to use an information system when making calculations as by-hand calculation required more than one week of man-hours. However, the commercially available LCA tools required the input of raw material information for each single part resulting in one unit taking 20 minutes or more depending on the parts.
In order to alleviate the input load placed on design personnel in relation to LCA calculation at FUJITSU TEN, we implemented measures under the concept of "Development of an information system that provides LCA calculation through input of only a product number".
We independently developed the system that completes calculation of materials/waste with only the input of product numbers. This is achieved by linking with our internal information system that manages raw material information for our parts for the purpose of complete automatic calculation/aggregation for each part individually.
It additionally enables a calculation time of only some five minutes even if input includes data related to manufacture, distribution and use stages.

Awarded Points

• he development of a simplified calculation system, as a measure for the problem of complexity presenting a challenge to LCA diffusion, has resulted in the massive decrease of the input load related to LCA.
• As FUJITSU TEN is currently applying LCA to DfE projects, and has firmly and seamlessly embedded it into our production activities, it is fully expected to build on these successes by further developing and expanding the system in the future.

DfE Evaluation Developed by FUJITSU TEN

We have developed three systems capable of quantifiably evaluating the level of environmental consideration of a product design (DfE):
    (1) LCA Calculation System
    (2) Environmental Efficiency Factor Calculation System
    (3) Green-Level Evaluation System
By linking with other existing internal information systems such as our parts list system, we have been able to greatly decrease man-hours such as the calculation of environmental burden performed by design personnel, who are primarily responsible for DfE implementation.
This is especially applicable to the LCA calculation system where, for example, calculations that require some 20 hours if performed by hand can be completed in a few minutes.
(Described in press release of Aug. 24, 2010 (Japanese only))

Future DfE Improvement

At FUJITSU TEN, we have been applying product environmental assessment,^*4 and LCA as tools in our efforts to provide products that clear certain environmental standards such as regulatory values and voluntary standards. Currently, we are implementing measures to improve DfE at the product development planning stage by not only developing products that are in line with the conventional trend of "Energy-saving and compact/lightweight", but also from 2009 we have launched a project and have been implementing actions in order to promote "Product development that pushes the bar even higher" and set LCA and environmental efficiency factors as our key indices.
The three systems we have developed are tools to minimize the burden on design personnel who are involved in implementing DfE.
Currently, we are striving to fine-tune the framework for practically applying these systems and will begin to implement them for all product fields from FY 2011.
FUJITSU TEN is utilizing these systems as means to improve product value and reduce the burden on the environment as well as to provide products that provide an even higher degree of customer satisfaction.

[Overview of Awards Ceremony]

Date/Time	Dec. 10, 2010 (Fri.) 13:30 to 16:30 ·Awards ceremony : 13:30 to 13:55 ·Keynote speech : 14:00 to 14:40 ·Speeches by award recipients 14:45 to 16:30 (FUJITSU TEN is from 15:15 to 15:30)
Location	Tokyo Big Sight Nishi (West)-3 Hall (4 fl.) Room D - Eco-Products 2010 Exhibition (Held from Dec. 9 (Thurs.) to 11 (Sat.)) ⚪ FUJITSU TEN is displaying our eco-related products at the "FUJITSU TEN Group Booth" located in the "Home Appliances/Lighting" (Higashi (East) 4-013) category zone of this same exhibition.

*1:LCA Japan Forum Awards:
This is an awards system established in 2003 and sponsored by the LCA Japan Forum (Established: 1995; Chairperson: Prof. Ryoichi Yamamoto (Univ. of Tokyo); Executive office: Japan Environmental Management Assoc. for Industry).
Objective: "To support companies, organizations and researchers that are implementing measures to reduce the environmental burden from the product lifecycle."
(Source: Website of LCA Society of Japan (JLCA) (In Japanese Only)

*2:Design for Environment (DfE)
With the objective of reducing the environmental burden throughout the complete product lifestyle, this design system aims to reduce the environmental burden to an absolute minimum at the planning stage before the overall environmental impact of a product is fixed.

*3:LCA: Life Cycle Assessment
This evaluation tool is utilized to quantitatively assess the environmental burden at each stage of the complete lifecycle of a product from the selection of raw materials to the production, distribution, use and disposal stages.

*4:Product Environmental Assessment
This system is applied at the pre-production stage to assess environmental conformance in areas such as regulatory conformance and conservation of energy/resources.

The contents of a press release are as of the publication. Later, they are apt to be changed without notice. Thank you for understanding in advance.