Investigating the requirements needed to make appropriate end of life decisions

The purpose of this paper is to present the key findings on End of Life (EoL) decision making during product design, followed by a summation of the further research needed within the field. The methodology includes a literature review and preliminary case study findings. Literature suggests that the EoL of a product should be determined in the early stages of design, based on the product characteristics. However, preliminary findings suggest that additional external factors, such as legislation, financial implications, market trends and the return logistics should also be taken into consideration. The originality of this work is that it studies the potential external and internal factors that should be incorporated into designing for End of Life.