Examining the role and future potential of design for disassembly methods to support circular product design

Abstract Design for disassembly (DfD) approaches are crucial in supporting the industrial circular economy transition. In literature, a great amount of DfD methodologies is available, however, it is still not clear how they can be used to improve product circularity. To address this gap, our work proposed a systematic literature review of DfD methodologies applied in the field of product design with the aim to provide an overview of the topic in the last decade (i.e., from 2012 to 2022) in terms of methods applicability (i.e., design phase), required parameters and integration capability with circularity assessment. As a result, the paper shows that DfD methods are mainly used in the later design phase to improve product sustainability performances, but a method that simultaneously considers DfD and CE is currently missing. Based on the obtained results, we outlined the requirements that a new DfX method would need to consider both DfD and CE simultaneously. Finally, we proposed a modified version of the butterfly diagram in which DfD parameters are linked to CE indicators to help visualize the connection between the two areas.