Networked Design Decisions in Balanced Life Cycles

Many decisions, both conscious and unconscious, have to be made during a product development process. In reaching a decision, it is essential to take the consequences of the different alternatives into consideration. To assess preconditions and consequences of decisions, an actor network can be used. An actor network is a combination of interrelated entities, representing multiple individuals and/or organizations. By adding characteristics to these actors and their relation, aspects like supply chain and life cycle issues can be addressed. This publication describes the basic building blocks of an actor network from a generic and abstract viewpoint. From these essential building blocks, the construction of the overall actor network is described. Examples are used from the field of content-packaging combinations, as well as aspects from life cycle assessments to illustrate the intended fundamental functionality. In the bigger picture, the use of the actor network in the context of product-packaging combinations aims at achieving lasting balance in product-packaging networks.