COMPETITIVE NET-ZERO: A SIMULTANEOUS ENGINEERING APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MANUFACTURING

The European industrial landscape is undergoing a transformation driven by the dual imperatives of achieving net-zero emissions and ensuring resource efficiency, as outlined in the EU's Net-Zero Industry Act and Critical Raw Materials Act. These regulations mandate the development of net-zero technologies within the EU and the establishment of a circular economy to enhance technological competitiveness and reduce reliance on third countries. The growing demand for 'Made in Europe' products, characterized by high quality, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability, presents a multi-centric design challenge that requires integrating innovative development strategies into engineering practice. This paper advocates the adoption of Simultaneous Engineering in product design, emphasizing the parallel development of products and their manufacturing processes to improve manufacturability, cost-effectiveness, and quality while reducing time to market. It explores methods such as Robust Design and Tolerance Design to effectively manage risk and uncertainty during development and addresses the challenge of multi-centric optimization through the Design for Excellence (DfX) paradigm, which allows for the simultaneous consideration of multiple performance criteria. Finally, it highlights the need to re-evaluate engineering education, advocating for the integration of these methodologies as core competencies to equip future engineers for the challenges of a rapidly changing industry on the path to competitive net-zero.