Researchers in India proposed a new paradigm "Frugal engineering" for the design of products. Can we consider that "Frugal Engineering" could replace existing Ecodesign methodologies? Studies on this topic?
Here is a presentation on frugal engineering from S.J.A. Rizvi, Assistant Professor, Department of Petroleum Studies, Aligarh Muslim University - Aligarh, India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHoUa5jyn_w
Frugal engineering is not simply low-cost engineering. It is not cost cutting. It avoids costs of unnecessary features in the first place. The products need to be designed for markets with the just the required features in place so that the cost for the consumer can be minimized. It is not merely removing features from existing products that were designed for developed world and sell them cheaper in emerging markets.
See a few examples here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frugal_innovation
Yes, I agree with you! Thank you for your answer. The term "Eco" was used in my question for "ecological". In other words, existing Eco-design methodologies just consider environmental impacts without social considerations. Products developped with frugal engineering fit very well with the customer needs, and consequently the environmental impact assessment could be better ! It seems interesting to verify if it's always the case ! I should go in India this year to visit Prof. A. Chakrabarti (Bengalore, CPDM). Do you have other contacts for frugal engineering ?
No I am not familiar with any. Here is a document that I downloaded about which may give more answers.
http://www.tuhh.de/tim/downloads/arbeitspapiere/Working_Paper_67.pdf
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