Sustainability, innovation and ongoing research

Stefano Zanchetta, a new member of the Anodica Trevigiana design team, talks about the product creation process and the importance of sustainability in the design stage.

The driving force of Anodica Trevigiana lies in researching and developing new products. Only by striving towards innovation can we offer our customers new functions and technologies that meet new market requirements.
In this interview, Stefano describes how a new product is born and how pursuing sustainability has a positive influence on this process.

1) What is the development process of a new product?

The input comes from the customer, who expresses a more or less defined need.
Then, after assessing requests and requirements, we begin a process involving the technical department team, other in-house staff and external collaborators.
In the development stage, the essential aspect is the continuous exchange of ideas and information. Indeed, it is crucial during the development stage for decisions to be made in consultation with the various people concerned in order to ensure that all logistical and technological aspects are addressed.
Hence, communicating with the customer and coordinating all the players involved is ongoing.
This not only enables us to provide our customers with an excellent service (so that all their requests are met), but also allows dynamic and proactive management, with each player constructively contributing to the development process.

2) What is co-design and what are the advantages?

Co-design means bringing together various points of view in the design process, trying to gather the customer’s needs and involving the customer in all the stages of product development. This is achieved by sharing information and coordinating the players concerned in the best way.
Setting up the design process in this manner brings several advantages. Firstly, we can see a greater ability to solve complex problems and, secondly, we can better understand the customer’s needs, proposing specific solutions. Lastly, we are able to make conscious decisions in terms of design to achieve greater efficiency.

3) Eco-design: How does sustainability come into play during this process?

Eco-design is a design process that considers every aspect of a product life cycle in terms of its social context and eco-friendliness.
Of course, planning the work while considering all this is by no means obvious. However, it is important to invest in activities aimed at improvement so as to reduce the resulting impact on the environment.
At Anodica Trevigiana, our approach to design is to simplify where we can and remove rather than add so that product management is made easier throughout all stages.
A product should not be designed bearing in mind only its use, but we also need to consider its disposal, according to the “from the cradle-to-grave approach”.
Designing with sustainability in mind ultimately means seeking greater efficiency. And in turn, this means improvement.

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