A Study On Product Eco-design Realization Mechanism Among Telecommunication Manufacturers

The telecommunication manufacturing industry is one of the critical segments in the Chinese IT industry. Following the rapid growth of today's telecommunication business, the information exchanged in our society drastically increases and the trend does not seem to stop. Currently, people are not satisfied with the voice-only communication. They expect that the communication can take place anywhere at any time in the multi-media format, including voice, data, image, video, etc. Based on all the innovations, in the past two decades, the multi-media communication has become a reality with affordable cost. Unfortunately, while manufactures produce more and more equipments to satisfy the market demands, the massive production results in tremendous damages to our living environmentdue to increasing energy consumption and discarded end-of-life products. It is anticipated that, in the next five to ten years, the environmental performance of telecommunication products will be one of the most important indicators to measure sustainable development of the telecommunication industry in China.According to the studies on environmental management practices for performance improvement in the developed countries, it is demonstrated that incorporating environmental performance requirements into telecommunication product design and production phase can definitely minimize environmental impact of products during their whole life cycles and benefit manufacturers to improve their social image. The concept of the eco-design driven system can allow manufacturers to recognize the urgency of environmental crisis and then assist them to harmonize the human living environment and the natural environment through increasing awareness and technology innovation. Thus, manufactures can eventually be able to gain benefits from the environmental performance to achieve the win-win situation.The eco-design of products in telecommunication equipment manufacturing companies in our country started late, and the realization capabilities of eco-design have a big gap compared to leading companies in developed countries. This study area is about the Chinese telecommunication equipment manufacturing industry. Based on the theoretic analysis and multi-cases studies, an eco-design realizing concept model is developed. Through empirical research, it identifies the relationship between factors of eco-design practices and external/internal drivers. By using the grey DEMATEL method, it classifies factors of eco-design practices, and then develops three crucial measures to realize eco-design. Results of the research could hopefully deliver valuable reference in the transformation toward an environmental friendly model to ensure sustainable growth in the telecommunication manufacturing industry in China.Firstly, based on the development of eco-design, the research defines the eco-design concept specifically to telecommunication equipment manufacturing companies. By analyzing the basic research of eco-design theory and the typical cases, it develops the eco-design concept model which is used to study the driving and realizing mechanism of eco-design for the companies.Secondly, the empirical research begins with items development for the questionnaire survey. According to the conceptual model, several hypotheses are developed. Using SPSS 13.0, this study analyzes the driving mechanism of eco-design by adopting the descriptive statistics analysis, the factor analysis, the regression analysis, the cluster analysis, and the ANOVA analysis. The statistic results indicate that:(1) laws and regulations, industry standards and the competition market have positive effect on eco-design practices; (2) the eco-design capability varies among the telecommunication manufacturing companies due to differences of their internal resources and competence.Lastly, this thesis adopts the grey DEMATEL method to study the realizing measures of eco-design. Based on the theories and experience of eco-design experts in telecommunication manufacturing industry, this thesis identifies factors of eco-design in a typical company. A cause-effect matrix of the eco-designing factors is developed to do the cause-effect analysis and the sensitivity analysis. By introducing the grey numbering range, it resolves the numeric fuzzy issue. According to the cause factors, the result factors and the centrality, the research concludes the long-term, short-term, and essential measures of eco-design.