IOP-EC Report
The report, to share learnings from IoPA research that would inform the development of an electronics repairability standard and propose new concepts is now available on PubPub!
Find it here:
https://standards.internetofproduction.org/pub/iop-ec-report-nov-2022/release/3
Firstly, a huge thanks to all the participants of the research project so far. Your insight has been brought us a little closer to tackling e-waste by improving repairability of electronics. Please share your comments and feedback on the report with the community and share our research findings too.
SAVE THE DATE - 8th February 2023
We’d like to invite you to a community call, where we will turn a spotlight onto this work and rally a community around this project. Stay tuned in IoPA social media channels for an update.
In case you need a refresher on the project and this work, the abstract for the report is:
Repairability of electronics is crucial in the fight against e-waste. However, congruent, accessible and practicable design standards that aid design for repair are scarce, if not non-existent. The Internet of Production Alliance commissioned research into drafting a new standard for open electronics design-data, focusing on design information and documentation of electronics components, assemblies and sub-assemblies. This report is a product of that research project and has two key functions: 1) To share learnings from the research that would inform the development of the standard and 2) propose formulated concepts grounded in insights from the research. The methodology was a qualitative research, where 40 participants from relevant stakeholder groups were interviewed and the subsequent key takeaways then analysed. The results identified critical factors including: design process, supply chain, documentation, incentivising design for repair, openness and education and design for repair as a strategy. The report then details four ideas for the standard, grounded in the findings from the research, which could be developed further. The closing recommendations are: prototyping the suggested concepts and start building a working solution for each, at least in principle; community engagement, via interviews, consultation and forums, to gather feedback on the prototypes and iterate; develop success criteria, based on initial prototyping paired with research findings, to finalise the requirements for the standard; and apply requirements to prototypes to select and narrow down to a final concept, to be developed out.