As a result of the rapidly depleting global resources, continuing climate change and increasing environmental pollution, and the associated growth in customer awareness, improving product sustainability has become a global trend. Comprehensive sustainability assessment techniques are needed to assess a product's sustainability performance throughout its entire life cycle. This article presents the Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) methodology and its application. This methodology is metrics based and provides a comprehensive assessment of the overall product sustainability throughout its total life cycle, covering the four life cycle stages: pre-manufacturing; manufacturing; use; and postuse. In this article, first the fundamentals of sustainable manufacturing and product sustainability assessment (PSA) are presented, followed by a review of existing PSA methodologies. Major product sustainability elements that are used to define product sustainability clusters and individual sustainability metrics are then presented. Finally, the ProdSI methodology for PSA, which follows a hierarchical approach for sustainability metrics identification and overall PSA, is introduced. The application of the methodology is demonstrated in a numerical example of ProdSI evaluation for two generations of a consumer electronics component.

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Changes in FEA-derived apparent stiffness and failure stress are attributable to changes in trabecular bone structure, which in turn are related to the duration of BP treatment. These relationships are evident even after adjustments are made in the statistical models for changes in age and BV/TV. According to these models, increases in trabecular bone apparent stiffness and failure stress linked to BPs cease and appear to reverse after approximately 7.3 years of treatment. Conclusions regarding optimal BP therapy duration await study of additional bone quality parameters.