Duc Pham, chance professor of engineering, University of Birmingham
Yes, no, maybe would be my considered response. Let me clarify. First, if I might just remind readers that remanufacturing is not the same as reconditioning or refurbishing. In a previous article entitled Remanufacture to achieve sustainable manufacture, which appeared in the February 2016 issue1, I cited BS8887-Part 2 to define remanufacturing as the process of “returning a product to at least its original performance with a warranty that is equivalent (to) or better than that of the newly manufactured product.”
Remanufacturing is important socio-economically. A 2014 report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG) states that remanufacturing provides full-time employment for more than 50,000 people and accounts for £2.4 bn in industrial output2. According to the Remanufacturing Industries Council (RIC), the corresponding figures for the US are 180,000 people and US$45 bn3, and a 2015 market study produced by the partners of the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN) reports that the remanufacturing industry in Europe could grow to €100 bn and 600,000 employees by 20304.
Remanufacturing is important to consumers and corporate users. Remanufactured goods are, in general, cheaper than newly manufactured products, typically costing 20–40 percent less. Another benefit is availability. As stated on the ERN website: “For products that are manufactured to order overseas, a remanufactured product may be available with a shorter lead time. Additionally, remanufacturing may allow the customer to continue to use equipment that is no longer be manufactured5.”
Remanufacturing is also important to companies that adopt it. Profit margins for remanufactured products are often higher than those for the original manufactured item. Furthermore, companies can offer new product services, obtain data for design and function improvements and enhance after-sales activities. They can build better long-term relationships with their customers than possible for businesses that rely on selling throwaway products.
Above all, however, remanufacturing is important to environmental protection and resource conservation. Compared with manufacturing, remanufacturing produces much less greenhouse gas and uses much less energy and raw materials. It can also dramatically reduce the amounts of waste to landfill. For example, through remanufacturing, Caterpillar has cut CO2 emissions by 61 percent, energy consumption by 86 percent, raw material usage by 90 percent and landfill waste by over 99 percent.
In a world with a growing population, dwindling natural resources and pressing social, economic and environmental problems, remanufacturing makes complete sense. As seen above, remanufacturing benefits society, industry and the environment—indeed, creating a win-win-win situation. Clearly, as part of a concerted strategy to promote a closed-loop or circular economy generating minimal waste, remanufacturing is smart and therefore smart remanufacturing must be a tautology.
However, in a technological sense, remanufacturing as currently practised by many companies is anything but smart, so smart remanufacturing is an oxymoron rather than a tautology. This is because the vast majority of remanufacturers are very small and under-resourced firms unable to afford smart manufacturing technology. While smart manufacturing belongs to the realm of Industry 4.0, it is fair to say that those micro-sized remanufacturers may still be operating in the age of previous industrial revolutions.
Remanufacturing needs smartening up. This requires research efforts such as those being expended in my laboratory as part of our EPSRC-sponsored programme on autonomous remanufacturing (project reference EPN0185241). The work is a key step towards enabling the implementation in remanufacturing companies of the pillars of the fourth industrial revolution, namely augmented reality, autonomous robots, big data and analytical tools, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, the Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) and integrated IT systems.
Our goal is to make smart remanufacturing a reality. This would unlock the potential of remanufacturing and make it feasible for many more companies to adopt, thus helping to expand the remanufacturing industry and spread the benefits of remanufacturing across the globe. Then smart remanufacturing would cease to be an oxymoron and maybe become a tautology in a technological as well as a socio-economic and environmental sense.
Duc Pham
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Birmingham
www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/mechanical-engineering/index.aspx
References
1Pham, D. (2016). Remanufacture to achieve sustainable manufacture. CMM; volume 9, issue 1. Available at: https://flickread.com/edition/html/56b0860848c49#43
2Remanufacturing: Towards a Resource Efficient Economy. (2014). All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG). Available from: www.policyconnect.org.uk/apsrg/sites/site_apsrg/files/report/507/fieldreportdownload/apsrg-remanufacturingreport.pdf
3The impacts of remanufacturing. Remanufacturing Industries Council (RIC). Available at: www.remancouncil.org
4Parker, D. et al. (2015). Remanufacturing Market Study. European Remanufacturing Network. Available at: www.remanufacturing.eu/assets/pdfs/remanufacturing-market-study.pdf
5What is remanufacturing? European Remanufacturing Network (ERN). Available at: www.remanufacturing.eu/about-remanufacturing.php