Remanufacturing strategies to support product design and redesign

Abstract

Remanufacturing and reuse processes are very promising strategies in a sustainable world, due to their profitable and greening properties. They provide manufacturers with an efficient and responsible method to comply with current and forthcoming environmental legislation. Alongside the optimization of the processes themselves, it is essential to understand the properties of products easy to remanufacture and reuse with profit, to develop methodologies and supports to design new ‘sustainable products’. It is now known that the specific requirements imposed by remanufacturing strategies should be addressed throughout the design phase, specifically, the ease with which a product at its end-of-life can be disassembled, cleaned, tested and reassembled. This study has extracted the factors affecting the success of a remanufacturing operation from a wide range of products that have been successfully remanufactured. Encapsulated in 11 ‘remanufacturable product profiles’, this knowledge is the core element of the design methodology developed and supported by the implemented software REPRO2. The paper illustrates the way the methodology is used in the two main activities of designing: redesigning products from a remanufacturing perspectives and developing new products. An industrial example is developed.