Remanufacturing, the ultimate form of

recycling?

Marcel Bovy, MSc.

Bovy Sustainability Guidance / Climate KIC

Bologna University, 30 September 2015

Overview

•What is remanufacturing

•WARM methodology

•Environmental check

•My plan for Bologna and further

•General conclusions, discussion and suggestions

What is remanufacturing?(rigenerazione)•Restore a used product to new or better condition with same or better warranties as new equivalent (BS 8887-220),

• in a factory like process,

•replacing worn and defect parts,

•Cleaning, recoating etc.

Examples

(Sassuolo)

Example: Toner cartridges

Example: Smartphone

Example: Restaurant aquarium

Adriatic SeaInternational

S.Clemente (RN)

Examples: Car mechatronicsVideos ACtronics (NL)

• ABS = Anti locking Braking Systems http://www.actronics.eu/it/videos/dimostrazione-bosch-abs/

Other

• http://www.actronics.eu/it/videos/

• http://www.actronics.eu/en/videos/

What is remanufacturing?

Sectors, products• Automotive/ Heavy duty & utility vehicles : motors, gears, brakes, start

motors (Fiat, Caterpillar)

• Aerospace

• Office machines (ink/toner cartridges copiers, printers, scanners) (Fuji Xerox, Cannon, etc.)

• Electronics: (car) computers, mobile phones

• Various: office furniture, scientific/medical instruments (GE, Philips, Siemens, Toshiba), central heating boilers, carpet tiles (Interface), vending machines, …

What is remanufacturing?To be distinguished from:

• Reuse (only cleaning)

• Refurbishment (surface treatments)

• Recycling (materials)

• HDOR = Heavy Duty Off Road

• Turnover ≠ GDP added value -> Added value reman < 1/4 % of GDP

• Number of significant digits << shown

• EU = next largest bloc

What is remanufacturing? EconomicsUS International Trade Commission estimate of US turnover

Remanufacturing

Pros• Circular economy

• New technological opportunities

• Commercial opportunities

• Availability of new engineering technologies• CNC/Robots• Metal spraying• 3D printing

• Logistics ICT solutions

• Compliance to recycling legislation, e.g. WEEE

Cons• Contrary to societal trends

• No to second hand / used• Poverty image

• Risky (technical and juridical)

• Anti innovation

• Non-detachable techniques

• Cheap China products/parts

• Resistance to change• Unfamiliar

• Effort/investment/risks

• OEM resistance

Cons ProsCannibalization of new sales

Attracting new customers

Tarnishing of brand image

Better insight in product use & impact on product

Better contact with customer

OEM Perspective

WARM (Waste And Recovery Management) methodology• Method to assess success probability of new reman project• Developed at Avans Hogeschool with Tilburg U, Syntens and reman

companies (ACE Reuse)• 3 Main aspects:

• Recoverability/Recuperability• Repairability• Resellability

• 4 Subsequent levels of analysis detail and quantification1. Quick scan2. Inventorying options for a specific case3. Developing the business model and procedures4. Optimizing 3, based on observations / implementation

WARM Tools

• Manual (presently only Dutch)

• Quick scan (,,)

• Excel calculation sheet (,,)

• PowerPoint (,,)

• Videos (on YouTube) (,,)

• 2 Reports on WARM use (,,)

• 3 English language articles • Most recent Venselaar, J. and D. van de Kelft, 2014, A practice based approach to

further high level reuse in equipment manufacturing offering business opportunities in a circular economy, TII 2014 Annual Conference Utrecht May 12 – 14, 2014

Demand (Y/N)

Competition (heavy/ mild)

Marketing

Logistics

Knowledge

Example WARM - Sales aspects

Environmental check

• Why:• Remanufacturing can prolong life less environmentally efficient products

• Reman process & reverse logistics environmental impacts > gain of reman

• Examples• Heineken coolers now 50% less energy use than 5 years ago

• Koning Technisch Bedrijf B.V. at Rematec 2015: Rebuild truck motor from class Euro-0 to 4, however class 5 is state of art, and does not apply to energy efficiency: so what is the reference scenario? Do remanufactured products replace newer more eco-efficient models/brands or worse alternatives (e.g. repaired or less eco-efficient cheaper brand)?

Environmental check: How?

• Check list• Does the remanufacturing case delay penetration of more eco-efficient technology? • Is the product/part to be remanufactured an energy using device or part thereof?• Is the remanufacturing process or the return logistics energy-intensive or otherwise

substantially polluting?

• Check methodology• What is the reference (no remanufacturing) scenario ?• First approximation: energy use assessment• Second step: quick scan LCA using generic industry data• If still not conclusive: LCA using specific project data for the most significant parts of

the project may be made• If necessary systems analysis (other dependencies than life cycle)

HP and the European imaging equipment trade association EuroVAprint (2014) challenge the environmental and cost benefits of remanufacturing toner cartridges. They argue, supported by tests performed by Stiftung Warentest and research commissioned by HP:

• that remanufactured cartridges produce less satisfying print quality, which EuroVAprint claims results in significant reprinting,

• in addition they have lower recycling rates after use,

• resulting in annihilation of presumed environmental and cost benefits of cartridge remanufacturing.

However Staples and others question these allegations for their products

Environmental check: Bad example

My plan for Bologna for now

• Apply WARM to some successful cases

• Add Q&D sustainability check

• Generalize attributes of successful reman cases

• Use to find and analyze new potential case

Findings in NL:

• Very difficult to find companies interested to co-operate

• Companies who do remanufacture say they do not need WARM:

“We already do that”

Plan B

• Analyze hurdles, resistance

• Find ways to interest companies for reman

• Try it! and suggest WARM method on the fly

• 3 Weeks to go

• Follow up? (MVO NL = CSR NL)

General conclusions, discussion and suggestions for further action• Remanufacturing is potentially a valuable contribution to sustainability, but

not always. This should be checked if the sustainability attribute is essential for a certain involved actor.

• Government should facilitate promotion and organization of the reman sector. Should promote design for remanufacturing. The automotive sector could serve as example for how remanufacturing became accepted.

• E.g. Fairphone https://www.fairphone.com/phone/• For this purpose demonstration of best practices by well known

brands/companies could serve.• The WARM methodology seems to be useful for newcomers to

remanufacturing and should be promoted to stimulate the uptake of remanufacturing.

• Need for standards, communication, changes in waste legislation