A lean and green approach towards remanufacturing

Abstract

Remanufacturing holds a remarkable promise of waste reduction, by not having to fully disintegrate whole functional products and parts into their most basic materials. Recovered materials through recycling processes would need to again undergo most stages of a product life-cycle to aggregate functionality/aesthetics and the corresponding value. This both adds-up on the environment and decreases product realisation effectiveness and translates into huge amounts of different types of wastes arising at several stages of the life-cycle, that otherwise could be avoided or minimised. Such a challenge could be tackled by using well established Lean principles and tools, such as those of waste elimination, workflow and value creation. Other meaningful actions might include the application of LCA studies to accrue the product environmental profile and the introduction of dismantling and remanufacturing considerations right at the product design stage. Remanufacturing is by definition a green approach towards manufacturing activity. However, such activity fails to deliver an organized framework towards efficient and clean operations. The rationale is that poor efficiency in operations cannot deliver the benefits that would be possible otherwise. The present work explores and develops a number of aspects akin to Lean and Green Manufacturing intended to promote and advance further the Remanufacturing strategy