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FAQ
About Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is not a widely-understood
concept. In an effort to help educate interested individuals, The
Remanufacturing Institute (TRI) has compiled the following list of
questions and answers regarding remanufacturing and TRI. Check back; this
page will include new questions and answers periodically. If you have a
question which you would like answered and you think it should be included
on this page, please let us know by contacting TRI.
Table of Contents
1. What is remanufacturing?
2. What remanufacturing is not?
3. What products are remanufactured?
4. How large is the remanufacturing
industry?
5. Why is remanufacturing considered
the ultimate form of recycling?
6. Are remanufacturing and
demanufacturing the same thing?
7. What are the major issues affecting
remanufacturing today?
1.
What is remanufacturing?
Simply stated, remanufacturing is the process of disassembly of products
during which time parts are cleaned, repaired or replaced then reassembled
to sound working condition. A more detailed definition of remanufacturing
has been adopted by The Remanufacturing Institute (formerly the
Remanufacturing Industries Council International).
A product is considered remanufactured if:
- Its primary components come from a used
product.
- The used product is dismantled to the
extent necessary to determine the condition of its components.
- The used product's components are
thoroughly cleaned and made free from rust and corrosion.
- All missing, defective, broken or
substantially worn parts are either restored to sound, functionally good
condition, or they are replaced with new, remanufactured, or sound,
functionally good used parts.
- To put the product in sound working
condition, such machining, rewinding, refinishing or other operations
are performed as necessary.
- The product is reassembled and a
determination is made that it will operate like a similar new product.
Other terms may be synonymous with
remanufacturing in certain specific industry segments. One such term is
rebuilt. Rebuilt is synonymous with remanufacturing when used in
connection with motor vehicle parts and systems but not the entire
vehicle. Recharged is synonymous with remanufacturing when used in
connection with imaging products, such as laser toner cartridges. There
are numerous other terms in numerous different industries which are
synonymous if they utilize the minimum requirements outlined above.
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2.
What remanufacturing is not?
The definition above of what remanufacturing is describes a process. If a
product goes through this process it can be considered remanufactured.
There are many terms which may be confused with remanufacturing; including
the following:
- Recycled - A 'recycled' product may very
well meet the minimum remanufacturing requirements; and many legitimate
remanufactureres use this term to describe their product. However, many
times a recycled product may be, as in the automotive sector, removed
from a scrap vehicle and resold with little or no work performed on it.
Some recycled products are superficially cleaned, boxed and sold.
Obviously, as described, recycled would not be considered remanufactured
and its reliability is questionable.
- Repaired - This is an imprecise term.
Essentially it means that the product has had enough work done to it to
make it operational again, but this would probably not be considered
remanufactured. A holistic root cause analysis is generally not
performed in the repair process which means the product may not perform
like a new product.
- Restored/Reconditioned - These are
generic terms generally applied to antique or classic goods as opposed
to a mass market consumer product.
- Used - Generally, this is a product that
has been subjected to previous use and is not new. Nothing has been done
to repair it or correct any problems it may have. Therefore, its useful
life is unknown.
In summary, when determining if a product
is or is not remanufactured, it is imperative to consider first and
foremost the process utilized.
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3.
What products are remanufactured?
A quick answer to this question is that any product that can be
manufactured can also be remanufactured. However, some products are
remanufactured more often than others.
One of the charges of TRI is to determine which industries have
remanufacturing activies. So far, TRI is aware of hundreds of distinct
products that are being remanufactured. The following is just a short list
of some of these products:1. Motor Vehicle Parts 2. Office Furniture 3.
Compressors 4.Electrical Apparatus 5. Vending Machines 6. Photo Copiers 7.
Laser Toner Cartridges 8. Data Communication Equipment 9. Gaming Machines
10. Musical Instruments 11. Robots 12. Aircraft parts 13. Bakery Equipment
14. Much, Much More
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4. How
large is the remanufacturing industry?
See the
research section.
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5.
Why is remanufacturing considered the ultimate form of recycling?
Remanufacturing’s Environmental Edge
Inherently, remanufacturing has positive environmental ramifications.
In fact, many organizations are now using the concept of remanufacturing,
if not the term, in their environmental literature. The American Society
of Mechanical Engineer’s position paper on "Designing for the Environment"
includes the concept of remanufacturing. Also, the American Automobile
Manufacturers Association in their "Key Facts about America’s Car
Companies: Environment" includes remanufacturing in the life cycle of an
automobile.
But why is remanufacturing considered the ultimate form of recycling?
First, one must consider the definition of recycling. The term recycling
is generally applied to consumable goods; such as newspapers, glass
bottles and aluminum cans. However, recycling can also apply to durable
goods; such as an engine. Once these goods are consumed, they may be
recycled, meaning they are removed from the waste disposal stream,
returned to their original raw material form and serve as raw materials
for a manufacturing process. The environmental benefits of recycling are
easy to comprehend; recycling reduces the quantity of waste headed for
landfill space and adds multiple lives for the earth’s raw materials. If
an engine were to be recycled, the steel from the item would be saved from
the landfill space and could be used to produce another item requiring
steel.
However, remanufacturing offers a better alternative. According to an
entry by Professor Robert T. Lund of Boston University in the book, The
American Edge: Leveraging Manufacturing’s Hidden Assets, remanufacturing
differs from recycling because remanufacturing ‘recycles’ the value
originally added to the raw material. According to Lund, "Remanufacturing
differs from recycling also, most importantly because it makes a much
greater economic contribution per unit of product than does recycling. The
essential difference arises in the recapture of value added. Value added
is the cost of labor, energy, and manufacturing operations that are added
to the basic cost of raw materials in the manufacture of a product. For
all but the most simple durable goods, value added is by far the largest
element of cost. Even in a product as simple as a beer bottle, the cost of
the basic raw materials (sand, soda, and lime) is much less than 5 percent
of the cost of a finished bottle. The rest is value added. For a product
such as an automobile, the value of the raw materials that can be
recovered by recycling is only in the order of 1.5 percent of the market
value of the new car. Value added is embodied in the product. Recycling
destroys that value added, reducing a product to its elemental value - its
recoverable raw material constituents. Further, recycling requires added
labor, energy, and processing capital to recover the raw materials. When
all of the costs of segregation, collection, processing, and refining are
taken into account, recycling has significant societal cost. Society
undertakes recycling only because, for all nondurable and many durable
products, the societal cost of any other disposal alternative is even
greater."
Remanufacturing recaptures the value-added to the product when it was
first manufactured. In fact, a 1981 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
study on the remanufacturing of automobile components indicated that
approximately 85% of the energy expended in the manufacture of the
original product was preserved in the remanufactured product. This is why
remanufacturing is considered the ultimate form of recycling.
Other Environmental Benefits of Remanufacturing
According to studies performed at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart,
Germany, energy savings by remanufacturing world-wide in a year equals the
electricity generated by 5 nuclear power plants or 10,744,000 barrels of
crude oil which corresponds to a fleet of 233 oil tankers. The Fraunhofer
Institute also determined that raw materials saved by remanufacturing
worldwide in a year would fill 155,000 railroad cars forming a train 1,100
miles long. Because products that are remanufactured are kept out of the
waste stream longer, landfill space is preserved and air pollution is
reduced from products that would have had to be resmelted or otherwise
reprocessed. A product can always be recycled. Extending product life
through remanufacturing is the key to leveraging the earth’s natural
resources.
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6.
Are remanufacturing and demanufacturing the same thing?
No. Demanufacturing, essentially, describes a disassembly process.
The remanufacturing process, as described in question #1 "What is
remanufacturing?", includes disassembly as the first step. Many additional
steps are required in remanufacturing, including cleaning and examining
components, replacing or remanufacturing those components, and, finally,
reassembling the product to operate like a new one. To remanufacturers,
disassembly is only the first of many steps. Demanufacturing, or
disassembly, are often used for products which will be recycled. For
instance, automobiles need to be disassembled so materials, such as steel,
aluminum, assorted plastics, etc., are not mixed.
Demanufacturing does provide environmental benefits. However, if a product
is only demanufactured and then recycled, society loses the value-added to
a product that remanufacturing preserves (see question #5 "Why is
remanufacturing considered the ultimate form of recycling?).
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7.
What are the major issues affecting remanufacturing today?
There are numerous legal, regulatory, and other issues which affect
remanufacturers on a daily basis. The RICI is the watchdog organization
for the remanufacturing industry, as well as it's representative to
numerous groups. Below is just a sample of issues affecting
remanufacturers:
- Core valuation
- Intellectual property and anti-trust
matters
- Federal, state and local government
recycled-content procurement procedures
- Design for Remanufacturing
- Government Economic Incentives
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Ron Giuntini, Executive
Director
PO Box 48
Lewisburg, PA 17837
rgiuntini@reman.org
570.523.0992
All Rights Reserved.
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