Remanufacturing Key to Sustainable Supply Chains

by | Jun 2, 2014

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Remanufacturing drives sustainability, according to APICS Foundation research that finds 68 percent of respondents say sustainability is the primary advantage associated with remanufacturing and 41 percent already consider it a formal component of their organization’s sustainability policies.

Remanufacturing — restoring used or worn products to like-new condition — is an area of growing opportunity for supply chain and operations management professionals, APICS Foundation says. Previously segmented to specific areas of the B2C supply chain, like customer service, remanufacturing has established a place in both B2C and B2B supply chain models and is expanding significantly as additional markets accept and trust the “as good as new” concept.

Remanufacturing provides other organizational benefits as well, according to the survey. While 59 percent of respondents note the additional complexity remanufacturing brought to reverse supply chains, they also say the process increases customer satisfaction (66 percent), enhances product and organizational value chain (47 percent), and reduces production costs in relation to new manufacturing (46 percent).

As an example, last month Dell said it is using UL-Environment certified closed-loop recycled plastics in the manufacturing of computers — an IT industry first. Developed in partnership with Wistron GreenTech, the process will turn plastics from recycled electronics back into new systems. The Dell OptiPlex 3030 All-in-One desktop will be commercially available this month.

 

 

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