A Review on the Lifecycle Strategies Enhancing Remanufacturing

Abstract

Remanufacturing is a domain that has increasingly been exploited during recent years due to its numerous advantages and the increasing need for society to promote a circular economy leading to sustainability. Remanufacturing is one of the main end-of-life (EoL) options that can lead to a circular economy. There is therefore a strong need to prioritize this option over other available options at the end-of-life stage of a product because it is the only recovery option that maintains the same quality as that of a new product. This review focuses on the different lifecycle strategies that can help improve remanufacturing; in other words, the various strategies prior to, during or after the end-of-life of a product that can increase the chances of that product being remanufactured rather than being recycled or disposed of after its end-of-use. The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, also known as industry 4.0 (I4.0), will help enhance data acquisition and sharing between different stages in the supply chain, as well boost smart remanufacturing techniques. This review examines how strategies like design for remanufacturing (DfRem), remaining useful life (RUL), product service system (PSS), closed-loop supply chain (CLSC), smart remanufacturing, EoL product collection and reverse logistics (RL) can enhance remanufacturing. We should bear in mind that not all products can be remanufactured, so other options are also considered. This review mainly focuses on products that can be remanufactured. For this review, we used 181 research papers from three databases; Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus.

Towards a circular maritime industry: Identifying strategy and technology solutions

“…Because of its suitability with advanced technology solutions, which will be covered in the coming sections, PSS is an exceedingly effective strategy for the maritime industry. As the equipment inspection at any time becomes relatively more straightforward, and OEMs are more effective in deciding the recovery time and options for end-of-life equipment, PSS also paves the way for remanufacturing to become the main route at the end-of-life period (Fofou et al, 2021). In addition to these benefits, when it is combined with appropriate technology solutions, PSS can form a basis for predictive remanufacturing as well (Khan et al, 2018), that is, simply estimating possible future defects in the product and carrying out remanufacturing operations at the optimum time resulting in lower remanufacturing cost and higher utilisation rates.…”

“…I4.0 is like an umbrella of numerous technological concepts such as connectivity of machines, big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchains, smart factories with intelligent autonomous robots, additive manufacturing, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) (Tozanli et al, 2020b;Kerin and Pham, 2019). It covers facilitating data capture and exchange throughout various stages of the supply chain, as well as accelerating the use of smart remanufacturing operations (Fofou et al, 2021). Today, utilising a mix of these novel technologies is essential to produce original, reliable, sustainable, agile, flexible, responsive, knowledge-based, and customer-oriented solutions for high-technology sectors.…”

Determinants of Remanufacturing Adoption for Circular Economy: A Causal Relationship Evaluation Framework

“…They found nineteen essential characteristics, the most significant of which are purchasing intention and awareness of the environment. Furthermore, Fofou, Jiang, and Wang [20] examined a variety of life cycle solutions that can aid in the improvement of remanufacturing and the promotion of a CE. Remanufacturing reduces product life cycle costs, machine downtime, and supply chain networks by reusing and recycling product components.…”

A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Remanufacturing Research

“…The literature will identify and discuss the research papers by some of the phases of remanufacturing. Most of the recent reviews in the remanufacturing field are focused on a particular domain, such as barriers in automotive industry [20], lifecycle strategies to enhance remanufacturing [21], assembly management in remanufacturing [22], applicability of remanufacturing for marine or offshore components [23], decision making in remanufacturing [24], and scheduling in remanufacturing [25]. Thus, a recent holistic review is missing, and this research will fill that gap.…”