Design for High Added-Value End-of-Life Strategies

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing is a rising issue. Ensuring both consumer satisfaction and minimal environmental impact is very challenging. In that whole process, it is customary to say that the design stage determines 80 % of the future environmental impact. One way to contain this impact at an acceptable level is to manage the products' end-of-life from the design activities. This chapter points out product reuse strategies-i.e. direct reuse and remanufacturing-aiming at conserving the added-value of used products as much as possible into new products. The first contribution attempts to provide a state-of-the-art of design for these high added-value end-of-life strategies. Direct reuse and remanufacturing are thus analysed and the principal design guidelines are furthermore given, classified according to three dimensions: product, process and business model. This chapter then contributes to enlarging the spectrum of reuse strategies, presenting an innovative end-of-life strategy: repurposing. It consists of reusing products in other applications after transformations. The main challenges of such a strategy will be discussed.

Generic Product Lifecycle Model: A Holistic and Adaptable Approach for Multi-Disciplinary Product–Service Systems

“…For instance, new repair technologies can be applied for cars (product instances) in their use phase, which are not yet available in development times (when the product class is specified). For the EoL phase, several frameworks are conceptualized to cover options from the reuse of products to recovering material for energy generation [59][60][61]. The differentiation of product class and product instances is implicitly assumed in some economic models.…”

Designing Immortal Products: A Lifecycle Scenario-Based Approach

“…The practical project consisted in designing an electric battery used first on construction machinery and then repurposed for a second application: forklift trucks [21]. Repurposing could be defined as "a strategy that preserves the value of used products by reusing them in different applications and fields, potentially for different new markets" [22].…”

A Multi-Criteria Evaluation Method of Product-Level Circularity Strategies

“…• reuse/resell involves re-using a product if it meets sufficient quality levels [38][39][40]; • repair aims to recover a used product to "working order" by fixing/replacing specified faults using service and spare parts [41]; • refurbish involves returning products to a specific quality level, usually less than that of a new product [42]; • recondition involves returning the quality of a product to a satisfactory level (typically less than a virgin standard or new product) giving the resultant product a warranty less than that of a newly manufactured equivalent [41,43]. Reconditioned products have gone through more extensive testing and repair than refurbished products [42]; • remanufacture is a circularity strategy whereby EoL products are restored to the original equipment manufacturers' standard, and receive a warranty at least equal to a newly manufactured product [44][45][46]; • repurpose involves using post-used products for a different purpose and application compared to the original product [32,47,48]; • cannibalization is an activity of recovering parts from returned products. Recovered parts are used in repair, refurbishing, reconditioning, and remanufacturing of other products [49]; and • recycle aims to collect and process discarded materials that are then used for the production of new products [40,50].…”