Remanufacturing – the business advantage

Joe Kripli, Global Business Enterprise Leader In simple terms, remanufacturing involves taking used components and making them as good as new.  Though that sounds straight forward enough, it’s actually quite complex.  Every remanufactured part must be disassembled, cleaned, repaired, reassembled, tested and returned to ‘almost new’ status. A remanufactured component isn’t simply ‘repaired’ it’s ‘rebuilt’, with new and often upgraded subcomponents plus exhaustive quality assurance.

The task is especially challenging, of course, when applied to the advanced electronic and mechatronic components that are rapidly replacing traditional mechanical parts in most automotive and commercial vehicle OE applications.

But, despite the complexity, forward thinking organizations understand that the benefits of remanufacturing – both for their businesses and for the environment – are well worth striving for. 

Some have referred to remanufacturing as the ultimate recycling.  And there’s no doubt that, from an environmental point of view, it makes great sense to ‘reuse’ rather than ‘recreate’.  But remanufacturing isn’t altruism; its sound business sense.  As a source of bottom line benefit and competitive advantage there is no question in my mind that remanufacturing is set to become a mainstream manufacturing process in our industry; the way forward rather than an afterthought. 

Here’s my take on the advantages waiting to be grasped…

• As average vehicle life extends, you can maintain a cost effective supply of parts, even when they’ve moved out of mainstream manufacturing.
• Remanufactured parts are frequently cheaper than hard-to-source or manufacture new parts – so they not only allow you to maintain supply, but improve your margin.
• Remanufacture will help you prevent loss of share to the independent aftermarket by allowing you to maintain viable, cost effective stocks.
• End of life product management will improve because you’ll be able to reduce the inventory you need to hold and reduce your risk exposure to ‘all time builds’ or ‘final runs’.
• And you’ll be able to meet your environmental commitments.  It’s estimated that the carbon footprint of a remanufactured component is on average 80% less than new manufacture.

If you’d like to share your views on the future of remanufacturing contact Joe directly at joe.kripli@wabco-reman.com