the remanufacturing headache

The remanufacturing headache

ContentsReduce, reuse, recycle...?remanufacturing to the rescue ?The remanufacturing headachetime to simulatescenarios consideredproblems identifiedconclusions

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Recycling.

Making cars out of old cars is a lot easier than making cars out of rock.

Problem solved?

• Carbonconsequences

• Once scrap steel has been collected, heat it to melting point, around 1370°C

• To do this, most foundries use 500 to 800 KWh of energy per tonne

• Using grid electricity, emissions of 0.44528 kg CO2e per KWh...

• Which means 223 – 356 kg CO2e emitted to melt a tonne of steel

• Additional energy usage to shape the material into a new, useful product.

The elephant in the room

Remanufacturing to the rescue?Making products as good as new... or better: the £5bn industry you probably never heard about.

• (Wikner & Tang, 2008)

the ‘closed loop’

What about...

Impact upon primary manufacturing operations ?

Capacity requirements ?

Logistic consequences ?

Costs as well as savings ?

Sources of risk ?

Time to simulate...

• Mathematical analysis could tell us approximately how many components we might expect to get back, but it won’t say anything about the timing of material flows.

Lost

Cannibalize

Refurbish

Sell immediately

Remanufacture

Recycle

Discard

Returned

Make andship

Use

End ofLife

Install

•RModel constructionockwell Automation, ‘Arena’

•Rockwell Automation, ‘Arena’

Cyclicuse phase

•Specifying the scenario to be explored in the simulation...

Qua n

tity

Month

basic scenario

shorter product redesign cycle

Quan

tity

MonthHigh volume demand period reduced to two years

No time for significant remanufacturing activity

less durable product?

Quantity

MonthIncreased the risk of accidental damage to 1 in 20, each month

More remanufacturing, starting earlier

extended reuse of components

Quantity

MonthComponent 3 continues to be used in a successor product

further simulation work

Month

Products supp lied

Tota l pro ducts in s ervic e

•Modelling the total utility derived from the whole ‘fleet’ of products, over their useful life. Considering the energy and materials invested, does society get a good bargain?

• remanufactured scooters, imported from india

•The carburettor on the right was modernised, uprated.

•Cylinder heads had been welded up, and drilled and tapped to take a new spark plug.

•Cylinder barrels were drilled out, and fitted with a new sleeve.

•Hubs simply weren’t round enough, and had to be replaced with new.

•An engine mounting lug sheared off while one scooter was in use.

•Metal fatigue?

•Teeth where the kick start lever engages.

Wear can be accommodated by packing the assembly with a suitable shim.

Required...

manufacturing system that can accommodate

variations caused by recirculated materialcontrol over

the amount of things that come back, and whena

business model that is compatible with what actually

happenssupport from head office

a way to prove that remanufactured goods really are

remanufactured - not bodged

ConclusionsRemanufacturing introduces considerable

logistic strainRelatively easy to do a little(maybe twenty percent) but much harder

to ‘close the loop’some expensive surprises for theill-preparedwe have not yet ‘saved the planet’

conc

lusi

ons

Further articlesfrom Richard Farr at:

http://capacify.wordpress.com