Remanufacturing Process Assessment - A Holistic Approach

Today, remanufacturing is a key industrial discipline at the end of a product's life or use cycle. Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to the assessment of remanufacturing processes (technical and organizational processes within the production) and the comparability of remanufacturing processes. To close the lack of knowledge, both in industry and science, this paper shows the main aspects of a holistic approach to assess and improve remanufacturing processes. The rudiments of the holistic assessment approach are a maturity model, the value stream methodology and material flow simulations. On the one hand, the holistic approach will enable remanufacturing companies to analyze their processes, and on the other hand, the approach will enable them to manage the progress of improvement of their remanufacturing processes. At the end of the day, the holistic approach will support the remanufacturing industry to improve their competitiveness by increasing their cost and resource efficiency. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.