Photocopier remanufacturing at Xerox UK - A description of the process and consideration of future policyissues

This paper explains and illustrates the process Xerox uses at its UK factory to return old photocopiers to an "as new" product. Through a series of industrial processes in a factory environment, a discarded product is completely disassembled. Usable parts are cleaned, refurbished, and put into inventory. Then the product is reassembled from old parts to produce a unit fully equivalent to the original new product. Although Xerox has made a profitable business from remanufacturing, there are many barriers to its wider development. This paper outlines some of these barriers to remanufacturing and suggests some ways in which they might be removed.