Development of robust design-for-remanufacturing guidelines to further the aims of sustainable development

Key manufacturing challenges include pollution, natural resource depletion, waste management and landfill space. Remanufacturing, a process of bringing used products to a ‘like-new’ functional state with warranty to match, is being regarded as a vital strategy in waste management and environmentally conscious manufacturing. There is a paucity of remanufacturing knowledge, particularly in design-for-remanufacturing (DFRem) because of its relative novelty in research terms. This paper outlines the elements of the remanufacturing concept, details existing design-for-remanufacturing research and describes findings from recent UK industrial case studies undertaken to verify and augment previous research. It proposes some fundamental steps required to build on past work to improve the robustness of DFRem methodologies.