Remanufacturing - an American perspective

Remanufacturing is the process of restoring non-functioning, discarded, or traded-in products (cores) to like-new performance. Over a period of thirty years, the authors have studied remanufacturing and have issued reports on various aspects of the industry. This paper will describe some of what we have learned during three decades of research on the topic: industry structure and scope, patterns in inputs and costs, forms of organization of remanufacturing enterprises, beneficial aspects of remanufacturing, and implications for other countries. Remanufacturing provides a number of important benefits: greater availability of products and lower prices to customers, employment and industrial skills training to workers, and conservation of material and energy resources to society. Remanufacturers tend to enter remanufacturing, however, in the same pursuit of profits that motivates other entrepreneurs.