Paulina Golinska-Dawson

The Survey on the Challenges of Organization of Automotive Component Remanufacturing in Small-sized Companies in Poland

Remanufacturing of automotive components is a sector in which a big number of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) operate. The challenges of remanufacturing process are described in the literature, but the empirical studies in this domain are still limited. This chapter compares the theoretical findings with the empirical results. The overview of the literature analysis on remanufacturing process challenges is presented. The results of the pilot surveys in Polish small-sized companies that are involved in automotive part remanufacturing are presented along with the characteristics of the respondents, the main problems which appear by remanufacturing of automotive parts.

Sustainability Indicators System for Remanufacturing

Legal regulations enforce the companies to search for the ways to reuse their end-of-use or end-of-life products. Additionally, more and more companies start to perceive the closing of the life cycles loops as an additional area of income. Remanufacturing facilitates multiple usage of the value-added from new production by several life cycles. It helps to reduce work effort and energy and it has big potential for cost savings. There is a research gap regarding the assessment of remanufacturing operational excellence. The application of the principles of sustainable development in everyday business operations is problematic, as there is a lack of the clearly defined sustainability indicators, which might be used in the assessment of remanufacturing activities. The majority of the companies which are involved in the remanufacturing operations are small and medium sized (SME). Very often operations in these companies are organized by rule-of-thumbs. The aim of this chapter is to provide sustainability assessment framework so called Sustainability Indicators System for Remanufacturing (SISR) based on the literature review and remanufacturing process characteristics revealed from case studies.

Modelling of the remanufacturing process from a sustainable perspective

Implementation of the sustainable policy guidelines at a company level is not an easy task. The decisions about resource allocation, changes in process organization or new investments should be considered taking into account their economic, environmental and social effects. Remanufacturing processes contributes to the fulfilment of the circular economy paradigm. The existing body of literature highlights mainly remanufacturing advantages in a comparison to primary production and other recovery options, like for example, recycling. Studies on the sustainability assessment of remanufacturing process however are rather limited. The aim of this paper is to present an approach for remanufacturing process modelling with regard to sustainability aspects. The remanufacturing process modelling and control is more complex than in the primary manufacturing process. The challenges result from the process flow organization. This is due to the fact that the flow of materials is dispersed after the disassembly operations and then it is joined together in dispatching operations before the reassembly. As a result the analysis and improvement of the remanufacturing process flow is a very difficult task. Authors in this paper discuss the theoretical background of this research and propose the remanufacturing process model which takes into consideration a sustainable perspective. They present an example of model application.

Sustainability in Remanufacturing Process—The Challenges for Its Assessment

The sustainability assessment gains a lot of interest among researchers and practitioners. The concept of sustainability is not precisely defined. For that reason translating it into measurable process characteristics is a challenge. The aim of this chapter is to identify the key requirements for measuring remanufacturing process sustainability, and addressing all three aspects of the triple bottom line—environment, economy and society. The literature provides many examples on environmental and economic benefits of remanufacturing. However there is research gap regarding the sustainability assessment methods and tools, which might be used to analyze the performance of remanufacturing process. This chapter presents the discussion on the concept of sustainability at a company level, and then the problems of sustainability performance measurement are addressed. The challenges for sustainability assessment of remanufacturing process are identified.

The Mixed Method for Sustainability Assessment of Remanufacturing Process Using Grey Decision Making

Sustainability assessment is not an easy task especially in case of small and medium size remanufacturing companies. The remanufacturing process is characterized by high level of uncertainty regarding its timing, quality and quantity of its outputs. Our previous literature studies have showed that there is lack of a simple method for assessment of sustainability dedicated to SMEs in remanufacturing sector. The challenge is to combine the expert’s knowledge and the numerical data. The aim of this chapter is to present a mixed method for assessing the sustainability with the use of Grey Decision Making. The application of the Grey Decision Making (GDM) allows carrying out of the assessment process in a quantifiable way, even with uncertain and incomplete data. The proposed method aims to assess the class of the sustainability, to identify the weaknesses in current operations and then to facilitate making priorities for the improvements action which should to be taken in order to achieve a better sustainability class. The chapter presents also IT tools which was designed to facilitate the assessment process.

Methodology for Determining Sustainable Improvements’ Potential in Remanufacturing Companies Using RMC

Remanufacturing is often perceived as the most environmental friendly recovery option, however companies need to deal with many problems regarding organization of this complex process. It is relevant to become more sustain—more friendly for people and environment with higher profits. It was assumed that remanufacturing process is more sustainable, if there is efficient utilization of the resources. The basic requirement for efficient resource utilization is lack of waste of resources. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the method, which provides simple tool—Remanufacturing Muda Checklist (RMC) for identifying and eliminating obstacles for increasing sustainability of the remanufacturing process. A case study of the method implementation in Polish remanufacturing company is presented.

The Roadmap for Improving Sustainability in Remanufacturing Operations

Remanufacturing allows to save and reuse the resources which were incorporated to the product in the primary production. Many authors have reported the economic and environmental benefits of remanufacturing. However, there is limited literature on how to improve the remanufacturing operations to make them more sustainable on the shop floor level. The goal of this chapter is to present the roadmap for improvement of sustainability in remanufacturing operations. The roadmap aims to guide small and medium sized remanufacturing enterprises (RSMEs) on how to improve usage of their resources to achieve higher level of sustainability. The authors describe the methodology which is applied, in order to construct the roadmap considering ecological, economic and social aspects.

Simulation Modelling of Remanufacturing Process and Sustainability Assessment

Modelling of the remanufacturing process is challenging. The flows of materials are not, as transparent as in the primary production process. The logic of the remanufacturing process requires that products are disassembled and after reprocessing they are reassembled. Not all components and materials can be fully recovered and some of them need to be replaced. The literature on remanufacturing process modelling using simulation approach is very limited. In this chapter we present how a simulation can be used to model remanufacturing process. Moreover we propose set of indicators which allow assessing the environmental, economic and social impact of different variants of remanufacturing process organization.

Sustainability Assessment in Remanufacturing Companies—Qualitative Approach

In the last three decades the concept of sustainability has gained a growing attention. There are different initiatives around the world which aim to provide methods and tools for sustainability assessment at a company level. The majority of existing quantitative methods require extended scope of data to be collected and analyzed. Small and medium size remanufacturing enterprises lack the know-how and technical resources to apply them. For this reason there is still research gap regarding the qualitative, easy applicable methods for sustainability assessment, which might be applied, based on expert’s knowledge. The aim of this chapter is to present a new qualitative method, which provides cross company valid sustainability assessment criteria. The method allows assessing the level of maturity of resources utilization in a company with regards to the three dimensions of sustainability. The chapter presents the research methodology and the results of the application of the method in the companies.

Sustainability Classification for SMEs—A Guidance of Sustainability Assessment with the Use of Averaged Traits Quality Method

This chapter presents a method for aggregation of different indicators, which are relevant for sustainability assessment. The originality of the procedure relies on the use of Averaging Quality Rating method that was used on the level of indicators analysis for making them comparable despite different measurement method (qualitative or quantitative). It is suitable for small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) where the information system is rather undeveloped.