Towards Design for Remanufacturing - Metrics for Assessing Remanufacturability

A growing concern about the environment, and especially about waste and landfill, has spurred research into the design of more environmentally benign products. A dramatic reduction in environmental impact can be made by product remanufacturing in which, in contrast to material recycling, the geometrical form of the product is retained and its associated economical and environmental value preserved. Our research goal is to establish design metrics which efficiently and effectively measure the remanufacturability of product designs. In this paper, metrics for assessing the remanufacturability based on product design features are introduced. Similar like Design for Assembly metrics, these Design for Remanufacturing metrics provide a relatively efficient and effective means for a product designer to obtain feedback with respect to the remanufacturability of a product. The metrics have been applied to various case studies, ranging from consumer electronic to automotive products. Feedback from the remanufacturing industry confirms the remanufacturability assessments obtained using the metrics described in this paper.