Some remanufacturing news

Generally, remanufacturing operations are organized under manufacturing, plant management etc. When a company announces a separate division fo remanufacturing, I believe they are taking a more systematic approach to managing this high-margin, high-growth, environmentally-friendly operation- and express their commitment. Well it happened before with CAT, and now John Deere is reorganizing its remanufacturing operations that has long been going on under the name Phoenix Reman Group. The new name will be Deere Reman – Edmonton. Please read more about Deere Reman here.

Another company, ArvinMeritor, announced that they acquired Mascot Trucks, a remanufacturer of truck parts with six facilities and logistics centers in NA. ArvinMeritor started remanufacturing in 1982 with its axle carrier remanufacturing operations. Now, they consider remanufacturing as a major growth opportunity. Carsten Reinhardt, president of ArvinMeritor's Commercial Vehicle Systems business said, "This expansion of our remanufacturing business makes sense for our customers and aligns with our business strategy to grow the aftermarket business."

Happy holidays and a peaceful 2008!

Small businesses can make a big impact

You always tend to think that big corporations has to keep up with environmental initiatives, and should do more to sustain environment than the small and medium sized enterprises. Well, in a way, that's correct, they are the ones, who should have the strictest compliance with regulations, and ambitious initiatives for environment, because their impact will simply be of a huge ordinance.

But... Think about this: 99% of all US companies are small business, says Jim Rise of Greener Computing. This makes more than 25 million small businesses, this time not individually but cumulatively having a huge impact on sustainability. The options to make-it-better are endless in their offices, from recycling paper and using "energy star" office equipment, to choosing OEMs that have end-of-use take back policies (for remanufacturing or recycling) for office equipment purchases.

This is a great article, read the full version "How Small-Office IT Can Make a Big Impact" here.

Cartridge remanufacturing and recycling saved $2 billion

Xerox has issued a new report on sustainability initiatives. Since 1991, sustainbility program helped Xerox divert 2 billion pounds of waste from landfills thorugh reuse and recycling.

Please read this report here.

Buying used equipment

I received this article on challenges of selling used equipment in the global arena. This article mainly talks of integrated circuit board fabrication and refurbishing, however many things in this article may be generalized to other industries.

For instance Mihin (whose speech is featured in this article , from BEST) puts the challenges of refurbishing equipment as "rebuilding OEM equipment to capabilities equal to OEM specifications; supplier response at factory location instead of single country location; providing capacity at a lower cost with recycled equipment; and project revenue to support local resources in country with fab(rication) locations." These also applies to many industries performing refurbishing activities abroad, nowadays China.

Then comes the advantages from customers-side. In Mihin's opinion "extending life of tools by refurbishing, lowering cost of ownership, local contact for warranty and maintenance..." Now, these are also valid benefits for many customers that use refurbished products, either they are consumer or business customers, though the benefits of using refurbished equipment is not limited to above.

Now, everybody in remanufacturing business and the academics in this field knows that neither the challenges nor the benefits can be squeezed into couple of sentences. The reason I started from this article is to make my point on a widely ignored component that presents challenges and in some cases benefits to the companies. I am talking about the behavioral part of buying used equipment. Although it is obvious that buying a used shoe and certified refurbished router/switcher is completely different, my thesis is attitude toward the first is generally at work when buying refurbished equipment of any kind. Does people really look at refurbished products as like new functioning products, or they see them as previously used, could-have-some-flaws type of products.

There is a lot to consumer behavior in remanufacturing/refurbishing but no research to date. But...keep coming back, there are news on this one soon.

Cycleon acquisition

Last year in a post I talked about Cycleon, a reverse logistics third party that arranges returns services through prepaid mailers and also track and store informations about returns. Recently Cycleon joined (or acquired by) Reverse Logistics GmbH. Reverse Logistics group acquired two other reverse logistics companies recently, increased its coverage in Europe remarkably. No financial information is disclosed, but I wonder what was 100% of Cycleon worth for a private equity firm?

Please read more about the acquisition here.

CAT in Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Although Dow Jones Sustainability Index is just 8 years-old, Caterpillar has already been recognized 7 consecutive times in this index. This index measures economic, social and environmental performance simultaneously and I believe it is one of the most realistic approaches in a rather problematic sustainability measurement debate. Please read more about this story here.

Golisano Institute of Sustainability

RIT announces the establishment of The Golisano Institute for Sustainability, thanks to the support from B. Thomas Golisano. RIT has an history of leadership in sustainability initatives and has a lot of projects going on in National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery. The Institute will be headed by Nabil Nasr.

Please read more about the announcement here.