The future of the Italian machinery sector, a mainstay of the national economy, with a value close to 50 billion euros, is oriented, with greater awareness, towards a circular approach, thanks to the operating model of remanufacturing. Restructuring and shortening the supply chain and recovering and recycling materials and components, with the aim of extending the life of the products, are the two cornerstones on which the evolution of the industrial sector must be structured.
A necessary practice
The disruption of global supply chains during the pandemic has further highlighted the need for remanufacturing. A practice that is already crucial in an industrial context such as the Italian one, where the scarcity of primary resources acts as a counterpart to an advanced industry, capable of creating value and satisfying the quantitative and qualitative demands of foreign markets.
Tackling obsolescence
Today’s technological development, son of the consumer society, has contributed to increasing the problem of the rapid obsolescence of products. In a similar context, remanufacturing presents itself as an important solution for integrating the old with the new, re-enhancing it and avoiding useless and costly waste.
What is remanufacturing?
Consolidating a remanufacturing system at an industrial level means developing a completely circular business model. Regeneration (or remanufacturing) allows a product to be brought back to its original performance, with a guarantee equivalent to or greater than that of the newly manufactured product.
This dynamic is favored by a few simple and crucial steps: from the execution of tests and preliminary analyzes on the systems to be processed to determine if they are recoverable, to the breakdown of the pieces to select which ones to regenerate and which to replace. Lastly, the system is reassembled and tested with the same eligibility criteria as the new one.
Application fields and advantages
Remanufacturing is particularly attractive in the business to business area, for durable and capital-intensive production sectors, such as automotive, aeronautics, railways, machinery, electronics, furniture and electro-medical. Thanks to the circular logic, regeneration ensures advantages for both producers and consumers, but also for the environment, fitting perfectly into the sustainable development agendas adopted at national and continental level.
Towards an increase in employment?
The use of remanufacturing will be further implemented thanks to the combined adoption of digital technologies, robotics, control instrumentation, artificial intelligence, data analysis and additive manufacturing.
Furthermore, according to various forecasts, the diffusion of regeneration in the industrial sector will favor an increase in employment. Since it is a process that cannot be fully automated, remanufacturing in fact involves the creation of new jobs and requires updating of skills. In fact, this model proposes a non-repetitive, highly complex job that rewards the dexterity of specialized personnel.
The horizon of remanufacturing is decidedly promising; but, for its complete adoption, the industrial sector will have to question the entire life cycle of products, to plan investments and modify supply chains and corporate strategies according to a truly circular business model.
Sources: industriaitaliana.it, industry4business.it, renewablematter.eu, italiacircolare.it
Read also: Industry 5.0: a cultural revolution promoted by technology
Stay up to date on the latest news from the B2B world, follow us on LinkedIn!
