Remanufacturing and the enormous industrial impact
Among the negative effects of Coronavirus is the disruption of global industries’ supply, which has caused the slowdown, or even blocking, of most production, contributing to the ongoing economic depression. Yet, if there had been a more important recourse to remanufacturing, the negative impact would have been less because many producers would have been autonomous in refueling.
Although little is being done in Italy at the moment and even less is said about it, remanufacturing is one of the most important trends in the world industry and it is expected to grow strongly in the coming years. In 2015, remanufacturing in Europe was worth 30 billion euros and, according to the European Remanufacturing Network , will reach 100 billion by 2030.
Already today, in the United States, it is worth about 100 billion dollars. The calculations in terms of environmental (and consequently also economic) benefits were made by the European Remanufacturing Network in relation to the car sector: savings of 88% on materials, 56% on energy needs, 53% on the introduction of Co2.
Remanufacturing is particularly attractive for industries that produce capital-dense, durable, and relatively long-lived products: aerospace, automotive, rail, machinery, electronics, furniture, electromedical, PC peripherals. Among the best-known examples, unfortunately all Italian, are automotive, aeronautics, printers and copiers. Among the automotive, Oems, Renault and BMW emerge, which excel in the recovery of out-of-use and end-of-life vehicles and their components. For some years now, Renault has been designing cars and components for reuse or recycling at the end of life.
The first World Re-manufacturing Summit will be held on our territory, in Lombardy and Milan. Originally planned for March 2-3, it was postponed due to Covid-19. The new dates will be announced as soon as possible. The summit is co-organized by the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Lombardy Region, Cluster Smart Factory Professor Nabil Nasr, the world’s leading scientific authority on the subject, will be taking part in the event. Information about the summit can be found at the www.wrs2020.com website.
