The UK remanufacturing industry employs more than 50,000 people and contributes £5 billion to the nation's economy. This vitally important sector has been almost invisible, despite being on a par with the entire UK recycling industry. Remanufacturing delivers a wide range of environmental, economic and social benefits and has the potential to deliver a great deal more.
The Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse (CRR), a Government-funded initiative, is convinced that easier access to better information on this unsung sector will drive up resource efficiency, and deliver a more sustainable and profitable businesses across Britain. Accordingly, CRR has launched a new, totally re-designed website (www.remanufacturing.org.uk).
The new website now provides comprehensive and free interactive information on:
Who is remanufacturing
What products can be remanufactured
How to remanufacture
The benefits of remanufacturing
The problems when remanufacturing
The issues and challenges of remanufacturing
An RSS newsfeed has also been added to deliver the latest remanufacturing news straight to the desktop.
There is also guidance on identifying potential remanufacture and reuse routes for products as well as information on how to get involved with university training modules and the CRR Remanufacturing Technology Seminar Series.
The site is also home to the UK's largest database of remanufacturers, allowing customers to find companies to remanufacture their products. Remanufacturers can add their own contact details
to this unrivalled database and reach more customers - for free!
This is only the start of a long-term plan. Ben Walsh, Consultant at the CRR has been leading the project. Commenting on the future plans for the website Ben says "We will be adding more content on remanufacturing, creating interactive tools, redesigning our interactive map and providing more information on our activities. People can visit regularly to keep up to date or subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter to keep up to date with current activities in the areas of remanufacturing and reuse."
Remanufacturing is defined as "A series of manufacturing steps acting on an end-of-life part or product in order to return it to like-new or better performance, with warranty to match."
Remanufacturing has a long history in the UK, across the whole range of industrial sectors. In most cases remanufacturing businesses have been grown in response to a business opportunity, not driven by an altruistic 'green' mission. Mostly they are producers of durable (usually metal) manufactured assemblies. For example Caterpillar remanufacture engines for large plant and rolling stock: The inherent value of the materials and the cost of production enables this equipment to be remanufactured to an as-new condition. This process saves tens of millions of tonnes of materials world wide, can make more profit than new equipment and is lower cost to the end user. Many companies perform this task, largely unrecognised. Visit the interactive remanufacturing map to find companies in your area.
Remanufacturers are an ingenious, valuable and largely unrecognised set of companies driven by a clear grasp of the economic value of their services. Top flight remanufacturers are characteristically flexible and adaptable in coping with the business environment and the manufacturing task. Most describe themselves as service providers. Many need a wide skill set -- which can be hard to find -- but workers in these businesses more often find their work motivating and interesting, considering these to be prime jobs in the field. Remanufacturing may therefore be a significant contributor to quality of work-life.
For further information visit: http://www.remanufacturing.org.uk