A novel pre-processing inspection methodology to enhance productivity in automotive product remanufacture: an industry-based research of 2196 engines

Ridley and Ijomah Journal of Remanufacturing (2015) 5:8 DOI 10.1186/s13243-015-0017-4 RESEARCH Open Access A novel pre-processing inspection methodology to enhance productivity in automotive product remanufacture: an industry-based research of 2196 engines Sara J. Ridley and WL Ijomah* * Correspondence: Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Abstract Remanufacture, a process of returning used products to “as-new” condition with matching guarantee, is commercially viable where the remaining value in the used product and the final selling price are much higher than the cost of the products’ rebuilding. Guide identified that remanufacturers perceive the scarcity of effective remanufacturing tools and techniques as a key threat to the industry whilst Ijomah assessed the key remanufacturing issues on a five-point scale ranging from “Not Significant through to “Critical”. Component inspection was the only issue rated as “critical” by all remanufacturers. Extensive work within the industry plus the detailed analysis and observation of the remanufacturing process during this research has shown that component inspection has significant bearing on overall productivity. However, the activity is undertaken in a hap-hazard manner based almost purely on experience and guesswork and lacks proper methodologies and tools. This paper presents the results of quantitative research, conducted in a Caterpillar UK Remanufacturing facility, to establish the relationship between pre-processing inspection and the subsequent remanufacturing process time for returned cores (used products). Keywords: Remanufacturing; Pre-processing; Inspection methodology Theoretical background and industrial setting of the research Industry recognisable as remanufacturing has been in evidence since early in the 20th century. It expanded during and after the Second World War largely fuelled by the need to reuse military vehicles and machinery. OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and/or their agents and dealers remanufactured their own products generally on a fairly small scale. Typical parts that were remanufactured include compressors and gearboxes. Lund [16] defined three basic types of remanufacturer:  OEM remanufacturers – often a process alongside their manufacturing operations;  Third-party remanufacturers – remanufacturing under licence for the OEM and often, but not always with their technical support; and  Independent remanufacturers – remanufacturing other people’s goods without licence or support for direct sales into the aftermarket. © 2015 Ridley and Ijomah. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Ridley and Ijomah Journal of Remanufacturing (2015) 5:8 The key difference, in the context of this research, between independent remanufacturers and OEM and contract remanufacturers is in terms of cores. Cores are the used products at the end of their working life. In almost all cases for the contract and OEM remanufacturer the customers are responsible for return of cores with the remanufacturer having little control over the quantity, mix or quality of returns. Generally the OEM remanufacturer is separate from general production, so the OEM can be considered a customer to the remanufacturer. This can have a significant impact on ability to supply customers as the cores received cannot be guaranteed to match the mix of remanufactured units required by the customer. In addition, contract remanufacturers operate with fixed cost contracts that allow for little or no additional charge to be made for badly damaged or incorrect cores. The actual remanufacturing process varies by product and methods such as material deposition that may be appropriate for more expensive components, such as cylinder blocks, would not necessarily be suitable for remanufacturing lower cost products such as mobile phones. Nevertheless the overall process regardless of product can be described as in the Fig. 1 [10]. Many authors ([5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 23, 25, 26] etc.) acknowledge that uncertainty about the quality (and often the quantity) of cores has a detrimental effect on the productivity and profitability of remanufacturers. Errington [5] describes the use of core inspection to eliminate products and components that would be either prohibitively expensive or extremely difficult to remanufacture. This is particularly useful to independent remanufacturers, especially where they do not have an identified customer for their product, but contract remanufacturers often have very little choice when specific customer demand exists regardless of the supplied quantity or quality of cores. Inspection is a fundamental part of any remanufacturing process ([7, 11, 18, 19] etc.). It is usual practice in remanufacturing to inspect at many stages through the process, often functionally and in all cases visually. Brent and Steinhilper [2] as well as Ijomah [11] amongst others state that 100 % inspection is always required at one or more of the remanufacturing phases. The result of this is a high quality product for customers but lowered profitability for the remanufacturer. This is due to the uncertainty concerning the quality and condition of the returned products. Literature suggests that there is a strategic benefit in core sorting [17] and recommend grading cores for quality to improve the disassembly Fig. 1 An illustration of a typical remanufacturing process (Hatcher et al, 2013 [10]) Page 2 of 12 Ridley and Ijomah Journal of Remanufacturing (2015) 5:8 process [5]. Teunter [25] go further and propose four grades of cores as part of their acquisition policy. All these authors note that there is a benefit (unquantified) to remanufacturers when they are able to process high quality cores. This research, to determine whether and by how much the overall remanufacturing process of engines could be made more efficient with a robust inspection of cores, was carried out at the Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services (a division of Caterpillar Inc.) facility in Rushden, U.K. This facility primarily remanufactured petrol and diesel engines both as an OEM for Caterpillar Inc. and as a contract remanufacturer for a variety of other OEMs. Remanufacturing is a mature business in the automotive sector and consequently offers an ideal environment for experimental research. The researcher’s employment at the facility as a production manager also facilitated unprecedented access over an extended period to all aspects of the remanufacturing process. Methodology The research utilized a mixed mode approach where qualitative information was (...truncated)