Abstract
Manufacturing of material handling equipment companies become more interested in the sustainability of their products. One possible approach to make material handling equipment more sustainable is to make it reconfigurable, reusable and reliable. Those products are likely to be reused when customers’ requirements change. More sustainable material handling equipment can be much easier куsold in the future, due to the possibility to be reconfigured in accordance to the new customer requirements is high. This paper is focused on the development of a reverse logistics framework for more sustainable material handling equipment design. The novelty of the proposed reverse logistics framework is that it can reduce the backward flow of products to the manufacturer by enabling distributors to reconfigure products according to the renewed customer requirements. In the presented case study the benefits of employing sustainable reach truck were investigated. As a result, using sustainable product provides cost and flexibility advantages for both manufacturer and customer.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.18.5.2703
Highlights
Introduction newed customer requirementsUnder the pressure from global economic crisis end users are becoming increasingly interested in sustainable and reconfigurable products in order to reduce their total lifetime cost of ownership
Under certain conditions, manufacturing companies become more interested in the sustainability of products; one possible approach to make material handling equipment more sustainable is to make it reconfigurable, reusable and reliable
More sustainable material handling equipment can be much easier sold in the future, due to the possibility to be reconfigured in accordance to the new customer requirements
Summary
The objective of design for supply chain is to allow engineers to consider lifetime costs of products from production, distribution and maintenance, up to recycle during decision-makings at the product design phases [3]. Designers opt for different sustainable design methodologies such as design for disassembly, design for remanufacturing, and design for recycling according to their industrial context. These methods often focus on optimizing the product’s construction so that the product can be taken apart, either to be refurbished or broken down into its constituent components to refurbish the materials or be recycled [13, 14]. There are emerging trends of “servicizing” business models that create the demand pull for remanufactured products In such models end consumers avoid risk of ownership, expect better product upgrades at low cost, wish to have increased flexibility and are more environmentally conscious [21]
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