A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Remanufacturing Research

Abstract

The advancements in human lifestyle result in growth in daily demands of products, and accordingly, an increased rate of manufacturing. However, the resources on the planet Earth are limited, thus depleting day-by-day. More goods also contribute to more end-of-life (EOL) dumping or even before EOL in some cases. Therefore, an interest in remanufacturing has appeared, and it offers a solution that can solve or perhaps mitigate the risks of consuming more resources and increasing waste. Remanufacturing is a procedure of bringing used products to “like-new” functional status with a matching warranty. However, due to its relative novelty in terms of research field and industry, remanufacturing is poorly understood. People often mix it with other terms such as recycling, reconditioning, or repair. Therefore, in this research, the focus is on the remanufacturing systems’ definition, relevance, main phases, case studies, and solution methods proposed by various researchers. The word ‘remanufacturing’ is clearly described in this paper by differentiating it from alternative green manufacturing initiatives. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis of literature are performed. The quantitative analysis is conducted using a bibliometric method. For quantitative analysis, a systematic approach is utilized for research papers’ selection. The qualitative analysis has been carried out by discussing different aspects of remanufacturing and how the researchers are working on its different domains and phases. The review showed that researchers focused on some phases more as compared with others. Moreover, it is also revealed from the literature that the common solutions methods applied in this domain are optimization techniques. Future research directions are also identified and presented.