Many Swedish manufacturers hesitate to embrace remanufacturing because they lack reliable tools to evaluate the condition of used products. Determining how much life remains in a product, whether it's an electronic device, furniture, textiles, or plastic goods, can be difficult. Current inspection methods are often inconsistent, time-consuming, and require expert judgment.
To achieve sustainable development goals, Swedish manufacturing industries must integrate remanufacturing into their production systems.
The process of quality inspection, in particularly, the diagnosis of the quality of the Core (a returned used products or its parts) to estimate the remaining product life (time until the product fail to perform in line with its original purpose) remains a challenging task. This is due to the risks associated with insufficient technologies to diagnose the Core quality and the lack of methods and tools to estimate the remaining product life. All these deter Swedish manufacturers from adopting remanufacturing practices.
The ACCORD research project aims to 1) define the required Core quality diagnosis methods and 2) develop Remaining Product Life assessment tools (two practical contributions) and 3) bridge the research gap in advanced remanufacturing technologies for sustainable transformation (theoretical contribution).
ACCORD research project will facilitate remanufacturing practices among Swedish manufacturers of electric and electronic equipment, furniture, textiles, and hard plastic products. ACCORD research project will unify Sustainable Manufacturing and Fault Diagnostics research domains to achieve the overall project goal: to advance core diagnosis in remanufacturing. To achieve this, the project outlines four specific aims:
- Define critical advanced remanufacturing technologies for Core quality inspection,
- Integrate Core data requirements (for example, from/for Digital Product Passport (DPP)) to critical advanced remanufacturing technologies,
- Develop a framework with methodologies (theoretical contribution) as well as a method with tools (practical contribution) to diagnose the Core quality and to assess Core suitability for remanufacturing through measuring the remaining product life, and
- Demonstrate (preferably virtually) critical advanced Core diagnosis technologies enabled with Core DPP data for Remaining Product Life assessment.
A step towards a circular economy
By making remanufacturing more effective, ACCORD contributes to a circular economy where products are reused instead of discarded. This approach not only benefits the environment by reducing waste and saving materials but also helps businesses cut costs and create new jobs.
The ACCORD project is led by Linköping University (LiU) in collaboration with industry experts and international researchers. This project will bring together the fields of sustainable manufacturing and fault diagnostics to make remanufacturing a practical and profitable choice for Swedish industries. The project is supported by ZENITH Career development program at Faculty of Science and Engineering (LITH).