No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Closing the loop: Product take-back regulations and their strategic implications
Abstract
In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging from electronics to vehicles by creating incentives for manufacturers to increase the usage intensity of materials embodied in their products to reduce the demand for virgin raw materials and energy. This article describes take-back regulations and highlights some of their key features. In addition, several product take-back strategies are presented along with a few key questions managers should consider in selecting an appropriate strategy for their company.
... For example, Xerox is one of the most widely cited corporations for successfully managing to remanufacture used photocopiers and toner cartridges from around the world, and it has saved millions of dollars while boosting its image as an environmentally conscious company (Kerr and Ryan, 2001). Other examples include Mercedes-Benz and Ford, which have begun collecting and disassembling their end-of-life vehicles to recover valuable components as spare parts for both consumers and commercial customers (Toffel, 2003). ...
... A título de ilustração, a Comissão Européia (European Commission) estabeleceu um conjunto de regras para se fazer o gerenciamento adequado de embalagens (González-Torre et al., 2004) Com esses mesmos objetivos, há a Legislação Européia sobre Retornos (European Take-back Legislation) no setor de produtos eletrônicos (Toffel, 2003). Essa legislação faz com que as indústrias desse setor financiem projetos que visem ao gerenciamento, à reciclagem e disposição final de resíduos de produtos eletrônicos. ...
This paper introduces a Reverse Logistics application in a multinational plastic film industry in Brazil, where the waste generated by its customers can reload the production process. Firstly, the main features concerning the theme and the factors that influence an efficient process of Reverse Logistics are discussed. Afterwards, using a case study, the steps focusing on the implementation of Reverse Logistics, which were successful in a company, are introduced and discussed. Finally, the difficulties, gains and competitive advantages obtained by the companies that have adopted Reverse Logistic solutions, particularly the company where the case study was developed, are commented upon.
... Specially, China's State Council promulgated on February 25, 2009, the "Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Disposal of Waste Electric and Electronic Products" (the "WEEE Regulations"), to implement the provisions of the Law on the Promotion of Clean Production and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste. The WEEE Regulations have come into effect on January 1, 2011, that complement the "Administrative Measures on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products" ( referred to as "China RoHS"), which were promulgated on February 28,2006, and came into effect on March 1, 2007. The WEEE Regulations are based on China's practices, and use the experience of other countries "Extended Producer Responsibility" (EPR) for reference, which aims to: (1) Incentive manufacturers to use design for environment (DfE), such as improving products recyclable and reusable; (2) Encourage manufacturers recycling WEEE, reduce the environmental impact of WEEE (Savage, 2006;Mayers et al., 2005). ...
This paper further explains the context of this new legislation and describes, compares and then analyzes the four alternative strategies to reducing end-of-life waste, i.e., repairing, reconditioning, remanufacturing or recycling. It also presents a more robust definition of remanufacturing, which differentiates if from repair and reconditioning engineering. By using a two-stage sequential decision game model, the economic behavior of the main stakeholders under three different types of take-back modes are presented; based on the objective of social welfare maximization, the issues of take-back network, recycling targets setting, recovery catalogs sorting and, supervision and stimulation of take-back models are discussed. Our conclusions demonstrate that: manufacturers, recyclers and consumers do not always share the same preference over three patterns, but the mode of manufacture-leading take-back can reach maximum social welfare; the most efficient network system should be around the manufacturer individual take-back responsibility to build; the take-back level and the recovery catalogs must synthesize the factors involve environmental impact of product, take-back cost/benefit, and recycling and manufacturing industries’ market structure etc.; the supervision and stimulation decision matrix associated with the Producer Responsibility Organization is as an effective tool to balance the environmental benefits and social welfare.
... A título de ilustração, a Comissão Européia (European Commission) estabeleceu um conjunto de regras para se fazer o gerenciamento adequado de embalagens (González-Torre et al., 2004) Com esses mesmos objetivos, há a Legislação Européia sobre Retornos (European Take-back Legislation) no setor de produtos eletrônicos (Toffel, 2003). Essa legislação faz com que as indústrias desse setor financiem projetos que visem ao gerenciamento, à reciclagem e disposição final de resíduos de produtos eletrônicos. ...
Este trabalho apresenta uma aplicação da Logística Reversa numa empresa multinacional que atua na área de laminação de vidros no Brasil. Na empresa estudada, a sucata gerada pelos seus clientes pode ser usada para realimentar o seu processo de produção. Inicialmente, são discutidos os principais aspectos relacionados ao tema, tais como, definição de Logística Reversa, ciclo de vida do produto, motivos e destinos do retorno, além dos fatores que influenciam a eficiência de um processo de Logística Reversa. A seguir, ilustradas pelo estudo de caso, são apresentadas e comentadas as etapas para uma implementação de um sistema de Logística Reversa ser bem sucedida. Finalmente, comentam-se as dificuldades, ganhos e vantagens competitivas obtidas por empresas que adotaram soluções da Logística Reversa, em particular na empresa em que o estudo de caso foi desenvolvido.
... To reduce the ecological and economic burdens of solid waste, disposal bans have been introduced for specific products in several states [56,57]. These legislative efforts, coupled with the (particularly lucrative) business opportunity associated with recovering the economic value residing in (some) used products, have expanded the scope of traditional supply chain operations to include asset recovery for a wide range of products (e.g., steel, tires, printer cartridges, ships, single-use cameras, automotive parts, photocopy equipment, computers, and cellular phones). ...
Historically, both the theory and practice of supply chain management have placed an emphasis on manufacturing and distribution operations, i.e., the forward channel, which consists of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers. Recently, increased attention to product recovery practices has extended the scope of traditional supply chain management by drawing attention to collection, demanufacturing, and remanufacturing operations, i.e., the reverse channel, which consists of final-users, collectors, demanufacturers, and remanufacturers. To optimize the performance of the extended supply chain, there is a need to establish an effective and efficient infrastructure via optimal network design. As a result, network design for product recovery has attracted the attention of a growing number of researchers in the past decade. In an attempt to draw more academic attention to this area, this annotated bibliography provides a detailed account of the published literature. The article is organized into two main sections that focus on (i) reverse supply chain network design, which is concerned with establishing an infrastructure to manage the reverse channel only and (ii) closed-loop supply chain network design, which is concerned with establishing an infrastructure to manage both forward and reverse channels in a coordinated manner. Specifically, we describe the operational characteristics of the underlying supply chain system considered in each paper, highlight the features of the network design model proposed therein, and discuss the proposed solution approach along with a brief description of significant computational work, if available. In conclusion, a critical review of the published literature is given and potential areas for future research are identified. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2009
In remanufacturing, companies take the product back from customers when the product reaches its end-of-life, so as to use as a feedstock for manufacturing of new products. Thereby, it reduces the risk of environmental degradation to be caused by these end-of-life products. The real efficiency in remanufacturing lies in the cost-effective use of reused components. In this paper, we formulate an optimization model based on famous Bass diffusion model to depict not only the quantity returned in the remanufacturing process, but also the amount of cost-saving a manufacturer does with efficient remanufacturing. The proposed approach can enable product designers and remanufacturers to quantify the total component reuse volume by considering the quantity returned, diffusion dynamics with coefficient of innovation and imitation and time to begin remanufacturing. Analytical reasoning & numerical illustration to validate the proposed optimization model and explanation of remanufacturing diffusion dynamics are provided.
Remanufacturing of goods involves taking the product back from the customer so as to use it as a feedstock for manufacturing new products. It provides double benefits of cost and environmental saving to the manufacturer and society, respectively. One of the major challenges faced by original equipment manufacturer (OEM) here is forecasting quantity returned by the customers and when to start remanufacturing. In this paper, we formulate a strategy for OEMs to optimize time to start remanufacturing using the adopter categorization approach as proposed by Roger. We propose an optimization model based on famous Bass diffusion model to depict not only the quantity returned in the remanufacturing process but also the amount of cost saving a manufacturer does with efficient remanufacturing. With data on 11 consumer durable products, we compare product returned under various adopter categorization time point. An application examining the diffusion of these products under remanufacturing scenario is documented to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed strategy.
The previous chapter analyzed the different drivers of and barriers to eco-innovation. In this chapter the aim is to identify those policy features and measures that can be implemented in order to help remove those barriers (or encourage the drivers) and enhance the uptake of eco-innovations. In order to do so, we have taken into account the theoretical and empirical literature on environmentally sound techno-institutional change, as well as certain policies currently implemented in the EU, the US and elsewhere.1 After justifying in section 4.2 why eco-innovation should be promoted publicly, section 4.3 outlines the policy approach to promote eco-innovations. Section 4.4 is devoted to the pinpointing of specific measures, whereas the following sections (4.5 and 4.6, respectively) discuss the most appropriate measures for tackling specific barriers to eco-innovation and how different types of eco-innovations are more likely to be promoted with different instruments. The chapter closes with some concluding remarks.
Under the take-back law, reconstruct the demand function according to consumers' heterogeneity of the demand for new and remanufactured products, based on the game theory, study on remanufacturing strategy when OEM facing individual take-back responsibility and collective take-back responsibility. Our conclusions show that, individual take-back responsibility have better products better incentives on OEM take-back end-of-life product which they produced, and under this responsibility, OEM is more inclined to remanufacturing, and gives out the formula of subsidies to remanufacturers. Moreover, numerical example was demonstrated our results.
Rapid innovation in technology and ever shortened product life cycles precipitate discarding an increasing amount of used products as waste, which has been considered as one of the major sustainable issues. In order to manage end-of-life products in a sustainable manner, the design for sustainable manufacturing (DFSM) has become a key technology challenge. To this end, this paper presents a methodological framework to help designers apply modular design methodology to manage product end-of-life strategy systematically. Life cycle commonality (LCC) is proposed as a measurement of product modular architecture from an end-of-life strategy perspective. One innovative design space encompassing product end-of-life strategies is integrated into traditional modular design methodology systematically and effectively. Subsequently, decision tree approach is deployed to conduct economic analysis for maximizing manufacturers' total value recovered from various product end-of-life strategies. An illustrative example is included to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the developed methodology lastly.
This Article examines how governments in the world's two largest economies are diverging in their approaches to regulating hazardous products and packaging, with major ramifications for manufacturing, waste management, and trade. The European Union is implementing product-oriented environmental regulation based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility ("EPR"), which assigns responsibility to manufacturers to take back their products after consumers discard them. In theory, EPR could dramatically alter production practices by internalizing externalities from products and providing incentives for environmentally friendly design. However, practical problems of implementation raise questions about the effectiveness of EPR as a policy tool. This Article explores the European experience with EPR, the reasons for apparent resistance to EPR in the United States, and the implications of a move toward product-oriented environmental law. It critiques EPR on the grounds that the transaction costs of EPR may outweigh its environmental benefits and that practical problems of implementation may preclude the achievement of expected product design incentives. Given the substantial cost and technical hurdles to establishing the legal underpinnings of EPR programs, this Article recommends that the United States consider alternative policy instruments to address environmental externalities from products.
In terms of sustainable manufacturing, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling of end-of-life products are widely recognized as preferable product end-of-life strategies over direct disposal. Different end-of-life strategies basically, require distinct processes, techniques and management during a product's end-of-life phase. Consequently, specific and efficient implementation of various appropriate end-of-life strategies of an entire product is the only way to achieve sustainable manufacturing whereby maximum value from end-of-life products can be recovered and, in addition, reducing environmental impacts. Moreover, product design plays the most critical role in achieving sustainability in a product's life cycle. To this end, this paper intends to systematically incorporate an economic analysis of implementing various end-of-life strategies into product design to assist designers with decision-making. Firstly, in order to understand the implication of various end-of-life strategies from the product architecture perspective, Life Cycle Commonality Metrics (LCCM) has been proposed. Secondly, based on appropriate end-of-life strategies and Life Cycle Commonality Metrics (LCCM), an economic analysis is modeled to maximize the total recovered value from end-of-life products.
Reuse, remanufacturing and recycling have been recognized as the main preferred product end-of-life strategies in terms of
sustainability currently. Those three end-of-life strategies require distinct processes, expertises and management respectively
during product end-of-life phase. Therefore, it is imperative to achieve each end-of-life strategy separately and efficiently
to achieve sustainability. Nowadays, products are characterized by high variety of constituent components with diverse appropriate
end-of-life strategies. Ideally, if components with the same end-of-life strategy can be grouped in the same module, the overall
sustainability of the entire product can be significantly enhanced by means of efficient and appropriate handling of end-of-life
products. Moreover, all efforts should be concentrated on product design phase. To this end, this paper intends to propose
a systematic approach assisting product designers during product design phase to facilitate and promote appropriate reuse,
remanufacturing and recycling of the entire end-of-life product holistically to achieve sustainability.