Let Remanufacturing Give Your Business an EDGE - Simon Monaghan

As public acceptance of the need for a circular economy increases, most of us will be familiar with the Five R’s of Refuse, Reuse, Reduce, Repurpose, and Recycle, but are you familiar with the concept of Remanufacturing?

One definition of remanufacturing is “the rebuilding of a product to the specifications of the original manufactured product with warranty to match using a combination of reused, repaired, and new parts” and it is something we are likely to see a lot more of in the future as businesses better understand the value can be derived from this process.

Some industries are already heavily committed to re-manufacturing, think aerospace for example, where it makes sense to remanufacture highly expensive aircraft parts rather than scrap them, and research has identified huge potential for saving resources and reducing costs by adopting remanufacturing more widely.

However, several obstacles remain before remanufacturing becomes mainstream, including public perception, business take-up, and the evolution of supply chains. One company seeing the potential for increased re-manufacturing is Remade Group, based in Leeds, which have launched a business with the aim of developing Europe’s first online marketplace for remanufactured goods. With a wide range of opportunities to choose from, they have selected automobile parts, laptops, and office furniture as their initial focus.?

Solving challenges associated with the circular economy is a key focus for Innovate UK and support from Innovate UK and Innovate UK EDGE has played a vital role in Remade Group’s development as COO Dr Peter Fearon acknowledges:

“Remade Group is a spin-out from the University of Brighton and we made our decision to launch after identifying an enormous national and international market for remanufacturing. Our aim is to provide our customers with ethical, environment-friendly products that come with quality levels and warranties which match those of new products, and we will facilitate this through the use of blockchain technology. Over time we believe that remanufacturing will become more attractive to users, distributors, and manufacturers as the attractions of products retailing at 40% below new value with up to 80% savings in energy costs become more widely understood.?

"Our upcoming launch of?www.remademarket.co.uk?has been made possible by a significant Innovate UK Manufacturing Made Smarter Grant. The Digital Catapult has hailed us as one of the current generation of NetZero start-ups to watch and we have recently participated in an Innovate UK-funded Global?Business?Innovation Programme visit to India to explore market opportunities on the sub-continent.

"We have also been provided with guidance and advice from the Innovate UK EDGE service and their support has been crucial in our development.”

Innovate UK EDGE are here to support growing, innovative, ambitious and scalable businesses. If your business is looking to innovate and you are interested in exploring what support is available, please get in touch and let us help you –?https://www.innovateukedge.ukri.org/.