Customizing Products through Remanufacturing - Ideation of a Concept

Remanufacturing is one key element of a circular economy and plays an important role in reducing global resource consumption. Though advantages are clear, manufacturers often hesitate to introduce remanufacturing in fear of increasing production complexity, high manual effort and uncertain customer demand for remanufactured products. Meanwhile in new production, the development of consumer demand leads to individualized and diversified products, especially in business to customer relationships. In this paper, we propose a rationale for using remanufacturing as a strategy to increase product individualization in combining elements and strategies from mass customization and remanufacturing, while considering ecological and economic aspects. A conceptualization of potential use-cases explores an approach using remanufacturing to individualize products and thus tap new customer groups without cannibalizing new product sales.