Digitally-enhanced multi-level solution for smart human-centric remanufacturing

The European remanufacturing industry is crucial for the sustainable transition of Europe, thanks to thesavings in energy, materials and functionality that is guaranteed by the process.

In fact, the socio-economic benefits of remanufacturing, in terms of number of workers, skills development andtechnological uptake, are as impactful as the environmental benefits.

However, to future-proof theEuropean remanufacturing industry and increase its competitiveness, the obstacles facing the humanworker need to be addressed as a matter of strategic urgency.

Currently, established remanufacturingsectors recognized the barriers in the limited automation, poor human inclusion, lack of traceability andrestricted use of digitalization.

Hence, rEUman aims at developing and demonstrating a novel paradigmof human-centric remanufacturing approach for the European industry; acting at factory and value-chainlevels.

At factory level, the main industrial need is to guarantee high regeneration rates of theremanufactured products and to achieve traceability of the remanufacturing process-chain.

While atvalue-chain level, the main industrial need is to guarantee stability in terms of volume and quality of thepost-use products. rEUman shall demonstrate the new remanufacturing paradigm, which is intrinsicallyhuman-safe, target-driven in regeneration and certification, flexible while facing variability in post-useparts, robust and replicable to new circular business cases.

To that end, rEUman addresses the call topicby (i) developing cutting edge remanufacturing approaches (factory level) and integrating them into thevalue-chain , (ii) demonstrating functional retention in three sectors (Automotive, Home appliances andOptoelectronics), (iii) introducing traceability in remanufacturing by implementing the firstremanufacturing-centred DPP, (iv) considering operation and economic viability by showcasing completebusiness cases coupled with designed training material.