Designing a Lifecycle Integrated Data Network for Remanufacturing Using RFID Technology

Abstract : With the emergence of concerns regarding pollution and the exhaustion of resources, original equipment manufacturers have begun to take responsibility for environmentally sound manufacturing according to regulations that have been established. Manufacturers thus need to decide how much they will recycle and which options to pursue for minimizing operation costs and environmental impacts, while complying with regulations. They cannot, however, predict the quality of returned products, and as a result, the planning of recycling activities is not reliable. Moreover, the components of products all have different ages and lifetimes. Thus, there may be a number of components that can be recycled more than once. If the life history of these components is not available, though, recyclable components may be disposed of after being recycled once. In this paper, we propose an integrated data system that uses radio frequency identification technology to provide useful information that can make remanufacturing more efficient.