Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation & Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Full length article Adaptive remanufacturing for multiple lifecycles: A case study in office furniture Mark Krystofik ⁎ , Allen Luccitti, Kyle Parnell, Michael Thurston Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Circular economy Closed-loop supply chain Remanufacturing Multiple lifecycle Adaptive remanufacturing ABSTRACT Remanufacturing has achieved viability in a diversity of industrial markets as a means to both maintain the value of products and minimize waste. From carpet tiling to manufacturing robots, a wide range of goods have pre- sently established supply and consumer networks that support remanufacturing, and thus offer a point of entry into a more circular industrial economy. Based on this performance, it is reasonable to expect that re- manufacturing can in some cases be made an iterative endeavor; that existing networks may be leveraged to create additional lifecycles for previously remanufactured goods at net environmental and economic gain over virgin production. This case study identifies and explores factors of Davies Office, Inc. (Davies) remanufacturing processes for office furniture that affect the economic and environmental practicality of creating multiple re- manufacturing cycles. Specifically, we use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to estimate the impacts of multiple remanufacturing cycles and how these are affected by “adaptive remanufacturing,” a neologism to describe the use of an end-of-life (EOL) product core to create a similar, but non-identical product. LCA results suggest that adaptive remanufacturing is both an environmentally preferable and economically viable business strategy. Specifically, the ability to update, reconfigure, and customize previously obsolete products to meet present market demands enables lifecycle extension beyond what is achievable with traditional remanufacturing. In this, the study posits that such adaptive remanufacturing techniques not only expand the potential environmental benefits of remanufacturing, but enhances the long-term economic viability of remanufacturing in durable product markets. 1. Introduction 1.1. Remanufacturing As resource scarcity, energy costs, and supply chain management emerge as important factors in the sustainability of modern manu- facturing, steps must be taken to challenge the linearity of “take-make- waste” production models. In response to this need, remanufacturing of products through the isolation of used product cores, addition of new materials, and subsequent reconstruction of finished goods is becoming both a significant market player and a major focus of research (Yang et al., 2011). Broadly, remanufacturing involves returning a previously used product to a level of form and function effectively equivalent to when that product was new. In some cases, remanufacturing can up- grade a product to condition beyond its original state by, for example, correcting for original product design flaws or adding functional or aesthetic enhancements not present in the original product. Several studies demonstrate that remanufacturing operations consistently achieve energy savings (Sahni et al., 2010), cost savings (Abbey et al., 2015), and increased material efficiency (Gamage et al., 2008) relative to new products. Previous analyses of Davies Office Furniture by the National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery (NC3R) outline such savings and estimate resultant environmental benefits in the specific case of office furniture (NC3R, 2005). The fundamental premise of remanufacturing is that it extends the life of a good in the product stream, maintaining its value (Bakker et al., 2014). With durable goods such as office furniture, this lifespan ex- tension provides the opportunity to create additional lifecycles by re- manufacturing a single product multiple times. However, this requires a reliable supply of virgin and previously remanufactured products whose durability and characteristics are such that the investment of further time, energy, and materials into their restoration remains both eco- nomically and environmentally preferable to virgin production. As- sessment of this viability has uncertainty, as both environmental im- pacts and economic performance fluctuate with a number of variables. A study on the lifecycle environmental impacts of remanufacturing http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.07.028 Received 9 January 2017; Received in revised form 3 July 2017; Accepted 18 July 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Golisano Institute for Sustainability, 190 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623, USA. E-mail address: makgis@rit.edu (M. Krystofik). Resources, Conservation & Recycling xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0921-3449/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Krystofik, M., Resources, Conservation & Recycling (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.07.028