Int. J. Sustainable Manufacturing, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2009 437 Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Characteristics of the automotive remanufacturing enterprise with an economic and environmental evaluation of alternator products Hyung-Ju Kim* and Steve Skerlos Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, 2250 GG Brown, 2350 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, USA E-mail: kimhyung@umich.edu E-mail: skerlos@umich.edu Semih Severengiz and Guenther Seliger Department Assembly Technology and Factory Management, Technical University Berlin, Pascalstr.8-9, D-10587 Berlin, Germany E-mail: severengiz@mf.tu-berlin.de E-mail: seliger@mf.tu-berlin.de Abstract: Technology has improved the standard of living while resulting in serious global challenges with respect to the climate, air, water, land and material resources. Remanufacturing is a process that restores old products to perform like new, while saving energy, reducing consumption of natural resources and lowering environmental emissions. In this paper, we investigate characteristics of the automotive remanufacturing enterprise with an economic and environmental evaluation of alternator products. The paper reveals attitudes and impressions that were collected from 13 automotive component remanufacturers and shows that typical business structures of remanufacturing companies and their core collecting and product retail logistics influence the economics of component remanufacturing. The economic and environmental analysis also provides a baseline estimate of improvements in material use and energy associated with remanufacturing versus producing a new alternator. Keywords: remanufacturing; automotive industry; alternator; assessment. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Kim, H-J., Skerlos, S., Severengiz, S. and Seliger, G. (2009) ‘Characteristics of the automotive remanufacturing enterprise with an economic and environmental evaluation of alternator products’, Int. J. Sustainable Manufacturing, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.437–449. Biographical notes: Hyung-Ju Kim is currently an Alcoa Conservation and Sustainability Fellow at the University of Michigan. He studied at Precision Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor) and Industrial Engineering (Master) at the Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea. He earned a doctorate at the Institute for Machine Tools and Factory Management (IWF) at the Technical University Berlin, Germany. The title of his doctoral dissertation is ‘Dynamic process planning and generation of control sequences for the flexible disassembly systems’. His current research interests are modelling of design options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and remanufacturing technology for next generation vehicle.