Integrating sustainability and remanufacturing strategies by remanufacturing quality function deployment (RQFD)

The objective of this paper is to ensure remanufacturing by considering the possible design, material and process changes. A novel remanufacturing quality function deployment (RQFD) was developed to bring out the possible changes to the existing product. To accomplish the above objective, RQFD phase I (voice of customer to engineering metrics) and RQFD phase II (engineering metrics to components of case product) were developed. Based on the results, the improvements options in design, process and materials were identified. The sustainability performance for the original and modified design was identified to understand the environmental benefits achieved through the proposed method. The proposed method has been applied to brake caliper components. The practical applications of the research are expected to help the manufacturers of brake calipers to minimize negative impacts on the environment, energy conservation and natural resources and are safe for stakeholders and are economically sound.