# A Review on the Lifecycle Strategies Enhancing Remanufacturing
###### Abstract
A roadmap to predict the cost at the EoL stage of a product using the various stages in the supply chain management can be conceived at the early stage of the product to ensure cleaner production [18]. These stages consist of the planning, sourcing, production, delivery and returns of products. Remanufacturing also encounters various challenges and uncertainties in its various stages, including supply chain management (SCM), disassembly, testing, reassembly and so on [19; 20; 21]. Some of the challenges include: a lack of legislation and standards, limited lifecycle design awareness, a lack of a sufficient market and core supply, skill and technology challenges and limited information sharing, variation in the state of the returned products, the need for reverse logistics, uncertainties in the timing and quantities of returned cores, the difficulty of material matching, balancing return cores with demand, the uncertainty of material routings and the disassembly of cores. Moreover, there is concern about consumers' acceptance of remanufactured products due to the fear of purchasing low quality products. A study on the prediction of customer demand for remanufactured products was undertaken by [22]. This limitation can be tackled if the quality of the product is guaranteed by the remanufacturer. Nonetheless, there is more to be happy about the advantages that remanufacturing has in terms of economic, social and environmental impacts towards attaining sustainability. Some of these advantages include: preserving product quality, lower use of energy and raw materials, offering more flexibility and more options in terms of the process planning and market supply, greatly reduced pollution and increased product lifecycle [23]. In addition, remanufacturing usually requires less capital compared to manufacturing and also offers job opportunities and new skills. Remanufacturing promotes a circular economy and there is a need to find different strategies that will favor remanufacturing at the EoL stage of a product. A multiple lifecycle-based approach to sustainable product configuration design has been explained in detail by [24]. This review points out the various strategies that can facilitate remanufacturing when products arrive at their end-of-life stage. These strategies start from the production planning process and the decisions made at that time have a great effect on the lifecycle of the product. Factors like remaining useful life (RUL), reverse logistics (RL), design for remanufacturing (DfRem), closed-loop supply chain (CLSC), EoL product collection, product service system, data acquisition and sharing and pre-decision remanufacturing timing are explained and analyzed in this review. Recent trends that can also increase the remanufacturability of a product at the end-of-life stage are also discussed. The main objective of this review paper is to point out the various strategies that can increase the rate of remanufacturing during the product's lifecycle. This is because remanufacturing is gaining more interest all over the world due to its numerous advantages mentioned above. There are certain strategies (existing and non-existing) that can be implemented into the lifecycle of a product so as to increase the remanufacturability of that product at the end-of-life stage. In airplane engine remanufacturing, as an example, the production sector has to apply the design for disassembly and remanufacturing factors in the production planning so as to facilitate the remanufacturing process. As the engine wears out during its lifecycle, it is very crucial to recover the product in time so that it still has some RUL which make its remanufacturing possible. In this example, the factors mentioned are design for disassembling and remanufacturing and in-time recovery.