# Remanufacturing of Industrial Electronics: A Case Study from the GCC Region
## 2 Recovering EoL Electronic Devices Strategies  
Most industrial users buy new EEE when the controller or equipment reaches its EoL or becomes worn out if it is available; otherwise, they have to replace the controlling system or the full machine in case of obsoleteness. However, most EEE can be restored with the technical know-how, tools, and the correct parts. This process is known as \"Product recovery,\" which includes activities to retrieve value from a device at EoL [7]. Furthermore, product recovery encompasses essential strategies such as recycling, reusing, refurbishing, recovering, or remanufacturing products nearing the end of their life cycle. The five strategies for EoL product recovery are repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, cannibalization, and recycling [8], as depicted in Table 1. Restoration and reuse of EEE i complex and demanding options but offer more benefits than incineration or dumping electronic products in landfill [9]. Many factors and parameters, such as optimal disassembly level, return flow volume, labor availability, cost, and time, should be considered to determine the viable recovery process [10]. Generally, industrial product recovery has three advantageous effects:  
1. It decreases the economic and environmental costs;
2. It lessens the fees of processing and purchasing new resources as repairing EoL products and reusing parts from worn-out devices ensure that original performance and cosmetic aspects are retained;
3. Companies can use it as an eco-friendly marketing solution for product and service classification to differentiate themselves from competitors and emphasize their commitment to sustainability. On the other hand, collecting, sorting, refurbishing, repairing, and remanufacturing are essential mechanisms for reducing e-waste. However, their inadequate development and implementation pose sustainability challenges [1]. Consequently, implementing sustainable practices to manage EoL industrial electronics is crucial for balancing environmental and economic considerations. By adopting such an approach, e-waste can be managed environmentally and precious materials can be conserved. Furthermore, such practices can play a crucial role in minimizing the impact of e-waste on the natural environment while fostering the adoption of sustainable resource management approaches [11]. The legal regulations RoHS and WEEE are, respectively, designed to restrict the use of hazardous substances and regulate the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment within the European Union. They represent legislation affecting electronic device design for environmental protection and sustainable development balance. Sustainable product design must integrate and consider engineering, economic, societal, and ecological science models. In addition, these two directives are the central driving forces in e-waste \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Strategies** & **Process** \\ \hline Repair & The original device is employed again after fixing or replacing faulty components. \\ Refurbishing & The primary device is dismantled and repaired by replacing the faulty modules. \\ Remanufacturing & A new product is manufactured from an EoL product using new spare parts. Software upgrading may also be performed. \\ Cannibalization & Reusable components are recovered from EoL devices to complete any of the three previous strategies. \\ Recycling & Robust dissociation processes recover materials and parts from the EoL device without conserving any device structure. \\ Energy recovery & Product parts could be incinated for electricity generation or in cement kilns and smelters as an energy source. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Strategies for material recovery from end-of-life electronic products [1]. control [12]. As a result, electronic producers adopt remanufacturing as a suitable strategy to recover industrial products. Remanufacturing is a process that restores used products to like-new condition, resulting in high-quality products with extended lifespans [13].