RIC News: World Reman Conference Update, RIC Reman ACE Awards, and more...

ACE Award nominations have started coming in. These awards are based on the RIC mission to Advocate, Collaborate and Educate on behalf of the entire remanufacturing industry. Not only are the winners acknowledged for their achievements in the reman industry, they also receive a $1000 scholarship for a student in their community. Visit RemanACEAwards.org to submit your nominations.

Thank you to Vaughn Henson of Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation for hosting a webinar on Core Management. More than 100 participants gained valuable insight from the presentation. The response is clear indication that the desire to continually improve reman operations is alive and well. Follow-up questions regarding Core Management can be sent to: info@remancouncil.org.

The RIC-RIT World Remanufacturing Conference planning continues to take shape. The exciting agenda now includes Andrew Morlet of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as well as several other impressive presentations. Early Bird pricing is still available so be sure to register right away and I look forward to welcoming you to the conference On September 19 in Rochester, NY!

REMADE Institute Announces First Project Selections

REMADE Institute awarded 17 projects, totaling $10M, aimed at improving competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. REMADE is a consortium of industry, academia, and national labs working together on early-stage applied research and development of technologies that could dramatically reduce the embodied energy and carbon emissions associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing. The end result, to drive down the cost of technologies essential to remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling.

RIC members, Caterpillar, CoreCentric Solutions, John Deere, and Rochester Institute of Technology, are participating in several projects:

Non-Destructive In-Process Assessment of Thermal Spray Repairs - Caterpillar, Inc., Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, ITAMCO
Epoxy/Silicon Potting Material Removal for Greater Recovery of Circuit Boards - Rochester Institute of Technology, Caterpillar, Inc., CoreCentric
Remaining Life Determination - Rochester Institute of Technology,
Caterpillar, Inc., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Non-Destructive Evaluation of In-Flight Particle Dynamics and Intrinsic Properties for Thermal Spray Repairs - John Deere, Iowa State University
Condition Assessment of Used Electronics - Caterpillar, Inc., Rochester Institute of Technology, CoreCentric

According to RIC member Dr. Nabil Nasr, CEO REMADE Institute, "There has never been a more important time to address the technical and economic challenges facing U.S. manufacturing. Together with our partners, these projects have the potential to significantly reduce the barriers that prevent greater material reuse, remanufacturing and recycling."

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What do you do in your current role?
I am a Senior Director and the head of Nokia’s Circular Supply Chain. My organization is called SCO, which stands for Special Customer Operations and is structured inside the Supply Network & Engineering group. SCO is a closed loop supply chain in that we manage the take back, reverse logistics, disposition and restock of equipment that customers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) displace from their network as technology evolves. We also manage customer returns, field failures, lab closures, etc., as these are internal acquisition sources that yield valuable equipment.

The charter of SCO is to identify and develop demand for these acquisition streams and to "repurpose" this supply as Nokia branded remanufactured product. All remanufactured products have unique part numbers and are sold directly to end customers by Nokia sales teams driving high margin revenue to the business unit that owns the technology. The Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) used to measure the success of SCO are revenue, margin, cost avoidance, and inventory.

How long have you been in the remanufacturing industry?

I’ve been remanufacturing telecommunication products for 21 years starting in 1997 with Lucent Technologies. However, prior to that I worked for GTE Government Systems and project managed the rotation of central office (CO) switches owned by the US Army. These CO’s would come back to GTE to be upgrade & refurbished and resold back to the US Army as part of their field rotation programs. If you include this experience than I’ve been remanufacturing products since graduating from the University Massachusetts in 1984. In other words … a long time.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

The people. This industry is always fighting for respect and this builds a common bond between remanufacturing people inside and outside a company. I also like the fact that results are tangible and can be qualified and measured. These results can impact the bottom line of a company as well as impact our environment. It’s a job that makes a difference.

Why did you get involved with RIC?

Two reasons. The first is to stay current with what is trending in the world of remanufacturing and to help perpetuate this niche yet valuable supply chain practice. The second is to use my RIC affiliation to sell the value of my organization inside Nokia. To show that we are not unique and that other companies have adopted and in fact industrialized the practice.

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Bobcat remanufactured parts and components provide just-like-new performance and reliability at a low cost – while helping the environment. Plus, they’re readily available at your dealership. This gives you more economical options for repairs and replacements and helps your equipment quickly get back to work.

Remanufacturing returns a product to the same condition as when it was manufactured – or sometimes better in terms of durability, lifespan and performance. Because we are remanufacturing engines and components to same-as-new condition, we reduce waste going to a landfill and minimize the need for raw material to produce new parts. Through remanufacturing, we make important contributions to sustain our environment – keeping nonrenewable resources in circulation for multiple lifetimes.

Easily exchange worn out machine parts with remanufactured ones. Just bring them to your local dealer and use their value toward remanufactured replacements. It’s one more way we support your equipment and help lower your ownership costs.

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Progress Rail and Electro-Motive deliver a full range of cost-effective solutions to a broad spectrum of railway customers. Whether it rolls on the rail or is the rail itself, Progress Rail and Electro-Motive can provide new, remanufactured or recycled assets – offering customers one-stop shopping and comprehensive cradle-to-grave railway solutions.

We do this through two key business units: Locomotive and Railcar Services (LRS) and Engineering and Track Services (ETS).

As part of Progress Rail’s LRS division, Electro-Motive (also known as EMD) designs, builds, maintains and services a full range of locomotives, including freight, passenger, mining, and switching locomotives. EMD’s locomotives carry the Electro-Motive brand and are branded separately from Cat offerings, having a direct sales relationship to customers. Progress Rail’s LRS division pursues a similar branding and path to market, servicing rail cars, locomotives and a variety of other rolling stock. Progress Rail also supplies Cat diesel engines for the rail industry.

Progress Rail’s ETS division provides solutions for railway infrastructure, including new and used rail, rail welding, trackwork components, maintenance-of-way equipment, and signal devices. These products and services are branded as Progress Rail and sold direct to customers.