Quality Evaluation of Waste Electromechanical Remanufactured Product Based
on the User's Satisfaction
Wen-yong Zhou1,1, De-yong Zhang1,2, Ying Xu1,3
1
School of Economics & Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
(1zhouwyk@126.com, 2zdy0410@126.com, 3filwcy2003@sina.com)
Abstract - Waste machinery remanufacturing is a
producing behavior in recycling economy ， as well as a
manufacturing behavior facing to users. The aim of
remanufacture is not only making full use of resources, but
also satisfying user’s need. Since products are the material
links between enterprises and customers, and the quality of
which is the basic of achieving customers’ satisfaction, it is
particularly important to establish a quality evaluation
system of remanufacturing product based on user’s
satistacftion.From the user’s perspective, the obsjective and
pinciple of remanufactured product quality evaluation are
clarified, and the model of which is built after designing an
index system from four aspects based on user's
satisfaction,in order to provide new ideals and methods for
WERP(waste electromechanical remanufactured product)
quality management.
Keywords - Quality Evaluation ， Remanufacturing ，
User’s Satisfaction，WERP
I． Introduction
Remanufacturing of waste electromechanical product
becomes a very important part for accelerating the
develpoment of circular economy and building a
conservation-minded society to China, since the
conception of waste resources and efficient use was put
forward. Waste electromechanical remanufacturing is
widely concerned by academic community and enterprise
since it was first proposed in 1994. Researches have been
made from many respects such as the remanufacturability
[1]
, reverse logics of waste electromechanical [2] and so on.
What’s more, the businesses of waste electromechanical
remanufacturing are gradually carried out, and have made
a great progress. According to statistics, the scale of
global remanufacturing industry is more than $100 billion
at present, and remanufacturing industry of the United
States is the earliest, biggest and best development. While
the concept of remanufacturing engineering was not
introduced into China until 21st century, the industry has
only 10 years’ history with much smaller scales, which
needs further development.
At present, the research on WERP (waste
electromechanical remanufactured product) quality
evaluation is still limited. Fumihiko Kimura (1998)
proposed a method of quality evaluation for waste
electromechanical products by computer simulation, and
then took duplicating machine as an example [3]. Then, E.
Westkamper and Alting(2000) setting up an index system
with the method of life cycle management and LCM/A
method including five indexes such as the user’s demand,
product quality, cost savings, reducing the environmental
burden and global interests[4]. On the basis of the analysis
of the sources and characteristics of the quality volatility,
Ju-Kun Yao (2006) put forward the remanufacturing
process quality control methods based on the total quality
management, statistical process control of the
remanufacturing process and the quality control
technology of the remanufactured product [5]. Fei Li
combined the evalution index of the remanufactured
product quality and the degree of customers’ satisfaction
on the basis of the QFD method, then built the product
remanufacturing quality evaluation house, calculated the
importance of WERP evaluation index [6].These studies
realized the importance of WERP evaluation, and put
forward some indexes and methods to evaluate the
quality. But there is still lack of a systematic and
comprehensive index system, and technical methods of
remanufactured product evaluation is needed.
Since quality of remanufactured product is the key
factor of successful remanufacturing, product quality
evaluation is of great importance to insure the quality of
WERP. In this paper, combining the features of general
product quality evaluation and WERP, a remanufactured
product quality evaluation index system is put forward
based on the user's satisfaction, and then a
remanufactured product quality evaluation model is
established, which is conducive to resolve a series of
problems in quality evaluation of WERP. We hope to
provide the waste electromechanical remanufacturing
enterprise a new approach to evaluate WERP, and change
the bias of remanufactured products’ quality assurance,
thus promoting the development of the remanufacturing
industry in China.
II． Objective and the System of Remanufacured Product
Quality Evaluation
It is required that the quality and performance of
WERP should be greater or equal to the original ones, in
order to achieve the multiple life cycles and products’
sustainable development, in addition with life cycle cost
reducing, resource saving, and pollution decreasing.
Meanwhile ， remanufacturing industry also creates a
large number of employment opportunities, which will
become a new and rapid growth point of social economy
[7]
.Therefore, the purpose of WERP quality evaluation is
to ensure the WERP performance and quality, which
needs to find the key process influencing WERP quality
by tracking all aspects of the process, thus making
improvements of overall efficiency and high quality,
finally achieving user’s satisfaction.
Based on user’s needs and the characteristics of
electromechanical products, an index system which
contains product life, technical performance, reliability,
user-friendly and economic performance is built [89101112],
showing as Table 1.
Table I
WERP Quality Evaluation Index System Based on the User's
Satisfaction
First class index
Product life
Second class index
Index explanation
Economic life
Life of
remanufactured
product
Whether
performance
indicators improve or
not
Physical life
Technical
performance
Running Speed
Processing Efficiency
Reliability
Security
Persistence
User-friendly
Handle convenient
Humanness
Economic
performance
Purchase expense
Whether the product
safe and reliable or
not
Whether user
interface convenient
or not
The economic
performance and the
sum of product life
cycle costs
Mainly related to the life of the WERP are economic
life and physical life. For users, the physical life of the
product must meet or exceed the economic life; the value
of the product must exceed the total cost of the product in
life cycle.To meet the needs of users, the remanufactured
products must achieve the physical wear and obsolescence
synchronization. Due to remanufactured products is
affected by recycled parts, yet the enhancement of the
technical performance can slow the loss, so
remanufacturing project is best to extend the overall life
cycle of WERP.
The technical performance of the product describes
the basic functions of the product and its technical
indicators, including running speed and processing
efficiency, present product technical performance
indicators can be used as the basis of the evaluation.
Speed is the assurance of processing efficiency, and
processing efficiency is a concentrated expression of the
product technical performance. Remanufactured products
need to improve speed, enhance processing efficiency on
the basis of the original product to better serve users. All
of this needs to make the creation and progress of the
process[13].
The reliability of WERP mainly inspects on the
sustainability
and
security
of
remanufactured
products.Sustainability refers to the product trouble-free
operation for a long time, the average failure probability
is low, fault repair is relatively easy and fast. The safety
of products means that remanufacturing has effective
security measures and equipment, low probability of
accident, the lowest accident danger and damage even
improper operation happened to protect the user's
security.
User-friendly shows in the convenient operation of
WERP and the humanness degree of the user's
interface.Remanufactured products need to be easy to
operate, major operating facilities and equipments should
be placed in the easy getting location, the equipment
generally balanced, and must easy to use.The Humanness
of the user interface is reflected in corresponding with the
public body, habits,behavior and operating characteristics,
Then try to meet the special needs of specific areas, and
develope a variety of modes for users to choose to ensure
customers’ satisfaction as far as possible.
Economic performance is that the acquisition cost of
WERP and cycle usage fees must be reasonable.
Acquisition cost is a one-time cost, but the cost of the
period of use is a long-term and continuous expenditure.
Many producers have ignored these important costs,
resulting in large losses.In order to ensure reasonable
indicators of cost-effectiveness of remanufactured
products and reduce customers' total spending for
customer satisfaction, economic performance requires
total cycle of the product at a reasonable cost and usage
charges to a minimum [14].
III．The Remanufacured Product Quality Evaluation
Model Based on the User’s Satisfaction
From user’s perspective, this article constructs
WERP quality index system which contains product life,
technical performance, reliability, user-friendly and
economic performance based on the evaluation target of
remanufactured products. That requires the application of
some methods such as literature review, brainstorming,
performance evaluation, telephone interviews and depth
of research method for the derivation and calculation of
the evaluation model. As a conclusion, WERP quality
evaluation model is shown as Figure 1.
Evaluation
objectives
Assess the quality of remanufacturing product, enhance and improve to meet users
Related
subjects
The
evaluation
process
Influencin
g factors
Evaluatio
n criteria
Evaluatio
n process
Solution
Remanufacturer
Assessment of
remanufactured
products
Raise
questions
Users
To improve
Process of
remanufacturing
Raw materials
Delivered to the
user
Assessment methods
Technical
performance
Reliability
User-friendly
Economic
performance
Determine
objectives
confirm the
index
Establish system
Select methods
Calculus of
cases
Literature review
Histogram
Pareto chart
Fishbone diagram
Literature review
Research
interviews
Brainstorming
Product life
Depth investigation
Questionnaire
Brainstorming
Performance evaluation
method
Balanced scorecard
Fuzzy Comprehensive
Evaluation
Data envelopment analysis
Analytic Hierarchy Process
Hierarchical network analysis
Full-cycle assessment method
Literature review
Telephone
interviews
Field research
Software operations
Figure. 1. WERP Quality Evaluation Model Based on the User's
Satisfaction
As the figure shows, the implementation of quality
evaluation begins with determining the objectives and
impact factors of quality evaluation. The purpose of that
is to improve the WERP quality and achieve user’s
satisfaction by assessing. Since the subject is WERP, the
evaluation factors include raw materials, remanufacturing
process and evaluation model: Raw materials are the
rough and parts of waste electromechanical, and the
performance of that is directly relevant to the final quality
of remanufactured product; Remanufacturing process
consists of testing, cleaning, disassembling, repairing and
re-assembling, and any improper operation of these
processes will lead to quality problem; Finally different
assessment methods will produce different results. After
the evaluation of remanufacturing product based on usercentered thinking, re-manufacturers should find the
problems of raw materials or remanufacturing process,
and make improvements and adjustments by analyzing the
root causes of these problems until the product meets all
the requirements and being delivered to the user. During
the process, evaluation and improvement may cycle many
times, in order to find a series of problems in the system
and modify.
As for the index weight in particular, the scores of
each indicator are given using the quantitative and
qualitative methods under the guidance of the five
indicators. After determining the index weight with a
qualitative and quantitative method [15], the performance
of each index should be scored by experts and users, thus
caculating the score of remanufacturing product and each
indicator. Then analyses the final results, to identify the
problems and find where can be improved.
IV．Conclusion
In this paper, a quality evaluation index system and
an evaluation model of WERP is established from a new
point of view. When putting forward the index system
aspects such as product life, technical performance,
reliability, user-friendly and economic performance have
been concerned. Then a quality evaluation model of
remanufactured product is constructed based on user’s
satisfaction, and the evaluation process of that is
described and explained. Finally propose some solutions
for some practical problems.
Nevertheless, there are still some inadequacies in this
study. First, the specific quantitative of evaluation index
system requires a certain mathematical means, such as the
analytic hierarchy process to determine the index weight,
in which actual cases is needed to support and inspected.
In addition, differences of evaluation index system from
various enterprises being selected cannot be neglected.
Therefore, combining the specific requirements of
different enterprises, and establishing a rational evaluation
index system still needs further discussion.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by a grant from the
program on "Twelfth Five-Year" Plan for Chinese
National Science and Technology Development, the
project on "Technology Standard Development and
Evaluation Research of Scrap Metal Products Recycling"
(No. 2011BAC10B08).
REFERENCES
[] Robert T. Lund, “Remanufacturing : The experience of the
USA and implications for the developing countries,” World
Bank Technical Paper, 1984.
[2] Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Raymond A. Patterson, Erik
Rolland, “The design of reverse distribution networks:
models and solution procedures,” European Journal of
Operational Research, vol. 150, no. 1, pp. 128-149, 2003
[3] Fumihiko Kimura，“Product quality evaluation based on
behavior simulation of used products ,” Manufacturing
Technology .vol.47,pp. 119-122,1998.
[4] E.Westkamper, Alting.Life, “Cycle management and
assessment: approaches and visions towards sustainable
manufacturing,” CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology,
Vol. 49, no. 2, pp.501-526, 2000.
[5] Ju-Kun Yao, Jun-Er Yang, Sheng Zhu. “Quality control in
remanufacturing waste product,”(in Chinese), China
Surface Engineering, vol.19, no.5, pp. 115-117, 2006.
[6] Fei Li, Tian-Shi Li, Hong Shen, “Study of importance
calculation method of quality evaluation indexes for
remanufacturing”(in Chinese), Machine tool & Hydraulics,
vol.37,no.6,pp. 38-41,2009.
[7] Ju-Kun Yao, Pei-Zhi Cui, Yong-Hua Xiang, “Approaches
choosing analysis of resource recovery for used electro
mechanic products,”(in Chinese), Resource Recycling.
Vol.6, pp. 16-17, 2009.
[8] Ai-Ling Zhang. “Quality evaluation of the mechanical and
electrical products”(in Chinese), Journal of Zhengzhou
Institute
of
Aeronautical
Industry
Management
College,vol.3,pp. 22-23,1988
[9] Xiao-Wei Wang, Jian-Feng Li. “A life cycle assessment
indicators system and quantification methods of
electromechanical products” (in Chinese), Journal of
Shandong university(Engineering science), vol.39.no.5,pp.
73-78,2009.
[10] Xian-Fang Li, “Analysis of the comprehensive benefit in
the recycling of mechanical ＆ electric products,”(in
Chinese), Mechanical Science and Technology for
Aerospace Engineering, vol.6, pp. 759-753, 2010.
[11] Liu Chun, Cao Hua-jun, “Comprehensive assessmentmodel
and its application of waste electromechanical products
greenremanufacturing”(in Chinese),Modern Manufacturing
Engineering, vol.11, pp. 1-3, 2007
[12] A. Coulibaly, R. Houssin, B. Mutel, “Maintainability and
safety indicators at design stage for mechanical products,”
Computers in Industry,vol.59,pp. 438–449, 2008.
[13] Zang Hai-xiu, Liu Xiao-xu, “The green degree evaluation
system of electromechanical products,” (in Chinese),
Machine Building & Automation, vol.6,pp. 14-16,2007
[14] Zhigang Jiang, Hua Zhang, John W. Sutherland.
“Development of multi-criteria decision making model for
remanufacturingtechnology portfolio selection,” Journal of
Cleaner Production, vol.19, pp. 1939-1945, 2011
[15] Zeng Li, Wang Zhang-he. “Fuzzy comprehensive quality
assessment of electromechanical products,” Journal of
Yang zhou University, vol.10, no.4, pp. 46-48, 2007.