Standards Development

Scope

This standard specifies remanufacturing quality classes for several aspects of process quality. This document thus defines expectations for a process related to a class as in this document, as well as the limits of those expectations. Furthermore, the quantification of product circularity-oriented Reman-indices for products from remanufacturing processes, as well as their transparent communication is defined. In addition, this standard specifies used parts in terms of their intended use and properties in such a way that they are not considered as waste.

The scope are therefore remanufacturing processes, as well as remanufacturing products along their entire lifecycle which are both not represented in European standards yet.

Purpose

Remanufacturing (reman) is a central process of a Circular Economy (CE) and offers significant economic, environmental as well as social advantages compared to product recycling. In addition, remanufacturing often has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the linear production of new products.

Today, the absence of a cross-sectoral standard leads to the fact that manufacturers and consumers are not able to understand what can and cannot be expected from a particular remanufacturing process and its products. The lack of a standard dealing with the basis of remanufacturing leads to various legal and market barriers that currently hinder the great potential of remanufacturing.

The results of the application of the proposed EN are intended to support consumers during pruchase decisions of remanufactures products, suppliers according to defined classes of process quality and circularity-oriented indicators and finally creates trust in remanufacturing through standardized transparency. A clear terminology defines remanufacturing products as new products and used parts as the inputs of remanufacturing processes in a way that they are not considered as waste. The process quality evaluation provides every single remanufacturing process with a specific quality “fingerprint”.

Currently, no EN is focusing on remanufacturing processes, but only on the ability to remanufacture linearly produced new products (EN 45553 and NWIP in CEN CENELEC JTC 10 “General method for assessing the ability of a product to be remanufactured or refurbished”). The proposed EN also includes product circularity-oriented indices applicable to all products of value-retention processes including remanufacturing, since existing circularity indicators are not able to reliably evaluate products of these types of processes. This topic and the scope of remanufacturing products with their lifecycle is also not covered by existing standards yet. These core elements should be flanked by a common introduction to remanufacturing for readers that are not familiar with the topic, by a generic comparison of remanufacturing products and linearly produced new products, as well as by recommendations how to communicate the process quality matrix and related indicators.

Note: The proposed EN would be based on DIN SPEC 91472:2023-06