PURE: A Fuzzy Model for Product Upgradability and Reusability Evaluation for Remanufacture

Remanufacture strategy has been broadly applied to curb the environmental impacts of waste from discarded products. The strategy strives for waste reduction by promoting reutilisation and service life extension of end-of-life products. However, challenged by fast changing technologies and fashions, to rebuild a product just “as it is (or was)” often falls short in making it favourable in the market environment. It is important that the upgrade strategy can be incorporated with remanufacture to achieve a real effective reutilisation of products. In this paper, a mathematical model of product upgradability is proposed to measure a product’s potential to accommodate incremental changes/improvements in its functionality during remanufacture. By using fuzzy set theory, the evaluation model represents and examines the product’s fitness in terms of its technological, functional, physical, as well as structural characteristics, providing a number of indications for further improvement to base on.