7. Conclusions

In conclusion, remanufacturing of customer claims and deadstock is dependent on a variety of aspects related to managerial decision-making on an industry-, system- and process-level, along with consumer perceived values in order to meet market demand and facilitate the adoption of remanufacturing activities in collaborative networks. The following sections define the key decision variables, critical success factors, and assess the economic feasibility of the remanufactured collection for the project and its stakeholders.

7. 1 Key decision variables

The key decision variables in relation to the implementation of remanufacturing activities or business models are the following: Industry-level: –To attract more customers through personal interest and attitude towards remanufactured products, companies need to understand the factors that influence the customers’ acceptance process, as well as communicate their environmental initiatives (consumer perspective).

System-level –Marketing the personal benefit for the customers, such as emotional value and environmental impact will increase the demand for remanufactured products (marketing strategy perspective).

Process-level –A solid flow of reliable end-of-use materials enhances the interest of adopting remanufacturing activities within remanufacturers and brands (core perspective). –Technology is crucial for establishing remanufacturing processes and creating efficient information and material flows between the stakeholders (operational perspective).

The key decision variables are the enabling conditions defined through the systematic literature review, that the practitioners participating in the first sub-study found to be the most likely to occur, along with having the highest impact on the industry. While identified through different perspectives, all key decision variables identified as most relevant relate to supply and demand. Starting from the consumer perspective on the industry-level, which was found to have most impact and most probable to occur, consumer perceived values need to be understood and taken into account when communicating remanufacturing activities. As identified from previous literature, marketing the personal benefit to customers related to emotional and environmental values are most relevant, aligning with the results from the second sub-study. Furthermore, by implementing new technologies, and communicating the benefits of remanufacturing to stakeholders in the whole value chain, a solid flow of materials and information should be created, facilitating the establishment of remanufacturing processes.

7.2 Critical success factors

Critical success factors for successful adoption of remanufacturing activities or business models in the transition towards sustainability are the following: –High quality and solid flow of waste material –Collaboration and coordination throughout the value chain

–Streamlined and flexible reverse flows and remanufacturing processes –Determining the correct value of the waste material for pricing of the remanufactured products to meet customer demand while avoiding cannibalisation –Enforcement of standards and guidelines for certified processes and products –Enforcement of legislations supporting and facilitating the implementation of remanufacturing –Educating stakeholders in the whole value chain, including raw material suppliers and end customers

While the proposed critical success factors summarise most relevant aspects to be considered, based on the project conclusions, further studies need to be concluded on scaled-up cases to be able to make concrete conclusions.

7.3 Feasibility assessment

The economic feasibility has been calculated based on the break-even point for the brand’s profit margin, when implementing remanufacturing activities with customer claims and deadstock apparel in collaborative networks. First, refurbishing of coats is estimated to be economically feasible in both scenarios, due to the higher value of the garments, even after decreasing the new retail price based on the state and complexity of activities required for refurbishment. Secondly, based on the chosen styles that were redesigned through recoupling and reconstruction, all styles besides T-shirts are economically feasible to remanufacture. With T-shirts being of lower value, and higher costs related to remanufacturing in a high-cost country such as Sweden, remanufacturing is not estimated to be feasible. In comparison, products such as coats, and vests and bags reconstructed from jackets become more valuable to the customer due to novel design solutions. While Scenario 4 that presented a 25% increase in the retail price, also presented economic feasibility in terms of the cost-benefit estimation for the T-shirts, it may not reflect covering overhead costs, that have not been considered in these calculations. However, the economic feasibility needs to further investigated by taking into account the direct and overhead costs, along with a net profit for the brand for a better understanding of the feasibility on an industrial level to interest more fashion brands, retailers and OEMs/remanufacturers to explore novel remanufacturing business models.