Remanufacturing is an important component of a resource-efficient manufacturing industry [see e.g. Rose and Ishii 1999; Steinhilper 1998; Sundin and Lee 2011]. By keeping components and their embodied material in use for a longer period of time, significant energy use and emissions to air and water (e.g. CO₂ and SO₂) can be avoided. According to Sundin and Lee [2011], environmental comparisons of remanufacturing versus new manufacturing and/or material recycling show environmental benefits for remanufacturing. This is due to alleviation of depletion of resources, reduction of global warming potential, and better chances to close the loop for safer handling of toxic materials [Sundin and Lee 2011]. In addition to its environmental benefits, remanufacturing provides opportunities for the creation of highly skilled jobs and economic growth.

In order to make remanufacturing businesses more beneficial, product information should be accessible for the remanufacturing personnel and the products should be adapted for the remanufacturing process [Sundin and Bras 2005]. Although previous research identified information that could be fed back to the design phase from remanufacturing [e.g. Lindkvist and Sundin 2012] (see Table 1), such information is not often available in the design phase [Lindkvist and Sundin 2015]. Design for remanufacturing (DfRem) aims at facilitating the remanufacturing process so that e.g. disassembly, cleaning, reprocessing and reassembly are facilitated [Sundin and Bras 2005]. However, products are often not designed for remanufacture [Sundin and Bras 2005; Hatcher et al. 2011], although there do exist guidelines for design for remanufacturing [see e.g. Charter and Gray 2008, Sundin and Bras 2005].

Successful integration of DfRem requires support on a strategic as well a tactical level, i.e. both what to do and how to do it [Yang et al. 2014]. Further, Hatcher et al. [2014] point out a gap in research regarding the operational factors influencing DfRem integration into the design process. In their findings, external factors such as customer demand and internal factors such as the OEM-remanufacturer relationship were identified. This paper addresses the combination of the strategic and tactical approaches, targeting the internal factors affecting DfRem integration into the design process. The proposed method is directed at companies that include both design and remanufacturing in their operations, and specifically supports integration of information from remanufacturing into the design process in order to better adapt products for remanufacturing.