Linear material flows dominate in the Swedish manufacturing industry, and knowledge on remanufacturing as a value-retention process remains limited. Today, only a limited amount of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) for consumer goods (that are acquired for personal use), such as laptops and mobile phones, are remanufactured in Sweden.

More support is needed to enhance the remanufacturization (a shift towards remanufacturing) of manufacturing industries by targeting manufacturers that have prerequisites and/or show interest in implementing remanufacturing on their products (later called developing remanufacturing industries). One way to support the developing remanufacturing industries could be by providing a tool to assesses manufacturers’ potential with remanufacturing. The aim of this paper is to introduce such a tool, called the RemometerTM, and to present this approach to measure a company’s remanufacturing readiness level (RRL). The data was collected through a literature study and semi-structured interviews to fulfill the aim of this paper. The authors’ research on lean remanufacturing, in collaboration with EEE, automotive, heavy equipment and machinery manufacturers, service/maintenance providers and retailers, laid the basis for developing the RemometerTM tool.  

By assessing 15 subjects shared between four critical to remanufacturing areas, namely, business model, production system, product and customer, manufacturers can measure their remanufacturing readiness level and a gap towards a world-class remanufacturer. However, neither RRL nor a gap is a purpose of the RemometerTM tool, but a useful measure to communicate to top managers on a manufacturer’s potential to become more circular through remanufacturing. RemometerTM is developed to support the remanufacturization of a Swedish EEE manufacturer of consumer goods and can be applied at other developing remanufacturing industries.