The German manufacturing industry faces challenges posed by resource scarcity and unstable supply chains. The transition to a circular economy offers opportunities to increase resource efficiency and reduce dependencies. SMEs, in particular, need external expertise to develop suitable strategies and implement them cost-effectively. The introduction of circular approaches, such as reuse and recycling, places new demands on logistics. Reverse logistics is gaining importance as products must be returned and remanufactured, which brings new cost structures and opportunities for SMEs.
The goal of this research project is to assess the impact of product architectures on recycling already in the early stages of product development. To this end, dependencies between product architectures and recycling logistics processes will be analyzed to identify the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly recycling strategy. The research project focuses on the household and home appliances product group.
The research project is divided into several work packages. The first work package analyzes the processes and costs of forward and reverse logistics. In parallel, the second work package conducts a product-architecture analysis of household and home-automation appliances. The third work package examines the relationships and dependencies between reverse logistics and product architectures. Building on this, a process model will be developed to determine the appropriate reverse logistics process based on the product architecture. In the fifth work package, the process model will be implemented in a software tool and evaluated.
The IGF project 01IF24714N of the German Logistics Association (BVL) is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as part of the program to promote industrial collaborative research (IGF), pursuant to a resolution of the German Bundestag.