The remanufacturing industry as a whole and the automotive sector in particular have, over the years, proven to be\r\nbeneficial to the environment and economically lucrative to the companies involved as well as to their customers.\r\nHowever, remanufacturing is associated with complicating characteristics, not least to mention the process of core\r\nacquisition.\r\nThe automotive industry is one of the earliest adapters of remanufacturing. Parts like engines, brake calipers and\r\nservo pumps are common targets for remanufacturing. Modern cars also have several embedded computers, often\r\nreferred to as electronic control units that communicate, share information and verify each other over a Controller\r\nArea Network (CAN) bus. Due to their high value and an increasing trend in the amount of CAN bus mechatronic\r\ndevices, interest in their remanufacture is growing.\r\nPrevious research has shown that it is preferable that the remanufacturer is an original equipment manufacturer\r\n(OEM), or has a close relation to the OEM, in order to achieve a well-performing remanufacturing business. In the\r\nautomotive industry, there are many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that perform remanufacturing; for\r\nthese enterprises, the challenges to have a profitable business are even harder. This is because the OEMs will not\r\nrelease any information on the communication parameters and therefore will not support the independent\r\nremanufacturing business. As a consequence, the independent remanufacturers, often SMEs, have to perform\r\nsubstantial reverse engineering.\r\nThis paper presents a qualitative research study, based on interviews at SMEs regarding challenges linked to the\r\nreverse logistics of SMEs remanufacturing and trading used automotive mechatronic devices, to identify specific\r\nchallenges concerning the collection phase of automotive mechatronic remanufacturing. Challenges previously\r\nidentified by researchers are confirmed, additional challenges within the collection phase are recognized, and\r\nchallenges expected to arise when remanufacturing and trading automotive electronic CAN bus mechatronic\r\ndevices are identified. The major concern for the involved companies when commencing future challenges is the\r\nhandling, transportation and storing of cores. Even though the cores today mainly consist of mechanical devices,\r\nthese challenges are still present; they are expected, however, to become even more crucial when cores contain a\r\nhigher degree of mechatronic devices.
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