Remanufacturing

We don’t just repair, we remanufacture. Remanufacturing means making something to its original condition, using  reused or repaired elements as well as new parts.

Remanufacturing is a radical act

The office furniture sector wants you to buy new – that is the linear economy’s take-make-waste model. But throw-away thinking is damaging our planet and economy.

There is a better way: Remanufacturing is a circular solution that uses quality-controlled engineering processes and achieves British Standards. It is used in products ranging from photocopiers to Caterpillar engines – and it’s perfect for office furniture.

For 10 years Rype has pioneered remanufacturing technologies and techniques to bring furniture back to new. That’s 50,000 items of furniture for over 600 projects.

Example: Removing scratches

Rype was awarded a grant by InnovateUK to develop techniques to remove scratches from plastic – because no-one could do it so scratched furniture was being sent to landfill. We now have 4 techniques.

Remanufacturing is not the same as refurbishing. Refurbished furniture has had work done on key problems, such as replacing worn upholstery, while remanufactured office furniture is disassembled and rebuilt according to the original design.

The photocopier industry was an early adopter of remanufacturing; if you have a photocopier by Ricoh, Fuji, Xerox and Kyocera, then the chances are you already have a remanufactured item in your office.

And in many important ways, remanufactured is better than new, particularly for office furniture.

Remanufacturing is better than new

Cost Savings

Remanufacturing checks, resurfaces and redeploys the long-life components of furniture (like steel frames), which are expensive to make from virgin resources. So remanufactured furniture is typically less than half the cost of the new list price, with no loss of quality. 

Social value

Because remanufacturing occurs locally, it creates UK jobs. The disassembly, remanufacturing and reassembly required creates twice as many jobs as assembling from virgin materials.

For large projects where a meaningful period of employment can be provided, Rype employs local disadvantaged staff. For example, eight long term unemployed with disabilities were engaged for a project in Wales, creating an employment pathway that resulted in three finding full time positions at the end of the project.

Green Accreditation

Remanufacturing reduces embodied carbon emissions and waste, so is recognised with BREEAM, LEED and SKA credits. Furniture over 18 months old is WELL compliant and we know and control all of the substances going into our products.

Environmental Sustainability

Remanufacturing returns items to their original condition. Avoided raw material mining reduces damage to biodiversity and preserves finite resources, avoided transport saves greenhouse gas emissions and avoided processing from virgin raw materials saves substantial energy and water.

Remanufacturing also avoids the cost and environmental damage of waste. WRAP estimates that, in 2012, 75,000 tonnes of office furniture was sent to landfill in the UK.

Experts have quantified the benefits from remanufacturing to be:

  • 85% production energy use reduction (Giuntini & Gaudette, 2003)
  • 80% materials saving (McKenna, 2012)
  • >90% water saving (Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC))
  • >80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (ARTC)

Customisation

Remanufactured furniture can be tailored for your office – from bespoke colours & finishes to sizing tables to maximise occupancy without affecting user comfort. Combine your existing furniture (remanufactured, of course) with externally sourced remanufactured pieces and sustainable new items for a stylish, contemporary, sustainable office.

National benefits

Remanufacturing improves the national balance of payments – which means we are sending less of our country’s wealth overseas. Resource security is improved because so we rely less for our prosperity on the supply of virgin materials from other countries. It also creates jobs, stimulating the national economy and increasing the tax base to benefit everyone.

Provenance

Remanufactured furniture often has a story. For example, we provided Public Health Wales with desks from the James Bond movie Spectre. 

Quality

When remanufacturing, we apply seven layers of quality:

  • Brands. We remanufacture office furniture from high quality brands, including Vitra, Herman Miller, Orangebox and Senator, because they have timeless aesthetics, quality components and modern ergonomic adjustments.
  • Materials.  We use high quality materials suppliers like Camira and Egger and pass through their warranties.
  • Equipment. We use precision equipment to produce flawless finishes.
  • Technology. We adopt the latest technologies and develop new techniques to restore furniture to pristine condition.
  • Processes. We disassemble, check parts, resurface, replace worn components, assemble, test and inspect.
  • Structural checks. Our Structural Engineer ensures that items exceed British Standards for strength and serviceability.
  • Warranty. We warrant our workmanship.

No compromises. We stand behind our work by guaranteeing to take our furniture back when you no longer need it to remanufacture it for further lives.

See the quality of our remanufactured furniture for yourself in our projects.

Contact us

Let us know how we can help you with furniture remanufacturing.

References:

Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre, Singapore, website http://www.artc.a-star.edu.sg/about-artc/remanufacturing.aspx [accessed April 2014].

Giuntini, R., Gaudette, K. Remanufacturing: The next great opportunity for boosting US productivity, Business Horizons, Nov-Dec 2003, p. 44.

McKenna, R. President and CEO, Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, Testimony before the International Trade Commission on: Remanufactured Goods: An Overview of the U.S. and Global Industries, Markets, and Trade, Investigation No. 332-525, Feb 2012.

Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Furniture Mass and Product Flow Data to Inform Re-use Market Development in the UK, Oct 2013.