Product end-of-life in the motorcycle industry:an integrated management perspective

Moving from the principle of "extended producer responsibility" (Directive 2000/53CE), a project has been recently started in collaboration with a number of companies from the motorcycle industry located in Italy. This project aims at studying the possibility of recovering and recycling components and materials resulting from the end-of-life collection of assembled products, esp. in the motorcycle industry. The main objective is to identify opportunities to improve the functional, economic and environmental performance of products and production systems, along the supply chain, by integrating into existing or alternative processes the flows of materials and components resulting from the disassembly of end-of-life products. The theoretical framework is based on the principles of Eco-efficiency and Industrial ecology. For the design and management issues Eco-design and Reverse Logistics tools will be used. The options of improvement will be assessed by means of Life Cycle Oriented tools to identify those scenarios that would feature the lowest overall environmental impact, and, consistently with that, an improved operational and economic performance of the industrial network in which they will be implemented. The project mainly focuses on the following issues: materials choice, product structure, production processes, recovering/recycling processes; disassembly, identification tools and traceability of components and materials; packaging, handling systems, logistics organisation; management accounting and costs accounting. Project outcomes are expected to provide significant insights on: i) the potential reduction of the overall environmental impacts generated by the systems under analysis, esp. related to the end-of-life product management, as well as the use of resources as an input to production processes: ii) the potential competitiveness increase of the manufacturing system, as a result of reducing waste and maximising the recovery of materials and components, with a subsequent enhancement of their economic lives. In this paper the overall project is outlined and results of preliminary analyses are presented: this phase includes all the activities aimed at recognizing the current state of products (materials and components), processes and production systems; data collected will be used to formulate hypotheses and identify alternative recycling scenarios.