Aftermarket November 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 AFTERMARKET 53 that are as good as new, tested as new and perform in that way for the lifetime of the part. And with the time, research, and investment we have put into electric steering, we are confident that the Shaftec brand name will increasingly become synonymous with this product area. Remanufacturing is an excellent compromise in terms of the environment by reducing emissions, energy use and reusing existing materials. In terms of cost and value for money, it’s a better deal all round. Remanufactured parts generally carry the same warranties as OEM parts and VMs are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities provided by remanufacturing to extend service life agreements and provide cost-effective solutions for older vehicles. “Although it’s definitely the way forward, remanufacturing can be challenging and obtaining core in a fit state to remanufacture can be difficult. When working with safety critical parts which need to be disassembled, reprocessed, rebuilt and tested, damaged core just isn’t suitable. So, we invest heavily in the quality of the return and the source of collection. Prediction is a big part of the job of a remanufacturer and forecasting reverse material flow can be problematic. Because inventory is often only replenished when supply of that particular part runs out, there’s an inherent uncertainty in delivery lead times; meaning it’s difficult to use standardized approaches for used materials and parts inventory replenishment. To compensate for this, and to be well prepared, on site at Shaftec we hold a healthy stock of core units awaiting remanufacturing and actively source rare and required core to keep our availability high. In addition, to avoid any availability issues we always carry up to six months’ worth of stock at any one time.” High quality Commenting on DENSO’s remanufacturing programme, DENSO Europe, Pan European Strategic Marketing Manager Fatiha Laauich noted: “Our aim is to deliver high quality products of the same standards as the original component on the vehicle, but manufactured in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. As the component in question is exactly the same in terms of its quality, the question becomes which they prefer; A remanufactured unit that is more environmentally friendly and cheaper to purchase, or a completely new one?” On the difference between remanufacture and repair, Fatiha commented: “An example of a repair, would be if there was a problem with a solenoid on a starter for example, which could simply be replaced and the fault rectified. In contrasted, remanufacture is when the unit is completely disassembled and every component is cleaned, examined, tested and recycled, or if necessary, replaced. It is then rebuilt and tested against the standard of the original unit, so that as far as its performance and reliability is concerned, it will become, in effect, a new unit. “However, a distinction needs to be made when it comes to diesel components such as injectors, which due to their complexity cannot be repaired in the sense of replacing just one small part, they have to be completely remanufactured. There are two sides of remanufacturing for diesel pumps and injectors. The first is the remanufacture of diesel injectors carried out by DENSO in our own facilities, which is an operation only for our VM partners and their dealer network, whereas remanufactured diesel parts for the independent aftermarket are provided through our DENSO Service Repair Network.” Going into more detail on the DENSO Service Repair Network, Fatiha said: “This network of made up of independent diesel specialists, based throughout Europe, that are trained by DENSO and are able to remanufacture these components to the same OE standards as ourselves, with the only meaningful difference being that they are more limited in their production capacity compared to our mass production focused facilities. It’s worth adding that the DENSO Service Repair Network is an important part of DENSO’s service and repair solution for the independent aftermarket, because it gives provides workshops, and even the owner of the vehicle, a comprehensive diesel support package that means that any diesel fault can be diagnosed and repaired by a true specialist, with an extremely high level of competence. The network therefore follows our QCD (quality, cost and delivery) principle, and means that an end-user can simply walk in with a problem and leave with a high quality, low cost and quick delivery solution.” On the environmental impact, Fatiha observed: “Our philosophy is to reuse as much as possible and in the case of alternators this is usually around 85% and with batteries it’s close to 90%, which automatically provides great environmental gains, but there are also considerable CO2 reductions in not having to produce every part from scratch, so indeed the process is considerably more environmentally friendly. At the moment, it is only the nickel batteries primarily used for hybrid vehicles, not pure electric lithium batteries, which are extremely difficult to remanufacture. We presently only carry out this process for our VM partners and are the only company that does this in a mass production capacity, and it is there to support the VM dealer network. As an example of our battery remanufacturing capacity, we can test 16 batteries a day.”