Remanufacturing involves taking products to a like-new condition and is accomplished through a variety of processes and advanced by new technologies like 3-D printing.
This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series, which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.
Derrick Gaddis knew his equipment was nearing the end of its useful life. Two of his logging skidders — the heavy-duty machines that haul cut timber — needed to be replaced. But most manufacturers at the time had shifted gears to bigger and heavier models, he said, and no longer made the size of skidders required for what is known as selective harvesting, the type of logging his company does.
He and his co-owners of Henderson Timber Inc., in Sigel, Ill., devised a solution: What if John Deere, the original manufacturer, could remanufacture the skidder to repair and upgrade it, comporting with current technology? Deere, which already had remanufactured some of its products, was receptive. A beta test in the woods was in the works.
Read the full article in the New York Times