The circular industry, working area of the ACEDE Cluster

The circular industry, working area of the ACEDE Cluster

Refabrication or remanufacturing
The refabrication or remanufacturing process is the returning of a product to a state of equivalent or superior quality to the original product, with a guarantee that is equivalent or better than the original product. It requires a high industrial mastery and knowledge of industrial parts. ACEDE began to investigate the possibilities offered by remanufacturing in the Gipuzkoa region in 2015. Since then we have carried out activities related to analysis work and company action, plus advisory and training activities in this field.

Remanufacturing.fr

Research work:

In 2015, Remanufacturing Gipuzkoa was introduced. This is a project funded by the Department of Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa whose aim was to raise awareness of this activity among industrial companies and entities in Gipuzkoa. A commission from IHOBE for a study called Remanufacturing Euskadi in 2016 was a direct result of the project. The aim was to carry out an initial diagnosis of the reality of Basque Country reconditioning and remanufacturing activities in industry. Subsequently, GUREAK Industrial commissioned us to explore business options in remanufacturing. In 2017, Recup-Reman began with an initial exploration of remanufacturing options for household appliances for the Emaús Social Foundation.

Actions:

Renode was a 2017 initiative in which the companies Emaus Gipuzkoa, Indumetal, Motorlan, Talleres Arrano and Sareteknika took part. Its aim was to learn from other REMAN experiences, utilising achievements and mistakes to dynamise new processes in collaboration to generate new experiences and fresh knowledge.

Advice:

Aitor San Francisco PhD Thesis. “Framework For The Analysis Of The Life Cycle Of Remanufactured Products. Application To The Environmental Impact Of Servomotors”.

Dynamisation for the creation of a new company: Circular REPLAY

In view of its track record in remanufacturing, the Mondragón Promotion Centre came to ACEDE with a possible business opportunity for diversification in the field of remanufacturing and the circular industrial economy. A dynamic for exploration of the possibilities for Mondragon companies and a dynamic for collaboration between interested companies in the cluster were carried out. This involved Mondragon Components and Sareteknika, and the company providing the technology and knowledge in the new field of application, Exxita Be Circular. This intensive dynamic identified the potential common interests of the parties, the resources available and the willingness to create a new joint venture: CIRCULAR REPLAY. This new company was created on 3 February 2023 with the participation of Mondragon Componentes, Mondragon and Exxita Be Circular.

Circular Replay

Circular and social economy applied to household appliances

ACEDE began its activity with the analysis of Circular Economy Business Models for induction cookers. In 2017, the Emmaus Gipuzkoa Foundation and ACEDE began a mutual collaboration, with a study to build an alliance to develop a pilot project for the creation of a “Preparation Centre for the Reuse of Domestic Appliances in Gipuzkoa”.

A domestic appliance recovery centre is a complex circular economy activity involving innovations across different areas. These include the process of rethinking the value chain of second-hand household appliances, the generation of a protocol for the diagnosis and reconditioning of household appliances and the study of business models for second-hand household appliances, among other processes. None of this could have happened without the creation of new legislation for the recovery of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in 2016. The idea is that reconditioned appliances will be sold at affordable prices, generating new jobs and thus making it possible to reintegrate people who are currently excluded from this labor market. (laboral)

Over the years, the Department of Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa has financed different projects related to this initiative. This has also involved the Gipuzkoa cooperative Sareteknika, a national benchmark in the repair of household appliances.

The current status of the project is as follows. The pilot project for the Recovery Centre is currently underway. Used washing machines are diagnosed and functional tests are carried out. Several additional tests with users provided analysis for the potential positioning of the reconditioned washing machines on the market through funding from the European C-SERVEES project.

C-Servees