Reman on growth track

The remanufacturing industry is on a growth track, according to Mike Rayne of FIT Consulting. He said during his presentation that the industry is comfortable from a technology standpoint but is struggling with intellectual property issues, the number of steps in the distribution process, the franchise model/buying groups and the growth of all makes parts programmes. Given the age of vehicles he sees the biggest opportunity in the US market but that will move to Europe and then to Asia Pacific as vehicles in those areas starting getting older. He sees Asia Pacific as the single biggest market opportunity - but not until 2025. He believes reman presents opportunities for both OEs and the independents as the reman industry tries to match itself to vehicle content. He sees partnerships between OEs and independents developing. “Firms who want to offer a full reman product line need to ask themselves if it makes sense to do it themselves or to supplement with partnerships?” He added: “OEs have the intellectual property but independents have the reach.” He told attendees during his presentation, Remanufacturing Industry Disruption: The Trends and Opportunities, to look at what fails - and at what point - in a vehicle’s life cycle in order to launch a remanufactured product at the right point in the vehicle’s life. “Twenty years ago the opportunity was in chassis components, steering and suspensions — low tech stuff. But today vehicles have a higher technology content having gone from one ECU 20 years ago to 37 on the average vehicle today.” The product lines where he sees growth are exhaust aftertreatment and turbochargers.