The Eco-Manufacturing Centre in the suburb of Zetland in Sydney remanufactures used parts in photocopying equipment. Fuji Xerox’s Communications Manager Anne Cherry says it’s about valueadded recycling. “We use a technically sophisticated reprocessing model,” says Cherry. “We keep the spare part or component as far as possible in its original state but we test it, validate it, and make some enhancements to the product which allow us to reuse it again in our equipment.”

Most of Fuji Xerox’s equipment is leased to customers. As a part of the regular maintenance of the equipment, parts are replaced. Prior to the Eco-Manufacturing initiative, 100% of parts removed from equipment were sent to landfill.

With a reliance on parts being supplied from overseas, Fuji Xerox was subject to the vagaries of the exchange rate. “This was putting the business under a fair bit of financial pressure,” says Cherry. “And the cost of new parts was a significant expense to the business.”

Birth of an idea

In 1992, Dan Godamunne was a senior engineer and proposed the concept of remanufacturing used parts. In a back room in one of the company’s warehouses, Godamunne set about trying to show that this could be done – with no loss in quality and at a more efficient cost than importing the parts from overseas.

This was not simply a matter of taking old parts, giving them a spit and polish, and re-inserting them into machines. It involved comprehensive testing, new cleaning methods and a complex re-engineering process to ensure the parts performed as they should.

For a company that had always used new parts in its machines, it was unsurprising this idea was initially met with scepticism. “There was a perception that remanufactured parts would not meet quality standards,” says Cherry. “Many people held the view that anything used is not as high quality as something new. That was one of the major obstacles in this initiative – we first had to convince senior management this process would guarantee quality standards. Then we had to convince the technicians who repaired the equipment.”

After an initial trial to show the process could deliver the goods, an investment of A$8 million was allocated to build the Eco-Manufacturing Centre in 1998. While 100% of parts were once simply sent to landfill, now less than 10% goes to landfill. The Centre contributes about A$20 million to the company’s bottom line each year.

Exporting expertise

Apart from cost savings, the Centre has developed an export program to provide services for Fuji Xerox operations in Asia. This means spare parts from nine other Asia-Pacific countries are sent to Zetland for remanufacturing and then returned for reuse. “We’ve taken our solutions and developed them for Asia,” says Cherry. “In 2002, we had revenue of about A$500,000 from exports. In 2006, we generated about A$6 million from overseas markets.”

Apart from the obvious environmental benefits, the costs savings are significant. “We have a part which is a laser scanner. A new part would normally cost around A$14,000.We can remanufacture a used part for about A$1,000,” says Cherry.

The remanufacturing process has also spearheaded innovation. While remanufacturing a magnetic roller, engineers realised that inserting a simple coil spring would double the life of the roller. This meant the remanufactured magnetic roller – with the coil spring –was lasting twice as long as a new magnetic roller, which did not contain the spring. The coil spring cost the princely sum of about two cents.

As a result of the Centre’s discovery, the spring is now included in all new magnetic rollers. “This has saved the company about US$40 million (A$53.4 million),” says Cherry. “We only need half as many rollers because now they last twice as long.”

Fuji Xerox is considering rolling out the Eco-Manufacturing concept to other industries.“We’ve been talking to other businesses – such as the automotive sector,” says Cherry. “CSIRO is also interested in its application to other industries. When you’re looking at household goods, entertainment products, computers and televisions, some technologies are quite compatible with photocopiers, with similar motors and electronic boards. “

As businesses look towards becoming more efficient and the government moves towards getting companies more focused on product stewardship and product takeback, there is a great incentive for them to look at reuse and recycling.

”Meanwhile, Godamunne is now the Centre’s General Manager of the Eco-Manufacturing Centre. What started as his simple idea now employs 95 people and remanufactures approximately 250,000 parts each year. It has won a range of awards including the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Industry 2002. Cherry says simply: “What’s good for the environment is good for business.”

www.fujixerox.com.au

What about the photocopying machine itself?

The Eco-Manufacturing Centre focuses specifically on remanufacturing the parts within a photocopying machine. The machine itself, once it is at the end of its life, is sent to the Fuji Xerox operation in Thailand where it is stripped into its various components for recycling. According to Fuji Xerox, this is a zero-waste operation and no products go to landfill.