Assessing the greenness of product lifetime extension

Abstract

Whether to extend a product's lifetime or replace it with a new one is a common question in durable good markets. This paper addresses the issue that there exist products that are more suitable for lifetime extension, but assessment models for identifying such products are scarce. As a means to discern whether or not a product is appropriate for lifetime extension, this paper proposes an index for the greenness of product lifetime extension. The index evaluates the greenness of lifetime extension by re- ecting the nature of a product, including the intensity of remanufacturing, technological trends and their in uences on product design and user satisfaction, and the intensity of customer use in terms of its environmental impact. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the use of the index. © 2016 ICIC International.