Rethinking End-of-Life Technology Value
Intelligent automation and AI can significantly extend electronic product lifecycles to provide greener and more profitable end-of-life solutions.
When evaluating technology, manufacturers are most focused on the advancements that can improve production. For instance, what can make assembly faster, scalable, and more sustainable? It’s almost common sense. Manufacturing is about creating new products and bringing them to market as efficiently as possible. More manufacturers, however, notably in the electronics and technology sectors, should be thoughtful about the end-of-life processes and the potential detrimental impact those may have on the environment and their businesses in the later stages of a product’s life.
How big a problem could those end-of-life processes become? A Global E-waste Monitor report found that a record 53.6 million metric tons of electronic waste (e-waste) was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% over the previous five years. That number is expected to double by 2050, hitting 120 million tons of e-waste annually. Worse yet, it was reported that less than 20% of used electronics are recycled. Instead, even when electronics still house components that are valuable and usable, they’re often exported to developing countries, typically in Asia, and thrown into landfills.
Exporting the problem, or ignoring the problem altogether, is no longer an option, not when there’s more pressure than ever from partners, customers, and politicians to adopt and uphold socially, economically, and environmentally responsible practices today. Plus, there is a growing business case for improving how products are recycled. Global technology companies looking for more cost-effective methods to store or archive inactive data, for example, are increasingly looking to businesses that offer recycled servers for cold storage.
As companies start to implement more sustainable practices throughout their operations, seek new sources of revenue, and enhance their digital offerings, they need to consider the entire lifecycle of their product. While some parts and pieces will inevitably have a short lifespan, there’s an opportunity to rethink, rework, and start to reuse the components that still have something to give. To pinpoint what those pieces are, and to retrieve them with efficiency, manufacturing pioneers will need to lean on intelligent disassembly.
