Rematec Amsterdam 2025 meets Meriem Jerbi, New Business Development Borg Automotive Group

What are the main challenges in collecting and standardizing data across different stages of the remanufacturing process and how can companies overcome them?

I think the main challenge is first having access to the data starting from the manufacturing phase. But if it is only in the remanufacturing process and having the data coming from the reman process and not from the first life of the product in a way before that, then I would say the main challenge is the current landscape within remanufacturing which is quite manual for now.

The processes, we're still on the process of automating, digitalization, so this is something ongoing but it's not like a manufacturing industry where already there is a lot of digitalization. So, that's the main difference. And how we can overcome them? Well, again with this proactive approach of following up of the new technologies, trying to implement them for participating in a research group and also lobbying in order to push more reman-focused technologies in a way or at least the technologies that are specific to the reman environment.

How can IoT technologies improve accessibility and quality control in remanufacturing? And what are some real-world examples of successful implementation?

So, in a way IoT, it really enables the access to the data and therefore having the sensors and having all the data centralized there and therefore you already have something available. That's more like blockchain, but it's really like gathering the data. So, it's really for gathering. And then, for example, blockchain is securing it and AI is making sense of it.

So, in a way that would be the best world environment. About real-world example of implementation, we have real-world implementation within our processes with the core recognition system using vision systems. These are considered in a way, sensors as well, and capturing the information from the picture of the product and then training in order to make decisions on what core is it, what reference is it is already a successful implementation and something that makes a big difference.

What role does data analytics play in predicting the lifespan of components and optimizing the remanufacturing process?

So, for sure, it plays a big role but having the right data is even better than making sense of it is even way better. So, we need to know what data is pertinent for us to analyse and make sense of it and it has a role because depending on the quality and also on what is the right data it can enable us to project and really predict, ok, based on this data I know that in 10 years this product will come from here and here and therefore I am ready, I anticipate it and I am better skilled and have the right tools in order to face it and do the best job.

Cybersecurity is a growing concern in IoT-enabled industries. How can the remanufacturing sector ensure data security while integrating smart technologies?

I think here it is mostly like all industries really make sure to respect the standards have protocols implemented, so it comes with a lot of responsibilities so making sure that it is protected, secure internally, externally so it's best practices within the environment of cybersecurity in general needs to really be taken seriously and done the right way.

Looking ahead, what innovation in IoT and data gathering do you believe will have the biggest impact on making remanufacturing more efficient and scalable?

I think this is an answer that a lot of people give; I mean to be able to really give a sense of the information and guide the decisions whether on repair, whether on disassembly, how should it be because of the high variability and therefore there needs to be a lot of adaptation so having this technology which is also advancing very quickly so probably in five years it won't be like this year and we saw it in two years how a breakthrough it has been in the mainstream media and for people so yeah I think this is very interesting to follow up on if there's also a focus on reman on that side and making it easier in a way to adapt to the high variability