The Remanufacturing Industries Council (RIC) in the USA has had its standard approved as an American National Standard.
In a press release the RIC announced that ri001.1-2016, which is the “specifications for the process of remanufacturing”, has had final approval from the ANSI Board of Standards Review. The standard was developed by RIC for all the “remanufacturers, users and other interested parties” after the RIC’s Trade and Policy Committee worked with the members to develop it.
Don Chenevert, Jr., Deputy General Counsel of SRC Holdings Corporation and Chair of RIC’s Trade and Policy Committee, said: “The new ANSI-approved American National Standard defines and provides a benchmark for the process of remanufacturing. It establishes the specifications that characterise the remanufacturing process and differentiate remanufacturing from other practices.”
The standard will “enable remanufacturers to improve and standardise their remanufacturing processes”, and help to ensure that their products “provided to customers by the remanufacturing industry are dependable and of a consistent high quality”. The RIC will further develop additional standards for “specific remanufactured products and product groups”.
Two major inhibitions for the growth of the remanufacturing industry were identified in 2012 by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) – with one the “lack of commonly accepted definition of remanufacturing and the other was the absence of standards for the remanufacturing process”, and now both of these has been addressed, which will aid the Office of the US Trade Representatives to “continue to expand market access for remanufactured products around the world”.
Bill Davies, Founder, Davies Office and Chairman of the RIC, commented: “This is just the beginning. I was amazed at how many leaders from different sectors came together to make this a success. The Remanufacturing Industries Council will continue to work with our remanufacturing sector partners to develop and define remanufacturing standards that will advance the entire remanufacturing industry.”
The RIC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Imaging Technology Council (I-ITC).