Product Lifetime Extension - Identifying and investigating the opportunities and challenges presented by business and customers in extending product lifetime from a circular economy perspective

Abstract: In order to meet the needs of the generations to come and to achieve the global target of maximum climate change of 1.5 degrees, we need to transform the way the society consumes natural resources. The purpose of this research is to effectively align the needs of the businesses and customers alike to accelerate a market-driven resource efficiency. We also intended to investigate what the opportunities presented to businesses are, in order to achieve environmental and economic sustainability by extending the product lifetime and improving accessibility of spares/repairs/upgrades, etc. for their products. We performed an extensive review of literature in the past two decades which describe product lifetime, obsolescence of products and the various reasons of obsolescence in the larger picture. The study is a mixed approach as we gathered data from the partner businesses by way of semi-structured interviews at the management level. We carried out a survey with a potential consumer group of these products and analysed the requirements and habits of the market. Our findings suggest that the primary driving causes for optimizing the product lifetimes of the products have been ethical and social responsibilities of the businesses. Businesses acknowledge that legislative and market pressure has increased over the past half-decade but hasn’t been enough to motivate the investments required to restructure products and business models. Businesses need to improve the statistical data they acquire from products after they have been sold, in order to facilitate the streamlining of the reverse supply chains. Lastly, we have found that the top management is committed and engaged to change the way the business functions, but the ground functions are either not aware or trained to effectively implement the changes. Future research could investigate the readiness of businesses to transition to a more closed-loop business model by way of improving information flow through the lifetime of the product.