Remanufacturability decision-making has been studied by many researchers, mostly from business and core supply perspectives. Moreover, much of the research have been monomethodical which present a singular perspective and focus on the electromechanical remanufacturing sector. Despite the importance of customer acceptance and the growing body of research on medical devices remanufacturing, there remains a lack of evidence on how customer considerations impact remanufacturability decision-making. Therefore, this research aims to understand how remanufacturability decision factors can be modelled to improve customer acceptance in the medical devices remanufacturing sector.This research takes the form of a mixed research methodology and adopted a pragmatic philosophical paradigm. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in the explanatory sequential mixed methods research design adopted in this thesis. By employing a quantitative mode of enquiry in the first phase, key remanufacturability decision factors were analysed and ranked from customers’ perspective using inputs from six highly experienced medical devices practitioners. In the second phase, a qualitative multiple case study approach was adopted to explore the nature of remanufacturing and remanufacturability decision-making in four companies within the medical devices sector.This research identified seven important customer decision factors that influences remanufacturability decision-making including quality (32.38%), price (19.00%), warranty (15.12%), brand equity (12.24%), available information (10.61%), added value service (6.65%) and environmental considerations (4.00%). This provided support for the development of a framework to influence customer behaviour regarding remanufactured medical devices. This is the first study to investigate the interactions between customer considerations and remanufacturability decision-making in the medical devices sector.There are several important areas where this research makes an original contribution. First, it explores remanufacturability from multiple perspectives of the customer and the remanufacturer through a mixed-methods design. Second, it presents a comprehensive customer-driven remanufacturability decision framework which was validated by practitioners. The framework presents a novel perspective on the subject and has direct practical relevance for practitioners as it could contribute to improving customer acceptance in this sector. Third, it presents a hierarchical analysis of decision factors based on customer opinions in the medical devices sector. Fourth, this research provides the first investigations into the nature of remanufacturing in the medical devices sector.
Date of Award | 10 Feb 2023 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | - University Of Strathclyde
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Sponsors | University of Strathclyde |
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Supervisor | Winifred Ijomah (Supervisor) & James Windmill (Supervisor) |
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