How to reduce your equipment TCO and decarbonise your procurement with refurbishment as a service?

Summary:

Refurbishment as a Service involves entrusting a specialist partner with the refurbishment of end-of-use equipment for reuse within your organisation. This approach avoids the systematic replacement with new products, in a circular logic. It makes it possible both to reduce the impacts on the environment linked to product manufacturing, to optimise the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your equipment and to secure your supply chains.

Contents:

• What is Refurbishment as a Service?
• What are the benefits of Refurbishment as a Service?
• How to choose your refurbishment partner?

Today, companies must tackle several challenges simultaneously: reducing costs, limiting their impact of the environment and securing their supply chains in an uncertain economic context. In this context, managing the product life cycle of equipment is becoming a strategic lever. It is within this logic that refurbishment as a service is growing. This approach enables companies to extend the lifespan of their existing equipment whilst entrusting a specialist partner with the management of the refurbishment process, maintenance and operational monitoring.

What is Refurbishment as a Service?

Refurbishment as a Service involves entrusting a specialist service provider with equipment that has reached the end of its usage cycle in order to refurbish it and reuse it within your organisation. This approach can be part of a one-off operation or a recurring programme.

Rather than discarding a damaged phone, a deteriorated shelving unit or a worn-out chair, the company chooses to restore them and give them a second life. This solution avoids replacing them through the purchase of new products which, in many cases, are not necessary.

The service provider takes charge of the entire refurbishment process, from the collection of equipment on site to the delivery and installation of the refurbished materials. At the heart lies the refurbishment phase itself, encompassing technical diagnosis, functional testing, repairs and parts replacement, cleaning and quality control. Products are restored to a condition as close as possible to new, with all their original performance levels.

This service is particularly widespread for IT equipment: computers, smartphones, etc. However, Refurbishment as a Service is progressively extending to other product categories. At Manutan, we offer this for office and warehouse furniture, for example. This covers seats, armchairs and chairs, pedestals, tables and desks, cabinets, lockers…

What are the benefits of Refurbishment as a Service?

Refurbishment as a Service addresses a triple challenge: reducing impact on the environment, economic performance and securing supply chains.

Reducing impact on the environment

Refurbished equipment sits fully within a circular economy logic. By giving their equipment a second life, companies limit both the consumption of natural resources, the waste of materials and the production of waste.

This is all the more true as a large portion of a product’s environmental footprint is concentrated at the beginning of its product life cycle, during the extraction of raw materials and manufacturing. This is particularly the case for the carbon footprint. For example, the extraction of materials required for the production of office furniture accounts for up to 85% of carbon impacts, whilst the manufacture of a laptop computer can concentrate up to 95% of total emissions. Thanks to Refurbishment as a Service, companies avoid these impacts by deferring or avoiding the purchase of new products.

Optimising the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

With Refurbishment as a Service, companies extend the lifespan of existing assets that are already depreciated, rather than initiating costly replacement cycles. The logic changes: one moves from significant capital expenditure to the planning of maintenance costs. Refurbishment costs are offset by the avoidance of new product purchase costs, as well as delivery, installation and end-of-life management costs. In the long term, this strategy reduces the Total Cost of Ownership of all equipment.

Securing supply chains

Lastly, Refurbishment as a Service reduces dependence on supply chains, which are often subject to tensions (lead times, raw material shortages, price volatility). By revaluing existing equipment, companies gain resilience and operational agility.

How to choose your refurbishment partner?

To guarantee the success of this approach, the choice of partner is decisive. The refurbished equipment market has been developing for several years. While many players now offer a range of second-hand products, not all of them have structured refurbishment services.

At Manutan, an eco-responsible product is a product that: carries a recognised environmental label (for example, EU Ecolabel, Ecocert, PEFC, etc.), discover all our labels, and/or is manufactured from at least 25% recycled materials, and/or is second-hand (used or refurbished). (available in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Portugal, at the date of publication of the content)

Proven expertise

A reliable partner must be able to demonstrate solid technical expertise, trained teams and quality commitments. Some players also have their processes audited and/or certified to guarantee the reliability, traceability and safety of operations. Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit, Circular Economy and Client Decarbonisation Director at the Manutan Group, encourages organisations to visit the site: "To go even further, the procurement team can even visit the reuse centre of their partner. It's by going into the field, meeting operators and observing processes that they can thus ensure the reliability of operations."[1]

At Manutan, we are the first company in the sector to offer an integrated collection and refurbishment service. All operations are carried out at our Circular Hub in Île-de-France, which has achieved the “Mastery” level for its office chair refurbishment activity, validated by the FCBA. This certification guarantees high standards of quality for refurbished products. Work with us to benefit from this recognised expertise. (available in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, subject to conditions in Italy and on request in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom, at the date of publication of the content)

Associated services

Beyond refurbishment, the partner must support organisations end-to-end, with associated services. This includes in particular the management of equipment transport, as well as the installation and assembly of refurbished materials if needed. Moreover, a refurbishment operation involves temporarily immobilising certain assets, which can impact activity. A partner capable of offering temporary replacement solutions, such as equipment hire for example, helps to limit these constraints. These arrangements make the approach both smoother and more secure, whilst guaranteeing the operational continuity of organisations.

Evidence and guarantees

Lastly, your partner must be able to provide you with all the necessary documentation. This includes guarantees and quantified assessments regarding the impact on the environment. Pierre-Emmanuel Saint-Esprit adds: "This implies that the supplier is able to share this data, then buyers put it into perspective and make it tangible. It can be interesting to convert carbon emissions into a measure everyone understands, like a Paris-New York round trip which corresponds to 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent, for example."[2]

At Manutan, we offer for all our refurbished products a three-year guarantee as well as a CSR report that details the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the volume of raw materials saved and the number of professional integration hours funded. All essential elements for showcasing the approach and feeding into your CSR reporting.

Refurbishment as a Service allows companies to reconcile their economic and ecological challenges, without compromising on quality. By extending the lifespan of equipment, this approach transforms procurement practices in service of a circular, resilient and sustainable economy.