Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
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performance of the remanufactured shoe, since they also are required to meet new manufacturing standards. And all of these quality standards are further confi rmed with end of the line testing. Every remanufactured transmis- sion Eaton produces must pass tests identical to what are performed on new products, says Bill Fouch, the company's NAFTA aftermarket marketing manager, transmissions. "Quality standards are of upmost importance to us," he says. "We want cus- tomers to get what they are paying for." Fouch adds meeting those OE stan- dards is more than just lip service. A remanufactured part backed by a well-respected OE brand name is a powerful chip in the face of customer skepticism, he says. "When quality is what you're going to hang your brand on it has to be there for everything. Just because a product is remanufactured doesn't mean you can deliver something that's going to fall apart," he says. Sam Tuley agrees. The BorgWarner re- gional sales manager says his company's reman and new turbochargers are nearly indistinguishable in both appearance and performance. "We are always cognizant of our brand, and that everything we remanufacture must be of the highest quality to live up to that," he says. Another key selling point for reman in today's market is price. The most rigorously tested, OE-equiv- alent reman products are comparable in price to all-makes aftermarket alterna- tives, and are signifi cantly less expensive than premium aftermarket product lines. For vehicle owners facing increasing costs in other areas, reman is a welcome respite. "I think the value proposition for re- man is very strong," says Gene Damron, 22 Service Bay T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E | M a y 2 0 1 5 The green advantage of reman Remanufacturing is an incredibly green process, but when it comes to aftermarket sales, the environmental benefi t is still an afterthought for most customers. "I think reman is gaining marketshare because many vehicle owners see the products as a cost- effi cient alternative and functionally-equivalent to new," says Gene Damron, general manager for Global Parts Network (GPN), LLC. But the fact that reman products are so environmentally friendly is a bonus, since the global push toward reman, recycling, and other environmentally-conscious production options isn't going away. "The population is getting greener and greener every day," says David E. Kish, director of quality and reliability, remanufacturing at Allison Trans- mission. "That's not going to change." And reman's green benefi ts are unquestionable. "[Manufacturing] a new medium truck tire requires 22 gallons of oil. It takes only seven gal- lons of oil to retread a truck tire," says Todd Labbe, general manager, retread at Goodyear. "Millions of truck tires that would end up in landfi lls or scrap tire piles continue to deliver excellent performance for many more miles, thanks to retreading." Remanufacturing is more than a hard parts enterprise. A tire casing can be stripped and retreaded for multiple uses as well. Remanufacturing also offers great environmental advantages. Retreading, for example, requires two- thirds less oil than the production of a new tire.