Designing and Testing an OEM Closed-Loop System for Automotive Component Recovery

Abstract

Automotive component recovery spans OEM networks, independent workshops, remanufacturers, dismantlers, and recyclers, but fragmented information and coordination can leave recovery opportunities unrealized. This study proposes an OEM-governed closed-loop system that centralizes lifecycle information and governance while preserving technician decision rights in local recovery and avoiding unnecessary physical centralization. Specialist, safety-critical, and aggregation-dependent cases are selectively escalated. Based on a literature baseline, the architecture is evaluated using economic and environmental threshold models, component archetypes, and stress tests. In an illustrative 1,000-event scenario, OEM recovery increases by 350 events but total physical recovery by only 250, illustrating that OEM capture alone overstates additional recovery when existing routes are displaced. System viability depends on additional recovery achieved, value already created outside the OEM pathway, and coordination burden. Environmental performance also depends on route-specific transport, processing, recovery yield, and coordination. The framework identifies economic, environmental, operational, and governance boundaries requiring empirical validation.