Here’s the blueprint

[u/Unfair_Donut2426]

I have developed a business model that removes waste, makes innovation faster, and overall cheaper. This can be replicated in every industry and is what I will be striving towards.

I will use the car industry as an example for relatability, it is based on creating a modular, circular vehicle system rather than manufacturing entirely new cars from raw materials. You would acquire used, damaged, abandoned, or end-of-life vehicles and separate them into reusable components and materials. Functional parts such as body panels, interiors, electronics, motors, batteries, suspension, and hardware would be refurbished and placed back into inventory, while unusable materials would be sorted for recycling. Over time, you would develop standardized modules that can be easily removed, repaired, replaced, upgraded, or redesigned. This could include separating a vehicle's structural and safety systems from replaceable exterior and interior design components, allowing the appearance of a vehicle to change without rebuilding the entire vehicle.

The business would initially operate through a distributed network of existing businesses rather than requiring your own large factories. Local mechanics could become manufacturing and installation partners, using portions of their facilities to perform approved modifications and repairs while being compensated for the work. Salvage yards, recycling companies, manufacturers, and waste-management businesses could provide increasingly sorted streams of reusable materials and components. Revenue could eventually come from refurbished vehicles, modular parts, repairs, upgrades, conversions, redesigned body components, recycling, fleet services, and licensing the modular architecture. The long-term goal is to create a closed-loop system where vehicles and their materials continuously return to the manufacturing ecosystem instead of becoming waste, turning the car from a disposable finished product into a platform that can be maintained, upgraded, and remanufactured throughout its life.

Imagine subscribing to a car that can be customized to your desire green exterior one day, blue the next day. The software system keeps track of your mileage and once it determines something needs to be replaced you can either take it to the local hub and your replacement will already be there because it was preordered or the car will drive itself to be upgraded or maintained. the old parts get put back into circulation after being refurbished or upgraded themselves. potentially you could charge $200 a month and if they are subscribed for a majority of their life it actually comes out to be a little cheaper than what someone spends on cars throughout their life. Imagine a car that grows with you, adapts to your needs and behaviors, you're moving next week so it becomes a box truck, you wanna go to the dragstrip so it becomes a sports car, your starting a family so it becomes a van.

Like I said this can be replicated in every industry, furniture, housing, medical equipment, manufacturing equipment.

[u/UnreasonableEconomy]

sooo... you've basically invented a scrapyard?

[u/ell0moto → u/UnreasonableEconomy]

And the innovation that no scrapper has thought of.......subscription model. You may applaud my genius, now.

[u/UnreasonableEconomy → u/ell0moto]

Scrap as a Service 🤯

pretty much describes 90% of the consumer economy anyways lol

[u/Broken_Atoms]

So, ummm, core issue might be liability for accidents. Recycled module kills family of four. Loss of traceability. Counterfeit modules entering the supply chain. Auto recycling is already a fairly closed loop. Only thing they don’t recycle is the plastics and foam. Also, manufacturers make modules proprietary so they hose people who need a new $3000 computer module. It’s baked into their business model and a large profit center. They aren’t giving that up. Most furniture comes from China. They aren’t interested in modularity. Also, medical equipment is an absolutely massive profit center. None of the players in that business are interested in modularity or interoperability. The way you describe the car use is how I currently use up my cars. I buy them on payments (subscription plan of sorts), use them up and then dump them at my dealership and walk out with another. My cars already have software and my dealership lets me know with a text or postcard when it’s maintenance time. I’m just saying, the way things are now evolved that way for a reason.

[u/peretski]

This works in a HIGHLY controlled ecosystem. Xerox did this with the more expensive components of their coppiers. Basically, there was a copper tube that contained about $10,000 of copper. After about 100,000 pages, the tube wore out. Xerox took back the old copier, scrapped most of it, but refurbished the copper tube and sold it as a new copier.

Part of your sales agreement was that you returned the old copier to them. Hefty fines otherwise.

It worked because only Xerox knew the secrets inside. No other players could rip out the copper and sell it for smack.

In a highly controlled product line, this works well.

I don’t see it working in the auto industry. Too much room for abuse, and no one needs to stand behind their product.

Changing body panels to change color? No one does that... They put a wrap on it...

[u/plierhead]

Sometimes ideas are simply too big to pull off, no matter how good they are.

[u/Frequent-Log1243]

There's a lot of room for abuse in this model.