You are Iñaki Berraondo-Lasa, 52, Operations Director at Aizkorri Electrodomésticos, a Basque maker of washing machines and ovens. A new EU rule and a changed retail shelf have forced one question onto your desk: when an Aizkorri machine reaches the end of its life, what happens to it — and who profits?
The situation
Aizkorri Electrodomésticos makes about 340,000 appliances a year from a single plant in Gipuzkoa — €180M in revenue, 620 employees, a survivor in a Basque appliance industry that has lost most of its names. For sixty years the model has been linear: buy steel and motors and electronics, build a machine, sell it, and never see it again. After roughly twelve years of use, the machine becomes someone else's waste.
Two things changed. The EU's ecodesign and right-to-repair rules now press producers to take responsibility for what happens after the sale, and extended-producer-responsibility fees are rising every year. And on the retail shelf, Bosch and Miele have begun listing certified refurbished ranges — a second-life product, branded, warrantied, sold next to the new ones. Your CEO wants Aizkorri to have an answer. She has asked Operations to design it.