Evaluación técnica de confiabilidad en la remanufactura de terminales móviles mediante técnicas de microelectrónica y uso de componentes donantes.

Abstract

The growing demand for mobile terminal repair in developing countries has positioned specialized workshops as active agents of the circular economy; however, their operations largely lack standardized technical classification systems that would enable the evaluation and continuous improvement of the remanufacturing process quality. A quantitative descriptive approach was applied to a dataset of 3,297 real repair records obtained from a specialized repair workshop located in Ambato, Ecuador, covering the period January–December 2025. Records were classified according to intervention type. Process reliability was estimated using the rework rate, defined as the proportion of devices that returned to the workshop under warranty conditions. Results showed that 92.5% of incoming devices were successfully repaired, of which 14.5% required the use of donor components, primarily in charging circuit failures and signal or WiFi connectivity faults. The overall process reliability index reached 96.65%, with a rework rate of 3.35%. From an environmental perspective, the process avoided the emission of 215.5 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent and the generation of 548.3 kg of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), representing a 97.7% reduction in carbon footprint compared to the new-device substitution scenario. It is concluded that mobile terminal remanufacturing through microelectronics techniques is a viable process, exhibiting technically acceptable reliability indicators and a measurable positive environmental impact. The implementation of a standardized damage classification system establishes a necessary condition for increasing the reliability index, reducing the rework rate, and consolidating specialized workshops as formal circular economy actors within the Ecuadorian context.