5 Min q&a with... hssmi

1. Can you provide a brief description about who you are, what your company does? 
HSSMI is a sustainable manufacturing innovation consultancy that works across the manufacturing industry to help companies create impact. We work through challenges using practical, problem-solving methodologies and offering tangible solutions, focused on three key areas. These are the scale up of products and processes, productivity enhancing opportunities, and supporting the transition to a circular economy. We advance manufacturing by merging practical, hands on experience with the latest innovations. We have supported organisations from SMEs to global OEMs who are looking to achieve a more productive, cost efficient and sustainable business.

 2. What makes your product/research special within your industry? 
At HSSMI, we look at battery packs and how to make it easier to take them apart. Enabling remanufacture or more efficient recycling is very important to us. Batteries inevitably come to an end of life (EoL) and something has to be done with them. We want to return the value that batteries have at the EoL back into the supply chain.
We help organisations develop business cases around battery recycling and second life options and understand and navigate the minefield of legislation that is out there regarding batteries.
 
3. Why is it important to you to participate in a project like VALUABLE?
VALUABLE links us across the entire supply chain and provides us with the perspective of different stakeholders along the battery value chain. We get a chance to discuss with them and see the strategies that they are looking to implement. There are many unknown variables in how cells are stored, how their history is tracked, and how they are disassembled, so it’s important to share knowledge. We also get to see how opinions from different actors in the value chain overlap or where conflicts could arise. In case of conflictual situations, we can help mitigate them.
 
4. What will be the best thing you achieve within this project?
From a technical perspective, as part of the project we will develop a cost estimation model, which will provide the user with an array of information on the manufacturing, remanufacturing, disassembly and recycling options for a battery. This will enable decisions already at the design stage about the most economical solution for battery production from a lifecycle point of view.
We have also made some good connections through the VALUABLE Advisory Board, which we will seek to make use of after the end of the project.