Professor Winifred Ijomah

Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

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Personal statement

I am  Professor in the Department for Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, (DMEM) and initiator and Technical director of the Scottish Institite for Remanufacture (SIR), a pan-Scotland expertise hub for Remanufacture hosted by the University of Strathclyde.  I gained a PhD in Remanufacturing from the University of Plymouth in 2002, and worked at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, from 2004 to 2007. I also hold a masters degree in Advanced Manufacturing Management and a bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering.

I joined the University of Strathclyde as a lecturer in 2007 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2011, to reader in 2017 then to professor in 2020. My research focuses on sustainable design and manufacturing, and to date has focussed on product end-of-life, particularly on remanufacturing. Here my research spans both product and process design with a view to enhancing remanufacturing potential.

Remanufacturing is a process of returning a used product to at least OEM original performance specification from the customer's perspective and giving the resultant product a warranty that is at least equal to that of a newly manufactured equivalent. Its key significance is that it harms the environment less than conventional manufacturing and can simultaneously have economic, environmental and societal benefits.

I initiated and lead the Remanufacturing Research Group at the University of Strathclyde, and have featured in more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. I’m also the founder of the Springer Journal of Remanufacturing and was its Editor-in-Chief for 10 years-from its launch in 2011 until 2020.

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Publications

Pathways to circular energy storage : a comparative analysis of end of life recovery approaches in flow batteries technologies
Agbonrofo John, Ijomah Winifred, Brightman Edward
7th International conference on remanufacturing (ICoR 2025 ), pp. 1-17 (2025)
An investigation on optimizing sustainable remanufacturing in developing countries : a novel application of Lean Six Sigma
Goni Abdullahi, Ijomah Winifred
7th International conference on remanufacturing (ICoR 2025 ), pp. 1-10 (2025)
Increased personal protective and medical equipment manufacturing to fight COVID-19 : an egregious approach for the environment
Akano Damola Ikeoluwa, Ijomah Winifred, Windmill James
EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I (2024) (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_24
Artificial Intelligence for process control in remanufacturing
Nwankpa Chigozie Enyinna, Ijomah Winifred, Gachagan Anthony
EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I (2024) (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_15
Risks in circular business models innovation : a cross‐industrial case study for composite materials
Tuni Andrea, Gutteridge Fiona, Ijomah Winifred L, Mirpourian Maryam
Business Strategy and the Environment Vol 33, pp. 2771-2787 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3618
Evaluation and validation of Damage Assessment Tracking Criteria models within the sector of UK automotive remanufacturing
Harris RS, Ijomah WL, Windmill J
Journal of Cleaner Production Vol 414 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137494

More publications

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Teaching

My teaching interests primarily focus on the theory and practical implementation of sustainable design and manufacturing for the MEng and MSc courses in Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management. I am also involved in teaching design, design and engineering applications, mechatronics design and applications, and advanced materials and production technology. I also supervise a number of students in individual projects.

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Research Interests

My research is interdisciplinary, spanning across engineering, business, to the social and applied sciences. The long term goal of my cross-disciplinary research is to continue furthering knowledge in sustainable production, specialising in developing concepts, tools and techniques to facilitate sustainable design and manufacture through remanufacture. Remanufacturing has recently become globally critical because of its great potential to address environmental concerns (need to reduce waste during the material extraction and manufacturing processes), legislation (international agreement to reduce products’ and manufacturing processes’ environmental impacts) and economics (remanufacture is often a quality and cost effective option). However, there is a paucity of remanufacturing understanding, information, publications, as well as tools and techniques. I currently lead the UK's largest remanufacturing research group, specialising in holistic, interdisciplinary, practitioner-based research. In the long term I intend to further develop, and build the capacity, of my research team in the area of sustainable design and manufacture through remanufacture.

Professional Activities

14th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (Event)
Member
12/11/2025
Nigerian Society of Engineers as part of Nigeria's 2025 Engineering week
Keynote/plenary speaker
24/7/2025
STEM activity at St Nicholas Primary Career fair
Speaker
8/5/2025
ReMake showcase
Invited speaker
24/4/2025
International Conference on Remanufacturing 2025
Speaker
8/4/2025
International Conference on Remanufacturing 2025
Speaker
8/4/2025

More professional activities

Projects

EPSRC Manufacturing Research Hub in Robotics, Automation & Smart Machine Enabled Sustainable Circular Manufacturing & Materials (RESCu-M2)
Ijomah, Winifred (Principal Investigator) Luo, Xichun (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2031
ReSTOR: Designing recyclable flow batteries for locally managed energy storage in developing countries
Brightman, Edward (Principal Investigator) Eales, Aran (Academic) Galloway, Stuart (Co-investigator) Ijomah, Winifred (Co-investigator)
22-Jan-2024 - 28-Jan-2025
ReMake Glasgow Innovation Accelerator
Fitzpatrick, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Ijomah, Winifred (Research Co-investigator) Reimer, Andreas (Research Co-investigator) Adu-Amankwa, Kwaku (Researcher) Devine, Ryan (Researcher) Hicks, Calum (Researcher) Howie, Scott (Researcher) Pimentel Espirindio E Silva, Misael (Researcher)
The ReMake Glasgow project is developing a first-of-its-kind national ReMake hub within the NMIS Digital Factory. The hub will provide the skills and technologies needed to support ambitious manufacturers of all sizes to adopt circularity and extend the life of products and parts.

The aim is to achieve a 99% reduction in CO2 compared to manufacturing from new through processes such as remanufacturing, refurbishing and repairs.

With under 2% of products manufactured in the UK currently designed and reused in this way, the ReMake hub is set to advance sustainable manufacturing by supporting companies to move towards a circular economy.

Partners in this project are:
- Boeing UK
- British Airways
- SSE Renewables
- James Howden & Company Ltd
- ATS
- Renewable Parts Ltd
01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
Sustainable Manufacturing enabling Net Zero – Opening up the conversation
Ijomah, Winifred (Principal Investigator)
17-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2022
Design-for-Remanufacturing CPD course
Ijomah, Winifred (Principal Investigator)
Development of CPD course in design for remanufacturing in conjunction with NMIS to be delivered via NMIS Skills academy
23-Jan-2021 - 20-Jan-2021
Development of CPD course for National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland
Ijomah, Winifred (Principal Investigator)
organisation and supervising researchers in developing a CPD course in re manufacturing with payment by NMIS
01-Jan-2021 - 30-Jan-2021

More projects

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Contact

Professor Winifred Ijomah
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Email: w.l.ijomah@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4346