Remanufacturing, as one of the most promising product recovery options, is influenced by the uncertainty involved with incoming cores. This poses different organizational and technical challenges to those found in conventional manufacturing. Finding the right strategy is very important to make business more effective and profitable. The combination of remanufacturing and lean manufacturing offers a good opportunity to increase process efficiencies in remanufacturing industry. This paper reviews the current state of practice of lean manufacturing philosophy in the automotive sector, together with an identification of needed further research.