Development and analysis of mathematical and simulation models of decision-making tools for remanufacturing

Abstract

This article presents decision-making tools for remanufacturing. The first decision-making tool was used to address inventory lot-sizing problems in a hybrid remanufacturing–manufacturing system with varying remanufacturing fraction. In this article, the new inventory lot-sizing model with variable remanufacturing lot sizes has been shown to exhibit better performance than the benchmark model with fixed remanufacturing lot sizes. The new inventory lot-sizing model is anticipated to become a valuable decision-making tool in companies that are planning to adopt remanufacturing. The second decision-making tool was applied to address a production and inventory planning problem in a remanufacturing system considering different remanufacturing policies for a given remanufacturing strategy. For a remanufacture-to-stock system with two quality remanufacturables groups four alternative policies were examined, a policy which specifies simultaneous processing utilising dedicated resources was shown to be the best policy to achieve a shorter remanufacturing cycle time. For a remanufacture-to-order system with two quality remanufacturables groups, the three relevant policies of the four alternative policies were examined, a policy which specifies sequential processing and switching between various quality remanufacturables groups was shown to be the best policy to achieve a shorter remanufacturing cycle time. The production and inventory planning simulation models in a remanufacturing system are expected to become significant decision-making tools in remanufacturing operations.